Vince Young's football career is over. The 34-year-old was placed on the Saskatchewan Roughriders' retired list after suffering a partially torn MCL in practice.
Sports Illustrated senior writer Greg Bishop spoke to Young about the end of his career, his former coaches, and where everything went wrong. The article paints the former Heisman winner as vacillating between repentance and blame, maturity and willful ignorance, forgiveness and anger.
The moment Young crossed the goal line at the 2005 BCS National Championship game was the climax. Everything since has been the downfall. After that game, Young declared for the NFL Draft.
Titans owner Bud Adams wanted to take Young with the No. 3 overall pick — head coach Jeff Fisher did not. So Young and Fisher brought together by fate more than by choice, which is not ideal for a quarterback and his head coach. "Their relationship was off from the get-go," said Bo Scaife, former Longhorn and Titan who’s one of Young’s best friends.
One telling passage describes Fisher's feelings toward Young like that of an unwilling stepfather toward an unwanted stepson. It's clear that the fault lies on both sides. Fisher for his pettiness and lack of pragmatism, Young for his immaturity and entitlement.
"I don’t want to get into it," Young said of his former coach. "I’m saving that for my book."
He would go on to say, "I’m going to expose his ass."
A few stories stood out in the article. The first was about Young's money management skills, or total lack thereof. He once covered a $15,000 tab for a single meal at the Cheesecake Factory. That's 1,887 slices of $7.95 cheesecake.
Even now, after getting cut by the Browns, a bankruptcy, and being forced into a second retirement by an MCL injury in the CFL, Young still isn't ready to say die.
“Maybe I’ll play football again,” he told SI. “You never know.”
