Larry Brown Sports

Now that Vince Young’s financial struggles have been publicized, the stories about the quarterback’s out-of-control spending are emerging.

The Associated Press reported on Tuesday that Young is suing former business advisers and blaming them for his financial problems. He apparently has very little money left despite earning $26 million guaranteed from his playing career, and reportedly around $30 million in endorsement deals. Even though it looks like Young spent around $60 million, that figure is pre-taxes, so we’re probably looking at an amount of $35 million that he spent — still an absurd figure.

So how did he blow through so much? Some of the following tales should give us a good idea.

Clay Travis’ radio show in Nashville, “Three Hour Lunch,” took calls on Wednesday from people who shared their Vince Young stories. Travis wrote about the stories on his website Outkick the Coverage (you can listen to the stories here).

According to people who served Young and other Titans at restaurants, or interacted with him in other ways, the former Tennessee quarterback would spend thousand of dollars at restaurants like T.G.I. Friday’s or Cheesecake Factory.

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LenDale White is still pissed off at the world — especially you, Pete Carroll.  Remember when White unloaded on Carroll a few months ago after the Seahawks cut him?  It would seem he’s still mad about that and a lot of other things.  In fact, there aren’t very many people in the world LenDale likes at the moment.

TMZ caught up with the not-so-successful Broncos running back during All-Star Weekend and asked him about the new Concept 1 shoes that have been banned in the NBA because of what they are made with.  White did what any normal person would do and responded by giving the world a big “f*** you.”  You can check out the video here.  This is just a guess, but he seemed hammered to me.  Here’s what LenDale had to say about the sneakers:

If it ain’t Chauncey Billups or Kobe Bryant … f*ck ‘em. Or if it ain’t the Denver Broncos or Chris Johnson … f*ck ‘em. Or D-Byrd … or the Trojans … minus Pete Carroll — f*ck you.”

That’s exactly how I feel about the Concept 1 sneaker situation.  Screw Pete Carroll.

Remind me not to ever piss off LenDale White. It seems as if media outlets across the country are itching to get some time with the unemployed former USC star who’s become the Sarah Palin/Joe Biden of the sports world; he might not actually be doing much lately, but, jeez the guy is going is always good for a few soundbites, isn’t he? LenDale finally spent time as a guest on Clay Travis’ show on 104-5 the Zone in Nashville to talk several issues. When discussing Athletic Director Mike Garrett’s pleas of ignorance regarding many of USC’s violations, LenDale was dismissive, saying:

“I don’t want to bad mouth nobody, but as big as this scale is and as much as they (the NCAA) saying somebody took, for you not to know anything is kind of unbelievable to me. I don’t know. If you’re the athletic director I’m pretty sure you get wind of something, that somebody’s put something in your ear. When I was going to school there, and we were partying too much on campus, coaches could show up at our dorm room and tell us to calm the partying down. But you can’t tell if somebody took a $750,000 home? I don’t know. It’s weird to me.”

Don’t think that LenDale let his former USC head coach Pete Carroll off the hook either. Much like Taylor Mays’ complaint after the draft, LenDale doesn’t think Carroll was up front with him regarding his release from the Seahawks:

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The Titans struggled last season going 8-8, a year after they went 13-3 which was the best record in the NFL. Running back LenDale White’s carries dropped significantly from 200 in 2008 to 64 in 2009. At the same time, fellow running back Chris Johnson’s carries increased from 251 in 2008 to 358 in 2009, and Johnson produced one of the best all-time seasons by a running back. Regardless, LenDale explained to Petros and Money on FOX Sports Radio (via Pro Football Talk and Sports Radio Interviews) that he feels like the shift away from himself towards Johnson resulted in Tennessee slipping last season:

I think what happened was in Tennessee they probably got a little too carried away with the Chris Johnson thing. The year before that we were 13-3 when I had two hundred carries and we split the rock. Chris went to the Pro Bowl and we had the first round bye, they did things different the next year and we struggled to make the playoffs. It is what it is. It is the same offense down here in Seattle. I am very familiar.

It’s interesting to note that White brought this up on his own in response to a question about Seattle’s offensive system. He also reiterated the same point later in the interview, saying “If we would have kept things the same, if we would have just kept running the ball being the team that we normally would be, I think things would have worked out.” While I respect LenDale’s opinion and appreciate his confidence and attitude, I completely disagree. Of every reason why the Titans struggled last season, LenDale not getting the ball enough and Chris Johnson getting it too much is probably last on my list. Much higher up would be the inability of Kerry Collins to make plays, losing Albert Haynesworth to free agency, the multiple injuries to the secondary early in the season, and switching to Vince Young too late in the season. While the Titans did get carried away trying to get Chris Johnson to 2,000 rushing yards in their last game of the season, Johnson’s stellar play is one of the few reasons they weren’t worse than 8-8 last season.

Sources:
LenDale White has an interesting theory about the ’09 Titans [Pro Football Talk]
LenDale White: “I think it was just time for me to move on.” [Sports Radio Interviews]