Vince Young Contemplated Retirement
A lot of the news surrounding Vince Young recently revolved around him appearing shirtless in a photo with several other men, seemingly at a club. VY recently apologized because the photograph sends the wrong message about him to kids. I’m not really concerned with that picture, and I imagine that Vince has learned to be more cautious in the future so that he doesn’t get caught in such a pose. Anyway, in addition to apologizing for the photo, VY got introspective and shared some of his past thoughts from a year ago. I was pretty shocked to read them:
At age 24 — only one year into his NFL career — he said he considered retirement.
“I really thought long and hard about it,” Young said on Thursday after practice. “There was so much going on with my family. It was crazy being an NFL quarterback. It wasn’t fun anymore. All of the fun was out of it. All of the excitement was gone. All I was doing was worrying about things.
“My teammates helped lift me out of it. I prayed really hard. And I began to focus on God’s calling for me. Play football. Be a role model.”
As we learned when he mentioned Merrill Hoge by name, Vince certainly pays attention to his critics — clearly a major fault. He needs to learn to forget about all that stuff and just concentrate on winning football games, doing what he does best. Maybe he’s starting to do that, and there’s no wonder why he considered retirement; it’s clear VY wasn’t prepared for the challenges the professional game presents. Hopefully he’s learned from that moment and is poised for a big season.
