This is turning into a rather sad situation in Nashville.  I think that the media reports are vastly overblown (suicide watch) but I guarantee you that having your mother provide a media report that was picked up nationally has not helped Vince's cause one bit.

I will try to be as fair to Vince Young as I can here.  What I really think is the basic problem is that Young is facing adversity for the first time as it relates to sports, and after years of coasting through on his athleticism alone, he has discovered that he has no way to cope. 

By all accounts, Young had a very tough upbringing.  His escape was his god-given athletic ability.  He could run and throw better than most people, and when the University of Texas came calling, why, he took the opportunity.  In college, there are marked differences between the pure athletic talent between teams.  Young did not have to face foes on a weekly basis that had eleven defenders on the field that could match his athletic ability.  So he succeeded, and perhaps got complacent with that success.  I think that he believed he could not fail; he was so gifted that football came easily.  Work was not required to succeed - all he had to do was show up.

Now, when Young was in the process of being drafted, his Wonderlic scores were released and they were atrocious.  I think he retook them and got a better score after actually preparing for the test, but if anything that might have been a first clue (hindsight being wonderfully sharp).  That clue is that Young did not apply himself - did not work because he never had to work.  He was drafted high, paid a ton of money, and told that he was going to get his shot at the starting job right away.  One thing led to another, and Young was the starting QB of the Nashville Titans.

Last year, after gracing the cover of Madden, he took a step back.  But being honest here, it was no surprise - and had nothing to do with a Madden Jinx.  It was simply a sophomore quarterback now facing defenses that understood his strengths and weaknesses, and worked to force him out of his comfort zone and into areas in which he struggled.  Considering that Young did not and has not progressed quickly as a pure passer, the Titans are facing defenses working to take away their running game and forcing Young to pass.  And he's tasted failure for the first time in a long time.

I think we fans sometimes don't understand what stardom does to a person.  For three years, he was the absolute big man on campus at UT.  He was a super star.  People got out of his way, tried to befriend him (because he's Vince Young!) and basically treated him like a god.  Being treated like a god for too long is going to go to your head.  You forget the sharp sting of poverty and the rumbles of an empty, underfed stomach.  Instead, your head hits a soft, cushy pillow and people surrounding you are always telling you how great that you are.  Then you get to the pinnacle - you are drafted in the first round for an NFL team.  You have achieved success - fame and fortune, and all you have to do is go out and play the game of football, something that comes so naturally to you.  I don't care who you are - that is going to fundamentally change a person.  I think it would be easy to believe your own press clippings - those same clippings that for three years bespoke of guaranteed stardom and greatness.

So it's easy to understand that Young probably thought that the NFL game was going to come as easily to him as the college game did.  But what he didn't understand, and what he was unprepared to face, was that in the pros, every team has great athletes - even the bad ones.  Every team can beat you, and any player can beat you up.  You can't outrun as many people any more, and for the first time you actually have to work at your craft.  You have to study the game, study your flaws and the flaws of your opponents to understand how to fix your own problems and exploit your opponents.  The fan base that was constantly so adoring at Texas is not as forgiving nor as patient in Nashville for in Texas you rarely, if ever, lost.  That's not true at Nashville, where you were only drafted so high because Nashville was not good.  You don't have the weapons, the line, or the edge in talent. 

And here's where I think Young has failed.  He has not adapted.  He has maintained an immature outlook on things.  He has failed to work hard to be a success, and still seems to believe that his talent alone will get him through the dark days.  And because he's been treated so well for so long, suddenly being treated poorly is baflfing to him.  It hurts and it cuts deep to the quick.  Those doubts that you may have considered before college, back when you were poor, suddenly come back.  No one wants to face those fears - especially not one who was seemingly beyond them.  And the first whispers hit and Young himself said in an interview that he considered retirement.  The work was too much for him, the heaping of criticism upon him was too much for him.  These are signs of an immature person.  He does not have the capacity to deal with the criticism.  He has not shown the ability to adapt, to learn and to work with his teammates and coaches to improve.  He acts sullen, and the farce on the sidelines last week was merely just another example of his immaturity.

But, maturity can be learned, and earned, over time.  It takes humility - understanding that you have to accept your limitations, and then work your butt off to overcome them.  It takes patience - knowing that for a long time you are going to fail, but building upon those failures and learning from them will pay dividends later.  Not tomorrow.  And it takes a great deal of hard, hard work.  So when his mother tells reporters that her son is hurting, that he is unsure of his future in football, that is the voice of Young saying he's not ready.  He was thrust into the limelight too soon, and now his ego is hurt, and his mind is hurt along with it. 

Maybe some of the reports are correct, that the reason Nashville drafted him was because the owner wanted him and Jeff Fisher did not.  Maybe he is fundamentally less intelligent, and therefore needs to have a playbook that he can understand and grasp.  Maybe he is truly incapable of learning how to adjust physically and mentally to play the game of football.  And if all of those maybes are true, Vince Young will be a mere flash in the pan - a first round draft bust.  He'll become a mere footnote in the history of the NFL.  Great, great talent.  Poor, poor head.  But maybe Vince Young has it in him to learn, to adapt and to accept the workload required to succeed.  Maybe his youth and inexperience in dealing with life situations are holding him back now, but by getting through this he will rediscover his confidence and will begin to taste success once again.  But the road is very long, and very hard.  You have to have more than enough "want to" in order to succeed.  I can't answer whether or not Vince Young has the required "want to" to succeed.  I hope that he does, because I think that he'd be an entertaining quarterback to watch.  But I'm not holding out too much hope, either.  The last ultra-athletic, hard-scabble kid to turn pro and play the position is now bankrupt, sitting in Leavenworth, considering the sudden turnaround in his life.  Yes, Vince Young reminds me a great deal of Michael Vick.  Great athlete, bad head.  I can only hope along with all Tennessee Titan fans that the end result of the Vince Young era does not end so badly, and with so much tragedy.