Vince Young's Near-Retirement

for exactly these short posts.

.....why the Titans weren’t in any hurry to acquire some receiver help. They rightfully have their concerns.

He didn’t get so depressed his rookie season, when he emerged from the legendary rosy Olympus to start over once more in sites of great conflict and collision; and, when he merely broke even, 8-8.

It was after last season, 10-6, when his passing percentage improved to over 62%, when they made the playoffs that the blues struck. What we saw as a steady improvement still heralding greatness, Vincent felt quite differently.

“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.”

It was a hell of a honeymoon. And a hell of a big stage he stepped upon.

And forget the arm motion; it’s the feet.

“His feet have been all over the place,” Heimerdinger said. “And in hitting a golf ball, in hitting a baseball, in shooting a basketball, in any sport, your feet are the base of it all and must be set underneath you properly. We are focusing on that. It is going to make him a better quarterback. He is going to become more accurate and that is going to help us become not only a better offense but impact our defense and make us a better team. Bottom line is whether you are Peyton Manning or Tom Brady, you are judged on winning.”

So, we’ll see who’s dancing and who ain’t.

If VY is at 62%, what are we looking at as a good number? 67-68% would be serious efficiency. Anything 70 or over would make him something of a lethal weapon. But it’s the TD number they’re looking at.

But there’s also this little discrepancy in the force:

“It’s ‘Vince can’t do this’ and ‘Vince can’t do that,’” Young said. “I don’t want to be a pocket quarterback. I want to be a Hall of Fame quarterback. Compare me to Randall Cunningham in my game. I ask our coaches to let me be me on the field. I listen and I do what I am asked. But they are listening, too.”

So, it’s the dancing and the tune.

He had a lot of crap going on with his family, so I hear, particularly his father trying to get back in his life. That’s hard for anyone, especially if you have to deal with the intense pressure of being a franchise quarterback.

I’m sure lots of players have thought of it before… and even did so well before their “time”. Barry Sanders quit. Michael Jordan even briefly went into retirement, and even Jordan said it wasn’t just his father’s death but the immense success and spotlight he enjoyed that caused him to walk away briefly. Sometimes we forget these guys are human.

I’m sure VY just had regrets leaving UT early. I think he thought it would be the same in the NFL, except he would be getting paid. I’m sure this kind of thing happens all of the time with players who leave early out of a great school with great memories.