Vince Young, Student
[Guest post by DRJ]
Vince Young is a former quarterback of the University Texas Longhorn football team. He led his team to many exciting wins, a few exciting near misses, and a 2005 National Championship in which he was named MVP. Young left Texas after his junior year to be the 3rd pick overall in the 2006 NFL draft and the first quarterback taken.
I admire Vince Young’s ability to lead his team and to perform as a football player, but I respect him after reading this article in the Austin American-Statesman:
“Vince Young is making another comeback at Texas. This time, it’s in the classroom. The Tennessee Titans quarterback who led Texas to the 2005 national championship is back in class this semester, working toward his degree in education.
“I just wanted to come back and finish up because I wanted to show not only myself and my family, but all the people that have respect for me, that school is the key,” Young said Monday. He’s taking 12 hours this semester with still more to come.
“You can never stop getting knowledge, and the kids that left school early and went to the NFL, you’ve still got to come back and get your degree because you can always have that for life,” he said.”
Young said returning to school was his idea, and that he’s getting more out of it because he’s more mature and paying better attention to the teacher. He’s also getting “high Bs” but he hopes the As are coming.
As they say at UT, the Eyes of Texas are upon you … all the live long day.
— DRJ
happy to see vince young finish his degree, in light of…
for most potential nfl draftees, there’s something now called the “wonderlic test”, a crude iq test intended to show how smart this guy is.
vince young scored a 6 on his wonderlic test before the draft. this is not a good score. i remember reading about it before that draft, and the speculation that he wasn’t smart enough to be a pro quarterback. you know what? you don’t need to be brilliant to qb in the nfl, you just need to know how to make big plays when it counts. the nfl has had rhodes scholar quarterbacks (pat haden, back when the rams were in los angeles) and they didn’t know how to make big plays when it counted, so they eventually failed.
assistant devil's advocate (c08424) — 2/18/2008 @ 9:49 pmI thought that was Chuck Norris…
Scott Jacobs (a1de9d) — 2/18/2008 @ 9:53 pmHeh, ada, that’s true. But, then again, we don’t need no stinkin’ readin’ and writin’ at UT.
Scott – I’ve always pictured him as a Baylor fan. It’s no surprise he’s also an ROTC fan.
DRJ (3eda28) — 2/18/2008 @ 9:58 pmThe NBA star Kevin Johnson left UC Berkeley several credits short, which he made up off-season and after retiring. He said something like “My grandma told me if I didn’t get a college degree I was nothing.”
Andrew J. Lazarus (27427f) — 2/18/2008 @ 10:30 pmAdmirable, and practical too, to have a training. After all, his football career is over at 30. What is he going to do for the next 60 years, just sit at home with his $30 million and watch TV? Maybe he’ll be a teacher and do some good in the world.
jack (b56000) — 2/19/2008 @ 5:29 amThis kid has always stuck me as a class act, and I’ve watched him since his Red Shirt days. He has an unbelievable talent, but no apparent ego. He’s kept his nose clean, made his grades, remained a strong, positive role model — and actively involved with middle school students across the country — and is now fulfilling a promise to his Mother to get his degree after taking a year off for the draft. Good for him! There are way too many Ryan Perrillouxs in this world without a clue or care.
EHeavenlyGads (eba7dd) — 2/19/2008 @ 6:25 amIt is sad that Michael Vick didn’t get that message. Had he followed the Vince Young example, he would be playin’ not jailin’.
vnjagvet (d3d48a) — 2/19/2008 @ 7:07 amGood for Young. The Texas victory over USC in the 2006 Rose Bowl is one of the finest football games I’ve ever watched — and certainly the single best college QB performance I’ve ever seen. (Though I still have fond memories of Jim McMahon’s ‘Miracle Bowl’ upset of BYU over SMU in 1980, scoring three touchdowns in the last three minutes to win, 46-45; I actually had turned the TV off in disgust when SMU went up 45-25 and so had missed the first of those three touchdowns by the time I turned it back on.)
The 2006 Rose Bowl is one of the few football games (along with Nebraska-Oklahoma, 1971, which I watched live [on TV, that is] with my late father) that I’d pay money for a DVD of.
Here’s hoping Young can do as well in the NFL as he did in college. ..bruce..
bfwebster (2f56b4) — 2/19/2008 @ 7:31 ambfwebster:
the 2006 Rosebowl was amazing… but I’d personally add this year’s Super Bowl to the list of football games I’d pay to have on DVD. In yo face, Tommy Boy!
Leviticus (ed6d31) — 2/19/2008 @ 7:59 amI would gladly pay for a DVD of Stanford’s victory over USC in 2007.
Bar Sinister (eb65fa) — 2/19/2008 @ 8:54 amWrite me in for a copy of Oklahoma going down to Boise St.
Techie (ed20d9) — 2/19/2008 @ 10:19 amRemember the other Ricky Williams, the one from Texas Tech? His last semester he had a 0.0 gpa. Good example of a guy who got as far s he could on just talent alone. Vince is a great example of where you can go when you mix in hard work w/ that talent. Keep on keeping on Vince!
chas (fb7ad4) — 2/19/2008 @ 9:10 pm