Vince Young, Returning To Finish His Degree, Challenges Texans To Go To College (Watch)
Meet NFL Quarterback Vince Young from Generation TX on Vimeo.
Favored son Vince Young has returned to Texas and to UT to finish his degree in education.
In a new video released today by Generation TX, an effort started last year by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to encourage students to pursue college, the former Longhorn QB says that when growing up on the south side of Houston, he didn’t think he’d ever get to go to college.
“I didn’t think that academic-wise I was smart enough, that I could keep up with other students,” Young says. “But when I set my mind to it, with the strong supporting cast I had with my family members, it pushed me to be the man that I am today.”
Young says that growing up he was told he would drop out and become a druggie. Instead, though, Young repeated ninth grade in night school, so he could get caught up and improve his grades. He ended up graduating from Madison High School and enrolling at Texas.
The experience taught him a lesson, he says, and at UT the standout football player says he made the academic honor roll.
The Vince Young Foundation and Generation TX strive to “inspire and engage [the] youth of Texas to become the most successful generation ever.”
The groups are partnering to host a “Unity in the Community” summit in Houston this weekend.
Young played at Texas from 2002-2005, leading the Horns to the 2004 Rose Bowl victory and the 2005 win over USC for the National Championship.
He left Texas to join the NFL and played for the Tennessee Titans until leaving the team at the end of last season.
Young is also a Life Member of the Texas Exes.
Photo courtesy Generation TX
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8 Comments
Good for him! It’s about time that we had some role models who use athletics to get an education and not education to become professional athletes. There are more ways out of the ghetto than football, basketball or a music career and EDUCATION is the best and most reliable one!
VY’s bad behavior is now mitigated by taking responsibility for his life and his future. By making himself a model, he, once again, becomes the man we all grew to love!
As a Texan living in Nashville, Tennessee, I have had to live the last couple of years alternatingly defending, and distancing myself from, the humiliation of Longhorn football losses as well as Vince’s performance, non-performance and final exit from the Titans.
Vince, glad you’ve given me something to brag about — a comeback – in life – more significant than anything ephemeral on the football field.
Good for you VY. It took Emmet Smith of the Cowboys a long time to go back to school. But he did, probably because he promised his mom. For what ever the reason, the fact that he came back to get his degree shows that he really is trying to be a better person and a better man. All you people out there who say they can’t to it, just isn’t trying.
While I’m glad that VY is coming back and, more than anything else, doing it "for himself", I wish that he would have stayed through his senior year. Too many athletes leave college to jump into Pro Ball primarily because of the advice they get from their "managers" or maybe even their families, I don’t know. I think they should sign up for the Full 4 year program, to ensure they earn a degree, before being thrust into the big leagues. Some of those classes should include, "How to Manage a High Salary Income" and some personal values courses that they could use for the rest of their life. Just an idea.
A wonderful example of trying to finish what you start. Good for you, Vince, and very thrilled that you’re completing an education degree–I’m very proud of my UT Education degree!
Remember that Young was red-shirted as a freshman, so he’s already had five (5) years of full-ride-scholarship to complete his degree.
“Scholar-Athlete”–what a joke!
I’m not sure why you feel compelled to make this comment, but I’m pretty sure you are wrong. VY graduated from high school in 2002 and redshirted his freshman year 2002-2003. He played in the 2003, 2004, and 2005 seasons and left school before the 2006 Spring semester. That would be 7 semesters of full-ride-scholarship before he was drafted and started playing pro football, which leavs him considerably short of the five (5) years you attribute to him. I’m not sure of the arrangement Texas has with their scholarship athletes once they turn pro and have not finished their degrees, but for all that VY has returned to the University of Texas at Austin in so many ways, I think he deserved some additional semesters of free tuition if that’s what he wanted in order to complete his degree.