I am very proud of Vince Young. A lot of college stars say they are going to return and get their degrees and never come back, but VY took the time last winter and this spring to get the necessary credits for him to sport his cap and gown.
“This will rank No. 1 because it is what I came to school for,” Young told CBSSports.com Thursday after his workout session in the Longhorns weight room. “I came here to get an education, and to win a national championship. And now, I get to put that smile on my mom’s face.”
“I’m about to be the first in my family to graduate,” he said. “Just finishing what I started. That’s why I’m trying to get back in the NFL. To finish what I started. That is the type of guy I am. I do work hard–even when the times are good or bad. That’s just how I was raised. My mom used to be strung out on drugs. The one thing she used to always be able to do, was be in the house to go to work the next morning. I don’t know how she got up after she was doing the things she was doing, but she used to be right there making sure we were getting ready for school and she was going to work. I saw that.
“I tell her to this day, ‘Ma, you’re a strong woman.’ She was coming in after being out all night and then she’d pick up my grandma after she did a graveyard shift, where she’d go in at 11 p.m. and be done at 7 a.m. And when (my mom) got cleaned up, that was something I always saw in my mom and my grandmother was that strength to take care of the family and do whatever they had to do. Just finish what you started. That’s where I got my fire and my push and to be happy what life gives you.”
VY doesn’t seem like a bad guy, but his chances of returning to the NFL aren’t getting better as time goes on. You have to be focused when the opportunity is at hand, before that same opportunity passes you by.
Getting his degree does show a level of maturity off the field that maybe teams will see as a reason to give him another chance on the field.
Only time will tell.