March 9, 2017

Vince Young returns to the football field

Vince Young is seeking a trademark for the slogan “Make Vince Great Again.”

The Saskatchewan Roughriders are willing to give him a chance to at least be good again on the football field. The CFL team announced Thursday that it had signed the 33-year-old product of Houston to a contract calling for one year and an option.

A two-time Pro Bowl quarterback during his NFL career, Young hasn’t played in a regular-season game since 2011 and hasn’t been part of a pro football team since 2014.

“I wouldn’t say it’s a comeback; I’d say it’s an opportunity,” Young said during a media conference at Mosaic Stadium. “I love the game of football and it’s kind of hard to sit on your couch and see the game and not be able to be out there playing.”

The Roughriders are in the market for a starting quarterback, having traded longtime No. 1 Darian Durant to the Montreal Alouettes in the off-season.

Saskatchewan had five quarterbacks under contract after that deal, but head coach/GM Chris Jones and his cohorts continued to look for others. When Young’s name — and his 31-19 career record as an NFL starter — came up, Jones was intrigued.

He called Young, arranged a meeting and had dinner with him in late January. The Roughriders put Young on their negotiation list following that meeting.

“I asked him if he wanted to play and it was something he was very eager to do …,” Jones recalled. “After meeting him, I knew that his heart was in the right place and he wanted to play.”

When the news broke that the Roughriders had placed Young on their negotiation list, some maintained that the 2005 Heisman Trophy finalist wouldn’t be a good fit in the CFL.

His three-year hiatus was considered a negative, as was the fact he had never played in the CFL.

Undaunted, Jones, offensive co-ordinator Stephen McAdoo and quarterbacks coach Jarious Jackson travelled last week to Austin, Texas — where Young works at his alma mater, the University of Texas — and put the 6-foot-5, 232-pound pivot through a workout.

Impressed by what they saw, the Roughriders’ brass subsequently offered Young a contract.DSC_0126

“He threw the ball outstanding,” Jones said. “I came out of the indoor (facility) the other day with a big smile on my face.”

Young had a spectacular college career at Texas, where he guided the Longhorns to a 30-2 record over his three seasons as a starter.

He led Texas to a 41-38 victory over the USC Trojans in the 2006 Rose Bowl — that year’s national championship game.

Young was drafted in the first round (third overall) of the 2006 NFL draft by the Tennessee Titans. After starting 13 games for them that season, he was named the NFL’s offensive rookie of the year.

After five seasons with the Titans, Young was released in July of 2011. He signed with the Philadelphia Eagles and played six games with them that season.

Young subsequently had NFL stints with the Buffalo Bills (2012), Green Bay Packers (2013) and Cleveland Browns (2014) but didn’t appear in a regular-season game with any of them.

He was released by Cleveland on May 12, 2014, and announced his retirement on June 14, 2014.

Since then, Young has been working for the University of Texas and doing TV work on the Longhorn Network. His holdings include a steakhouse and a real estate brokerage.

Despite all of that, he always wanted to resume his football career.

“Everything now is starting to go up and up …,” Young said of his life. “When everything was going up, (Jones) gave me the opportunity to play again, so that was even more of a blessing.

“I’m just happy that I get this full circle to come back around. Most players don’t, so I’m going to take full advantage of it.”

Young’s sidearm throwing motion was critiqued often during his NFL career. He also has never thrown a CFL football in a game, but he has been working with them over the last couple of weeks.

Young knows there’s more work to do, too. He already has his head in the Roughriders’ playbook and he’s watching film, preparing himself for playing on a bigger field than he’s used to with one more defender than he has faced before.

He also needs to get into game shape, which means doing more than playing flag football or basketball like he has been doing. He also must address his nutrition and work out more diligently.

“These are things that I know I have control of and that I’ll take full pride in taking care of,” Young said. “It’s all in my hands. The only way that something won’t happen is because it’s my fault.

“I have the recipe of how to do it, what the things are to do to be great. I’m just going to go back to what I’ve always been doing since I was a kid.”

There’s a long list of former NFL quarterbacks who struggled after moving to the CFL. Others, like Doug Flutie, have starred in the CFL after coming north.

Young knows that his past doesn’t mean anything now — he knows he has to compete for a job with the Roughriders — and that he faces a real challenge in the CFL.

“I’ve always had respect for (the CFL) because I’ve always had friends playing in the league, from (former Toronto Argonauts running back) Ricky Williams to a lot of my old teammates who play the game,” Young said.

“It’s football. When you put on that helmet, you can get your head knocked off out there. It’s always about respect, not just because it’s the CFL. You’ve got to respect everybody if you’re playing the game.”