We will get to Vince Young. I promise, I’ve talked about how facing adversity makes us stronger. About my daughter Emily’s 18 month battle to overcome the symptoms of her fourth concussion. How does the saying go? Adversity doesn’t build character, it reveals it? Something like that.
That fourth concussion ended Emily’s softball career. I certainly didn’t realize it at the time, but all during that season Emily showed the character that allowed her to beat that last concussion.
Her coach that year was tough. Hanging that season with the parents was interesting as some found him passionate and some found him mean. I heavily leaned on the passionate side. And it’s not because he didn’t get tough with Emily. There was the throwing of his hat on the ground when she popped an attempted bunt up. And he could be heard yelling “that’s embarrassing” when Emily and the pitcher, Avery, looked at each other and let a pop up drop between home plate and the pitcher’s mound. And the benching when he thought she didn’t get after a wild pitch fast enough.
Ok, we’re getting to Vince Young. Emily’s reaction to Coach Ormond’s passion? She played harder. She played better. She told me after one practice that he complimented her on showing character by playing better and not sulking. “Oh great, now he’ll yell at me all the time”, was her concern. He didn’t.
I am in no way advocating yelling and abuse by youth coaches. But I am advocating holding kids responsible and teaching them to go hard and overcome adversity. Let’s talk about Young now. Young’s unbelievable physical talent has most likely allowed him to skip the whole adversity thing. He has always been the best player and probably by a large margin. And I am willing to bet that his coaches weren’t too quick to criticize uber talented Vince.
Now Vince gets to the NFL and guess what? While very talented, he’s not head and shoulders above everyone anymore. At the first sign of tough times, Vince sulks and shows unbelievable immaturity and lack of accountability. Sunday he acted like a total child. Throwing his equipment in the stands and storming out of the locker room yelling at Coach Jeff Fisher.
Fisher has been the Titan’s coach for 17 years and is one of the best coaches in the NFL. He is also regarded as a coach who has always gotten along with his players. In other words, if you have issues with Fisher, it’s probably on you. Young was thrown out of the Titan’s practice facility this morning and it certainly looks like Fisher will tell owner Bud Adams that it’s Young or him. Adams apparently loves Young and all Texas players. He holds a grudge against the state because he thinks Houston shafted him, forcing the move to Nashville. Yeah that seems like a good reason to gives baby Vince millions and choose him over a great coach.
We will see how this story plays out. Last year Adams told Fisher to play Young. I think if he does that next season, Fisher will refuse. Adams will then either allow Fisher to have his way, or fire him. At which point Fisher will be unemployed no longer than 30 seconds.
No comments:
Post a Comment