 "Photo: Rob Strong")
When Longhorn fans see old clips of Vince Young on television, he's usually scoring the final touchdown in the 2005 National Championship Rose Bowl game or pointing to the crowd afterward, confetti swirling around his statuesque figure.
These images haven't left their memories or the film banks at ESPN. And when they do flash across the screen, they evoke powerful feelings of elation and the purest form of happiness for those who bleed burnt orange.
But what about the man inside the TV set?
When Young, now the starting quarterback for the NFL's Tennessee Titans, revisited the Rose Bowl recently, it was like a wave hit him.
He was playing in a touch football game with about 50 executives for California sports teams and organizations as part of a promotional event for the internet company TicketRESERVE, for whom Young is a spokesman.
And standing on the same grass where fewer than three years ago he captured both the National Championship and instant fame, Vince Young cried.
"I took a couple of interviews and did a couple of photos in the area where I scored at," Young said. "To just sit back and feel that moment again..."
The emotions came flowing back.
Every game he played for the Longhorns. Every touchdown scored. Every game won.
Everything that made him VY.
"It's just my history," Young said. "That's where I'm from. That's my background. Everybody had a helping hand in raising me to get to the point where I am today. And I don't regret any of it."
He's not trying to move past those images of former glory to reestablish himself as one of the best quarterbacks in his new league, like so many former college superstars.
Instead, Young is trying to take everything he learned in Austin and transfer it to Nashville, Tenn. So far, it's been relatively easy. Last year he won the NFL Rookie of the Year, set a rookie record for rushing yards in a season by a quarterback and became the first rookie passer in the league's history to make it to the Pro Bowl.
Now he's the one watching.
"Every time I see my former school on TV, I think about them," Young said. "I mean, not just the Rose Bowl, but all the fun I had at the University of Texas, everything I learned and was taught."
Team misses leadership
Young will forever be one of the Godfathers of Texas football. After all, he brought back a gridiron title to Austin for the first time in 35 years.
But he no longer has the ability to lead the Longhorns. The most he can do is speak to them during brief pregame talks and offer encouragement from the sidelines in street clothes.
A Godfather, yes. A field general, no.
And his leadership abilities are sorely missed. During his time as a Longhorn, Young worked hard to establish a precedent of taking care of business on and off the field. But the recent flurry of arrests and accusations surrounding the team, in his eyes, has torn down what he tried to build up during his tenure.
"It sets back the message that I was trying to send, the people before me, every message that somebody has tried to send to our young ones coming up," Young said. "You keep setting us back because of what you're doing. You don't think they're looking up to you, but they're all looking up to you."
Young helped run a clean ship when he was here. No bold headlines with the words "Longhorn" and "arrest." No allegations of DWIs or drug usage or armed robbery, and absolutely no comparisons of Texas to Miami.
And, while Texas coach Mack Brown likes to take the blame for the players' wrong doings, Young won't let them get off that easily.
To Young, it's their fault. And, perhaps more importantly, it's the lack of any discernable leadership which has led to the recent tarnishing of the program Young helped build just a few short years ago.
After all, Young never let any of this happen.
"When I was here by myself the guys had to drag me out. The only reason I would go was if we had a team function or if we all were going to hang out," Young said. "But when I do go, I'm going to lead everybody and have a plan. I'm not leading the guys into some stupid situations, and I don't feel like we have that leader right now on our team."
Young said before Saturday's loss, he wanted to speak to the team and let them know what they're allowing to happen is wrong, and it's making every former Longhorn look bad. He didn't get that chance because he didn't get to the stadium in time.
But bet on him doing it some time. It's too big an issue for someone of his character and status to ignore.
"I take it upon myself because I care. I'm going to come back and say it because I really feel like they're representing the University of Texas, and myself and a lot of people from the University of Texas," Young said. "James Street, James Brown, these types of guys have a great legacy here at the University of Texas. And y'all are coming over here and doing this negative stuff and it's just breaking it.
"A lot of people are hurt by the stuff y'all are doing. Us losing, us getting in trouble, stuff like that. Man, I don't think that's up to our standard."
Players squander opportunity
Today's generation just doesn't seem to get it. Though Young grew up in a broken home through much of his early life, he minds his Ps and Qs.
But he doesn't see young men displaying the same kind of respect and appreciation for other people, and it disturbs him a little.
"Here you have an opportunity, man," Young said. "And I really feel like [the younger Longhorn players] don't understand the opportunity they have."
Wrongdoing in football has been a hot topic this year, with the most high-profile and possibly the most horrific situation belonging to former Atlanta Falcon quarterback Michael Vick.
Vick's continuing dogfighting episode serves as a prime example of an athlete drawing negative attention to himself.
"That's what I feel like our Longhorns aren't looking at," Young said. "Even though you've got it good right now, once you do something stupid, it'll all come crashing down like that. I really feel like the guys need to look at that."
A big part of the problem with the new generation of players, said Young, is their inability to grasp the big picture.
They fail to see everything around them. Having fun is good, but not if it comes at the expense of everybody else.
"Y'all think it's all about yourself, which it's not. It's just not," Young said. "It used to be, in Little League, high school, middle school. When you go to a college and play for a college football team or an NFL team, it's not about you any more. You've got this whole community behind you."
It seems Young will never forget that, even if his community has grown a lot since his days at Texas.
After the tears subsided and the touch football game was over, Young put on a moving display of manners at the Rose Bowl.
Though he was told he could leave, Young went around to the more than 50 strangers who had gathered there, shook all their hands and thanked each individual for coming out and sharing the special day with him.
For them, it was an added bonus. For him, it was the right thing to do.
And, though scoring that touchdown and bringing back a championship to "Austin, Texas, baby!" is how most people define him, scenes like that are what makes Vince Young a legend.
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