Hart Surgery: Vince & The Draft

By: Micah Hart

Saturday will mark the 70th edition of the NFL Draft, and a more highly anticipated version of it I cannot recall. Maybe it’s because media coverage surrounding every sporting event grows in intensity with every passing year, or maybe its because this particular draft class provides as tantalizing a group of top prospects as there has ever been.The hyperbole meter is registering off the charts for this weekend, a continuation of one of the greatest college football seasons in history.

Come Saturday, yesterday’s college heroes will become tomorrow’s millionaires, and all of today’s speculation will soon turn to hindsight.

But why wait until then? I can tell you already how people will remember this one. It will forever be known as the Vince Young Draft, where people ridicule the teams that selected players X, Y, and Z over Young, in much the same way they mock the Portland Trailblazers for passing on Michael Jordan for Sam Bowie.

Is that being a little over-the-top? Maybe. But then again, maybe not.

Jordan had an amazing basketball-specific skill set, for sure. But several players have neared his talent level. What set him apart from the rest of the roundball world was his competitive fire, his ability to lift his team to victory through the sheer force of his will. He simply refused to lose.

Vince is the same way. When everyone cowered in the stands during the Rose Bowl after USC went up by two scores with six minutes left, he didn’t flinch. He never wavered in his belief that he could - that he would - win the game for the Horns, and he went out and did it.

I don’t think you can put a price tag on this particular trait, or clock it with a stopwatch, or see it on film. I have played sports before, and I know what it feels like to have that last bit of hope for victory slip away. It changes the way you play, even if you don’t realize it’s happening.

Young knew Texas would win this game, even when no one else believed him. It was this kind of leadership that helped him transform the Texas football program from a perennial underachiever to the masters of their domain.

Yet ever since the final horn sounded and he and his teammates spilled onto the Rose Bowl turf, Young has been picked apart like a Supreme Court nominee (ok, bad example).

All of the things that made him into one of the most impressive college football players of all time seem to have vanished into thin air, replaced by reports of bungled intelligence tests and poor personnel decisions (hiring a family friend as his agent instead of choosing someone more established).

And because of this, at least one team (and perhaps several) will take a pass on him on Saturday, too afraid to take a chance on someone who does things a little different.

You know who else did things a little different? Jordan did. The conventional wisdom in the NBA says you must have a dominant big man to win a championship. But Jordan won six of them with the likes of Bill Cartwright, Will Perdue, and Bill Wennington roaming the middle, all because he was talented enough, and as importantly, determined enough to defeat his opposition.

So even though Young has an unorthodox throwing motion, worked predominantly in the shotgun in college, and has a proclivity for running the ball, it doesn’t mean he can’t get the job done. He certainly did at Texas. His style may not conform with the NFL gospel, but his results will.

Besides, orthodoxy is not a prerequisite for greatness. Arnold Palmer had a swing that would drive a teaching pro to drink (more so than normal, that is), but he replicated it well enough to win seven majors. Larry Bird shot a basketball like he was taking a throw-in in soccer - and won three titles and three MVPs with the Boston Celtics. The list goes on.

Young’s delivery may be funky, but the ends justify the means.

Still, more than likely, several players will establish new residences on Saturday before Young. NC State’s Mario Williams is a great pass rusher, and Virginia’s D’Brickashaw Ferguson has a tremendous first name (oh, and is an immovable force on the offensive line). I also love Matt Leinart, who has faced similar scrutiny despite his outstanding play at USC. Yet none have Young’s game-changing potential.

Then there is Reggie Bush, the most likely candidate to have his name called by Commissioner Paul Tagliabue as the first overall selection. Bush is a rare talent in his own right, a breathtaking combination of speed and elusiveness that evokes comparisons with the shiftiest ever, Barry Sanders. He may be a Hall of Famer someday as well. And you know what? I still wouldn’t pick him over Young.

Call me biased if you want (I certainly am), but the argument holds water. Pro football is littered with great backs that never led their team to the promised land or anywhere near it. The aforementioned Sanders is a perfect example, as are Eric Dickerson and Earl Campbell.

Yet nearly every great quarterback tasted playoff success, even if they never got to pop champagne (Fran Tarkenton and Dan Marino come to mind).

If I had the choice of a franchise halfback or a franchise QB, I would take the signal-caller every single time. In fact, even if I turned out to be wrong, I’d still make the same decision the next time around.

A great quarterback can galvanize a team and a city like almost no other athlete in any sport. Brett Favre in Green Bay. Joe Montana with the 49ers. Even Michael Vick, who Young is most often compared to (erroneously in my opinion), has turned the Falcons into the hottest ticket in Atlanta, and by a healthy margin.

A great quarterback is more than a player who can throw accurately or avoid the rush. He is also a leader, a person his teammates would follow into battle anywhere as a private would his C.O.

Vince Young may not come in immediately and turn the NFL on its ear, but I guarantee he will eventually. He is too gifted a playmaker, too charismatic a leader, and too steadfast in his refusal to lose to ever be a failure.

One lucky team will have the good fortune to find this out for themselves starting Saturday. A few, and perhaps several others, will watch it happen, and eventually shake their heads at what might have been.

Wait and see for yourself.

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Micah Hart is an original contributor to the CSR, and works in sports media in Atlanta. Micah can be reached at micahbhart@yahoo.com. He reminds you to Hook 'em Horns.

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