VY gets advice from Kobe

[SD2042]

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/w ... k11/1.html

Vince Young sounds new and improved.

A couple of times last year, when he was most frustrated, Vince Young would text Kobe Bryant, who had become something of a mentor. He'd write something like, "Man, I wanna play so bad. What do I do?'' The answer would always come back from Bryant with something like this: "Stay focused. Work on your craft.''

As Young told me last week: "That's what I needed -- someone I respected, like him or Brett Favre, to tell me everybody goes through tough times. Adversity comes, work hard, work on your game, and you'll come out of it OK.''

The Vince Young we'll see tonight at Houston is still only 26. But he's already had three careers. The moody savior, who played precociously but with pocket limitations. The lost cause, who seemed mentally overwhelmed by the demands of his job, and fame. And now the maturing, complete player. That's awfully premature, but in the span of three weeks since taking over for Kerry Collins, Young has been a different player. How different? Offensive coordinator Mike Heimerdinger sometimes has to push him to use his rare athletic gifts. "He tells me to run much more than I think of running,'' Young said. "He tells me 1-2-3, check your receivers, and if they're not open, go. Run. He's pushing me to run.''

The more surprising thing about Young through three starts this year is his accuracy -- 65.7 percent. "I'm patient now, and I've realized patience is the key to this offense,'' he said. "Check down, use my legs to get out of the pocket, extend plays, have another chance to complete a pass.''

In the past, Young has given lip service to saying it was for the best that coach Jeff Fisher gave Collins the starting job over him. But now it sounds like he knows he needed some time to adjust to the life as a millionaire, with the demands of family and friends weighing on him. Those demands came to a head early last season, when his worried mother reached out for help after seeing Young leave his house with a gun.

"That was blown out of proportion,'' said Young. "My mom never saw me with a pistol before, and when she did, she got nervous. I have a pistol for protection. I was never gonna harm myself, but she got nervous.''

He went on. "I never doubted myself, never doubted anything. I knew I was a great athlete. I just had to grow up, on and off the field. I knew I had the talent. There was so much going on, all the adversity, so much going on. I understand now ... Coach Fisher gave me some time to figure my life out.''

I asked if he regretted not being picked by the Texans three years ago. "No. But I do love going to Houston and playing,'' he said. All that's at stake tonight at Reliant Stadium is keeping alive Tennessee's needle-in-a-haystack playoff hopes at 3-6. These are the kinds of games Young was drafted to win, and it looks like he'll be around for a while to try to win them.



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