Why I’m Still a Vince Young Fan

Football really gets started tonight for us Texas fans. Down in Austin the University of Texas is playing monster rival, Texas Tech, in a grudge match. Tech stole a victory from UT in the final seconds of the game last year, and we UT fans want revenge. So where will my husband and I be at game time? We’ll be celebrating the 60th birthday of our friend Kyle, a man whose daughter went to Texas Tech.

I’ve got my DVR set up to record the game in case our dinner hosts are cruel enough to want to direct everyone’s attention to the birthday boy and not the TV. Kyle’s a lovely man and all, but this IS Texas and this IS college football.

OK. OK. I might be a little obsessive.

This sports obsession can be traced only as far back as the football season, (also referred to as “fall”), of 2005 when my son Robert was a brand new freshman at the University of Texas in Austin. Robert spent four years in his high school marching band and I was a band mom. I chaperoned the band on the bus to football games, competitions, and on spring trips around the nation. Like many band parents, I believed a football team was there to entertain the fans before and after the halftime show.

Besides, football was confusing to me. Growing up, my brothers had all tried at times to help me understand it. I laugh out loud whenever I recall my brother John’s frustration trying to explain the concept of “downs” to me. At my son’s high school games, my husband Jim and my fellow band parent friends would explain the plays and the calls for me, but it just wouldn’t sink in.

Are you ready for some football?

If you’re wondering what this has to do with Vince Young, I’m getting to that. The first time I saw Vince play was in the 2005 Rose Bowl against the Michigan Wolverines. Robert had been accepted at the University of Texas to begin in the fall of 2005. My brothers each phoned before the game, demanding that Jim and I declare our loyalty. Jim is from Illinois and I’m from Michigan. What was there to declare? We were Big Ten fans to the core.

That night there was magic on that football field and it was all about Vince Young. Even I, a football ignoramus, recognized it. Broadcasters called it the "Texas Two-Step;" call it whatever you like, it was magical. While my brothers grieved that Michigan lost to Texas, I had a secret—I was intrigued by this Vince Young character.

In August, 2005, we moved Robert to Austin and I experienced the onset of ENS: Empty Nest Syndrome. My friends and co-workers fretted over me. “How are you?” they would cautiously inquire. Thankfully, football season started almost immediately. And there was that amazing Vince Young, dazzling me and nearly everyone else who watched him. I got into football. My husband, (who had always been into football), and I watched every game together. I grieved when Vince didn’t get the Heisman Trophy. I was acting weird, even to me.

Anyone who’s been following college football for awhile already knows how the 2005 football season ended. The University of Texas Longhorns were the national champions and beat USC in the final moments of the 2006 Rose Bowl. Once again Vince Young had cast his gridiron magic on everyone and everything. After that season, my brothers began to call me on the weekends in the fall and we would talk football. Now Jim and I long for football season the way you long for the holidays or summer vacation. And it’s possible I owe it all to Vince Young.

Jim and I both agree that getting caught up in UT football took some of the emptiness out of our syndrome that year. We felt closer to Robert watching his team play each week and then talking about the games with him on the phone. We’re calling my obsession with college football my post-midlife crisis now.

Like all University of Texas fans, I was disappointed when Vince left school early to play for the Tennessee Titans pro team. While his pro career has certainly had its challenges, I remain a fan—he’s the guy with the magic to make me love football.

Now it’s Colt McCoy and Hook ‘Em Horns! Have a great football weekend y’all!

Donna