Every month Esquire runs a single page feature that is probably the best reoccurring piece of print journalism going right now. It's called What I've Learned, and it's tidbits and life lessons from people as diverse as Francis Ford Coppola (featured in last month's edition, which is laying by my desk as I type this), Gore Vidal, Christopher Walken and many more very influential people from the worlds of politics, entertainment, intelligencia.
Now, we get the news that the September issue of Esquire will feature What Vince Young has learned, and I have to say I'm pretty moved by a few things he said. VY is really starting to show some maturity in the press, and I really hope it translates on the field. I can't see how any Titans fan couldn't be rooting for VY to fulfill his potential. Here are a few of the ones that really stuck with me:
Quarterbacking Is all in the legs. You don’t even need a good arm. Of course, I work on it all, but it’s all in the legs.
It’s hard to express in words how important Steve McNair is to me.
One thing I will say about my mom is that even though she did her dirt -smoking, drugs, alcohol- she always woke up and went to work the next morning after she had that long night.’
I saw everything There was a hole in the door that closed off my room from the living room. I used to always-my little bad self - peek through that little hole – and see my mom and the whole neighborhood. My grandmom worked the graveyard shift, and everybody knew that after she left and the kids were in bed, the party was at our house. Every night. Smoking, dancing, having sex, and there I was, couldn’t sleep for the noise, looking through that little hole at a strange world, man. People so strung out that they’re stuttering, a-a-a-a-a-a. I didn’t know what strung out was, but I knew they were strung out. That was my window on the world. And I thought to myself, I don’t know what else is gonna happen to me, but I do not want to be like that.
I’d wake up in the middle of the night, make sure everything was locked up, make sure my mom’s keys were hidden because my uncle used to steal the car all the time, peek in on my sisters’ room to make sure nobody was bothering them, make sure their windows were locked. The garage door was broken from my uncle, so got to check that, too. He’d break in and steal what he could carry. I must have lost four Nintendos to him, microwaves, you name it. I love my uncle, I forgive him, but I couldn’t respect him as a man. He was stealing from us, his own family, and that’s no way for a man to behave, you know? I was about ten
I started getting in trouble, and I thought, I’m gonna be just like my mom.