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Ta-Nehisi Coates

Ta-Nehisi Coates - Ta-Nehisi Coates is a senior editor for The Atlantic, where he writes about culture, politics, and social issues for TheAtlantic.com and the magazine. He is the author of the memoir The Beautiful Struggle. More

Born in 1975, the product of two beautiful parents. Raised in West Baltimore—not quite The Wire, but sometimes ill all the same. Studied at the Mecca for some years in the mid-’90s. Emerged with a purpose, if not a degree. Slowly migrated up the East Coast with a baby and my beloved, until I reached the shores of Harlem. Wrote some stuff along the way.

Vince Young Melts Down

By Ta-Nehisi Coates
Nov 22 2010, 10:00 AM ET Comment

It's really sad to see this:

After the game, Young walked toward the tunnel and suddenly tossed his shoulder pads and jersey into the stands. 

When the team gathered in the locker room following the loss, Young began muttering and cursing under his breath as Fisher addressed the team, the Tennessean reported Sunday night.  

After Fisher asked Young to be quiet, the paper said, the quarterback finished dressing and prepared to leave the room. Fisher told Young to stop and not to "run out on your teammates," sources told The Tennessean. Young told Fisher, "I'm not running out on my teammates, I'm running out on you," the paper said. 

Young then left the locker room and ignored media members as Titans safety and former University of Texas teammate Michael Griffin chased after him. The Tennessean reported that Griffin was seen confronting Young in the players' parking lot.

To succeed in the NFL, you really have to be an incredible athlete. But one of the things I love about pro athletics is how much of it isn't actually about the ability to do amazing things with your body. That drive last year by Vince Young against the Cardinals is one of the greatest comebacks I've ever witnessed. But the task of taking whatever abilities Young showed during that comeback, to build on them, and then improve on the weakness (also on display in that drive), and get better is about more than having a canon for an arm, or a startling 40 time. 

There is a mental aspect to this game that's transfixing. Kenyatta hates Tom Brady. And she hates him, not so much because she hates the Patriots, but because he always wears that same borg-like face that says, "I'm going to kill you now." And then he goes out and does it. But she really hates him out of jealousy, because--in all of our hard endeavors--we all wish to wear that face, to walk into whatever room convinced that we were about to calmly perpetrate an act of mass murder.

I'm talking about mental toughness. And forgive me for slipping into nebulous sports cliches, but it really looks like Vince Young is lacking it. z


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