Vince Young knows exactly what Cleveland Browns quarterback Shedeur Sanders is going through.
The former NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year and No. 3 overall pick took the league by storm over his first couple of seasons. Not only did Young live up to the hype of being a top pick after winning the national championship over the USC Trojans during his final collegiate season, he became a Pro Bowler his rookie season and led the Titans to the playoffs in his second year.
He also became the only rookie player to be named on the Madden cover the following year.
However, Young dealt with a bunch of scrutiny and criticism in the early portion of his NFL career, stemming from inconsistent play, his uneven relationship with head coach Jeff Fisher and just the negativity of the media. The two-time Pro Bowl quarterback’s NFL career would be over at an early age, with his last snap taking place at the age of 28 in 2011.
Young’s new documentary on Netflix — as part of the Untold series — sees the former star quarterback cover his entire football career dating back to his days at the University of Texas all the way to the end of his NFL career when he had short offseason stints with the Cleveland Browns, Green Bay Packers and Buffalo Bills.
The 43-year-old college football great gives some advice to the current Browns quarterback, Sanders, who has faced endless criticism since prior to being drafted last year. Sanders dropped from being an expected first-round pick to a fifth-round pick in the 2025 NFL Draft.
“I hate to see what’s going on in Cleveland right now,” said Young in a one-on-one interview with Heavy Sports. “I hate to see that quarterbacks gotta prove theirselves each and every year. But it’s like negative energy. It’s not supportive. You know what I mean? I hate to see that.”
Vince Young’s Advice to Shedeur Sanders, Deshaun Watson: Make Sure You Have Someone You Can Talk To
Young relates it to his own career and brings up the amount of pressure that a young star quarterback has to deal with. Sanders is currently involved in a battle with veteran Deshaun Watson — who has also dealt with his share of criticism due to off-the-field controversy — for the starting quarterback job. Watson is attempting to return as the Browns’ starting quarterback after not playing for nearly two years due to an Achilles tear.
“When I was in that same position, I felt like that with all the stuff that happened, it’s like you gotta continue to try to change the perception of who you are every time, and you actually working your butt off, but you’re also dealing with a heavy load of the whole world talking about you,” Young said. “In that case, it’s not easy dealing with that. I can tell the guys like Shedeur Sanders and you know Deshaun Watson, just make sure y’all got somebody in your corner that you can talk to — because it is a lot. That is a lot dealing with, and you got to perform, and you got to complete that throw, and you got to be a leader. It is a lot.”
Vince Young on Why He’s Ready to Talk About Football Career in New Documentary
As mentioned earlier, Young’s new documentary will premiere on Netflix on Aug. 25. It is the first time the former star quarterback has done interviews and gone really in-depth about his highlights and struggles during his collegiate and pro careers.
The documentary also covers his friendship with his mentor, Steve McNair, the late Titans great who had started just prior to Young taking over the starting job in Tennessee. Young detailed that he’s in a good place now, which is a big reason why he wanted to do this documentary.
“It’s been a lot going on for my 43 years,” said Young. “I’m a dad now. One of those special things that happened to me in my life is being a father and not having my dad around. It’s very important to me to be in their lives. My team can tell you I shut down stuff that I if I can’t do with my family first, I’m not doing it. I understand that because I didn’t have my dad around, and I didn’t know when I went in therapy and different things that was a trigger point for me. For me to answer those questions and ask him why and him to answer it, it did give me some kind of a closure in that situation, and as well as with me and (Coach) Fisher.”
Young stresses that one of the key takeaways he wants people taking away from his own and this documentary is not just the sports aspect, but that people can also overcome their own struggles and come out on the better end of it.
The former Titans quarterback said he’s in a much better place now mentally than he was during his career or right after it. He went through therapy just before COVID happened during his post-NFL career after he played his last pro season in 2017.
“I was young, very young — I made a lot of mistakes,” said Young. “But I take accountability of mines, and I also wanted people to know what I did do when I was on on that team for the Titans. When I wasn’t on, when I was on the bench, I was focused, and when my time came, I showed it. I started off rough in the passing game, and as my career got better, I was elite in completion ratings Just getting better as a quarterback, but I also had a lot of stuff going on and off the field that was kind of was a distraction for me. Losing Steve (McNair), just a lot of things that needed to be answered that everybody else was saying, but they wasn’t telling it the right way.
“I feel like with the Netflix piece, and with John, the producer, it was for me to get my story out and get what people don’t understand about me and what happened,” Young continued. “Now you get to hear from my own mouth, and that’s the best thing ever when you get it from the person who’s going through it. I’m just really happy that I can give my story out to these next people out there and young men and young ladies, even adults out there that’s probably going through some things in life to help them understand with all the stuff that I went through, if I can come out of it better and stronger, you can too.”
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