Vince Young Files For Bankruptcy

After years of financial struggles, former University of Texas great Vince Young recently filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Houston. He was drafted No. 3 overall by the Tennessee Titans in 2006, having last made an NFL roster back in 2011.

The Houston Chronicle obtained a copy of the petition filed last week, which listed Young’s current assets between $500,001 and $1 million. His debts and liabilities, on the other hand, are said to be between $1,001,000 and $10 million. Quite a range there.

Though more specific details regarding Young’s financial situation have not yet been filed with the court, a 2013 financial statement valued his assets at $1.9 million and liabilities at $2.5 million. There’s a chance his predicament may have worsened since then.

Since 2011 Young has been bogged down in two lawsuits, both stemming from a ridiculous $1.8 million loan he obtained during the NFL lockout. Considering he made $34 million in his career to that point, it’s unfathomable that he needed a loan of that amount to get him through four months.

Perhaps Young may have been able to pay the principal of the loan over a period of time, a bit of a stretch even under the most reasonable of terms. But the loan’s terms were anything but reasonable with an inexplicable 20 percent interest rate attached.

At this point it’s unclear what role the lawsuits played in Young’s decision to file for bankruptcy. They are assumed to have been a contributing factor, but it’ll be awhile before it’s known how this will impact the ongoing litigation in each case.

Young’s financial problems have been well known since the fall of 2012, when the details of his excessive spending were first reported by a number of media outlets. Although the sources were less than official, the claims seem particularly believable now.

Some of Young’s particularly ridiculous expenditures include:

• During his rookie season he reportedly spent as much as $5,000 a week at the Cheesecake Factory, often picking up the tab for his teammates. A week!
• Young also enjoyed another casual dining restaurant, TGI Friday’s. Apparently it was his favorite restaurant and he once dropped $6,000 on a single meal.
• Wanting to be alone on a Southwest flight from Nashville to Houston—a two hour flight—Young purchased 120 of 130 seats on the aircraft.
• After games Young liked to hang at Morton’s in downtown Nashville, where he would chill at the bar and order $600 shots of Louis XIII.
• He and former teammate LenDale White once ordered 75 shots of Patron tequila at Dave and Busters’s. They spent 30 minutes there and spent over $1,500.

Wow. Just wow.

Unfortunately for Young, whose football career seems to be over, this doesn’t seem headed for a happy ending. There are going to be plenty of people that happily declare “he brought it on himself,” but it’s still a sad story to those of us with a soul.

Hopefully Young is able to settle this soon and start making a new life for himself outside football.