The rise and fall of Vince Young

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From those first ragged schoolyards of south Houston to the tidy fields where high school teams battle for local bragging rights to the brightly colored and traditional grounds where college stars try to make their name, Vince Young showed nothing if not limitless promise. Give him the ball, let him do his thing.

But six years after Young stood gloriously on center stage in a packed Rose Bowl, having taken his team 56 yards in under two minutes to win the national championship of college football, one of the University of Texas' greatest stars has no team and apparently not much of the $45-plus million that came his way after he signed a professional contract.

The last drive that sealed his status as a Houston legend remains the defining moment of his career. This summer, he failed to earn a job with his third NFL team, the Buffalo Bills, and now he finds himself locked in nasty lawsuits involving his uncle - the man who helped raise him - his former agent and the men who oversaw his finances and secured a loan with a company that provided money to NFL players during the 2011 labor lockout from March to July.

And so Young waits - for a call to the field and for a courtroom showdown with the very people he says he trusted.

"I admit it's my fault for trusting these guys and not paying attention to what they were doing," Young said in an interview Friday with the Houston Chronicle. "(I was) trusting people that I felt had the best interest for me, and they didn't. I don't understand that. It breaks my heart."

Specifically, Young is suing his former agent, Major Adams, and former business manager, Ron T. Peoples, as well as Pro Player Funding LLC, which loaned him $1.9 million that Young claims he neither knew about nor received. He alleges that Adams and Peoples used him as nothing more than a cash cow and took money to which they were not entitled.

And despite media reports, Young denies that he is broke.

Vince Young, who has failed to earn a job in the NFL this season, is locked in a lawsuit over where the millions he earned have gone. Vince Young, who has failed to earn a job in the NFL this season, is locked in a lawsuit over where the millions he earned have gone. Photo: Mark Humphrey Photo: Mark Humphrey Image 1 of / 57 Caption Close The rise and fall of Vince Young 1 / 57 Back to Gallery

"If I was, I wouldn't be out here playing golf," said Young, who played a round Friday at The Woodlands Resort.

What he freely acknowledges is that he failed to heed the advice of the NFL to have all business and financial associates thoroughly vetted, as well as his own instincts to look deeper when there were indications that something might not be right.

"I did get a couple of warning signs, but I trusted these guys," Young said in the interview. "I was playing football, and when you're a young guy coming into the league, of course you're focused on playing football, learning the offense, fitting in with teammates."

Who's to blame?

Attorneys for Peoples and Adams deny any impropriety and claim they were doing as instructed, if not by Young then by his uncle, Keith Young, the man who was with Vince nearly every step of the way through his career.

Vince Young did not go into detail about his uncle, but he admitted their relationship is strained.

"My Uncle Keith is family, and you have to remember that," Young said. "So I'll have to forgive and forget. But I know I can't do business with him again."

Keith Young could not be reached for comment.

Over the course of Vince Young's professional football career, which began with the Tennessee Titans in the summer of 2006, Young has made more than $45 million, including endorsements. How much is left, where it went, who benefitted the most and in what way all may be explored in the bare-knuckles legal brawl that has barely begun.

He was supposed to be "In-Vince-able." That's what the headlines said. And the T-shirts. And the ever-chattering football pundits. The steady downward trajectory of one of the most well-known sports figures in state history finally hit the ground where it often does - in a courtroom - with an encyclopedia of accusations of waste, indulgence and exploitation.

"He has done great things to help in Houston and in Nashville and Austin," his mother, Felicia Young, told the Chronicle. "But these people just ... took and took. People who have been our friends, and were supposed to be his friends since he was in junior high school and before, took advantage of him. They fattened their pockets and lived off the resources that his talent brought."

Some will say they saw Young's fall coming or that he brought it on himself. Some will say disaster was inevitable from the moment he tapped his uncle as his main adviser and Adams, a defense lawyer with no experience, as a sports agent.

Wherever the blame lies, the lawyer for Adams, who was supposed to earn 3 percent of Young's football salary and 10 percent of his endorsements (more than $2 million total), says don't point the finger at his client.

"I have no doubt that Vince doesn't know where his money is," said Charles Peckham. "But Major Adams didn't have signatory authority on any Vince Young account. He didn't spend any of Vince's money. Major Adams didn't blow Vince Young's money in restaurants. He didn't blow it by having a posse. He didn't blow it buying big houses. That was Vince Young's doing."

One of those houses belonged to Keith Young, an $800,000 home in Missouri City that was foreclosed on in January. Keith Young and Adams have been friends since childhood, and Adams became a regular presence during Vince Young's UT days.

Seeking a new job

Young has a new agent, Tom Condon, who has a stable of sports stars on his résumé. He is hoping that at least one of the 32 NFL teams will be willing to take a chance, especially as the season wears on and injuries take a toll.

When asked if he would play in the NFL again, Young said, "Oh yeah. You watch the NFL; what do you think?"

Young has a professional track record of success, at times showing flashes of his innate ability with last-minute game-winning drives. Young has a 31-19 record as a starter with 13 game-winning drives and seven fourth-quarter comebacks to his credit. The two-time Pro Bowler has accomplished more than a number of current NFL backup quarterbacks.

As the job search continues, however, so do the relentless headlines about money squandered on food and drink and nonstop parties. His résumé includes a video that went viral showing him punching a Dallas strip-club employee. It didn't help when office workers for the Bills supposedly started getting debt collection calls from Pro Player, a lender that caters to professional athletes. Young says the creditor also tried to serve him papers near the Bills' practice field, which Young's lawyer claims tainted the team's interest in him.

But such is Young's world these days, when he spends more time talking to lawyers than coaches. That he was taken advantage of on some level hardly seems a matter of much dispute. It's pretty hard to burn through the millions alone, when your interests don't run far past some fancy cars, nights spent clubbing and over-the-top bottles of cognac, even granting the purchase of a few expensive houses.

A costly loan

Despite Adams' insistence that decisions about the money were all Young's and that he alone had control of it, there's no doubt that the Vince Young Gravy Train brought good fortune to numerous people.

In 2006, Young was drafted in the first round by Tennessee and signed a six-year contract for $58 million - $25.9 million of which was guaranteed income. In 2011, the final year of the contract, he was scheduled to make $12.75 million.

Instead, he was released and later signed with the Philadelphia Eagles for $4 million for one season, not bad for a backup.

Well before that, however, Young began to plan for a future that everyone figured would be lucrative. Court records show he signed a management agreement on Jan. 18, 2006, with Peoples, whose Peoples Financial Services had ties to other NFL players. Peoples became the money manager for Young, then 23, and would receive $65,000 plus expenses each year.

But that management fee was only the tip of a financial iceberg. For example, in July 2006, just weeks before Young would sign his big contract, Peoples' company provided Young with a loan of $765,234. It was to be repaid just 22 days later, on Aug. 1, the court documents show.

A cash advance? Possibly, but if so, there was interest added to it - interest of almost $46,000, or about $2,000 a day.

According to court records, Peoples did not repay the loan he had given Young. Instead, he allowed monthly late fees to pile up. By March 2007, those fees added up to $256,267. Combined with the interest, that amounted to about 40 percent of the loan total.

Why did the third overall pick in the NFL draft need such a costly loan? Given his status and the assurance of quick repayment, most conventional lenders probably would have been willing to bridge any gap at a better rate, assuming Young was desperate for some cash.

That was the beginning of a long series of transactions, loans, payments, withdrawals, charges and expenses that now face scrutiny as Young's lawyer pursues a thorough financial accounting. The lawsuit, filed in Harris County, alleges that Adams and Peoples together mismanaged $5.5 million of Young's money. The onerous Pro Player loan is exhibit No. 1.

"Peoples and Adams ... either presented only signature pages to Young and misadvised him as to what the pages referred or defendants forged his signature on the documents," the suit alleges.

Countersuit filed

A precise calculation of how much money Young has made since turning professional would require an accountant and access to his financial records. A source with knowledge of some of Young's contracts said the quarterback made at least $10 million in endorsements.

In truth, figuring out where every dollar went may be impossible. The lawyer for Adams, the former agent, said it is Young who couldn't manage his money.

Peoples' lawyer, David Chaumette, says simply that Peoples was following orders, if not from Young, then someone acting with his permission.

"Mr. Peoples never made any act without the knowledge and approval of Mr. Vince Young, directly, or Mr. Young's approval through Mr. Keith Young or Major Adams," Chaumette said. "We know of no circumstances that Major Adams did not act without the approval of one of the Mr. Youngs. It's disappointing at the end of the day that Vince Young is seeking to continually blame other people for mistakes that he himself made or (were made) by other members of his family."

Peoples, in fact, added Keith Young as a defendant in his countersuit. Young's uncle, now teaching at Westbury High School, had not been named in the original lawsuit.

Keith Young has said nothing publicly about his nephew's current troubles.

"My uncle Keith has been with me since I was a kid," Young said. "When I got in trouble, he'd take me around Houston and show me places - good and bad - and say, 'You want to be living like this? Or you want to be living like this?' He gave me that vision, and that's important for a kid. When I got in trouble, or my grades weren't right, he was the one that would come grab me and set me straight. I didn't have a father figure in the household, so my mom would call him."

Primary responsibility

When Young became a professional, he said it seemed natural to turn to his uncle, who had stepped in after his father went to prison.

"When I got into the league, I told him I need you to be a manager for me while I'm playing football," Young said. "He was supposed to handle things."

Though some sports agents argue that it is part of their job, along with financial advisers and business managers, to warn of dangerous spending habits, none would absolve the client of primary responsibility for overseeing the money he makes. Unless they are certified to do so, agents are not allowed to offer financial advice to their clients.

Trey Dolezal, Vince Young's attorney, said he is trying to hold someone accountable who had been given the job of looking out for a man whose knowledge and discipline were limited.

He said Young is not broke and that comments to that effect were taken out of context. Young's name is still up in lights outside the Vince Young Steakhouse in Austin, for which he is paid.

Future in question

Young's coach at Madison High School, Ray Seals, said he is bothered by news of Young's financial trouble and wonders whether he should share in the blame

"Sometimes I wonder if somewhere I didn't do enough to warn him what was out there," Seals said. "If somehow I didn't do enough to get the message across. He has had to shoulder a lot and deal with things that no one could have imagined and few have had to deal with. Vince has a good heart, maybe too good, and nobody can say that he doesn't."

Whether Young will ever gain an NFL starting job or distinguish himself as he once did, the football field is at least a refuge.

"Vince is going to be a quarterback in this league again, in the NFL, and he's waiting for that to occur," Dolezal told the Chronicle. "People are talking to him. It's a matter of timing."

Former Texans general manager Charley Casserly, who passed on Young to take defensive lineman Mario Williams back in the 2006 draft, said he's not so sure.

"What concerns me is the last two stops, Philadelphia and Buffalo," Casserly said. "You had two coaching staffs that are known for developing QBs, two spots that, from the outside looking in, you know if you send a quarterback there he usually gets better, and he didn't. That's a red flag."

Young himself is confident he will be back in the league at some point. He said he is working out regularly at Westside Tennis Club and not fretting about the negative headlines or money he may never see again.

"It's different," he said of watching the season unfold without him, "but God works in mysterious ways. I have an opportunity to be with my family and to be in Houston. I haven't had a chance to be in Houston like this with my family since I left to go to college (in 2002). I'm just working out, staying focused, staying busy, staying active and productive. I'm not walking around moping all day. If you do that, then get a call, you wouldn't be ready."

If there is a nugget of hope, it may lie in the fact that Americans have an abiding love for comeback stories.

So Vince Young waits.

jerome.solomon@chron.comterri.langford@chron.commike.tolson@chron.com