Titus Young: A criminal waste of talent

In May 2011, the future looked bright for Titus Young. Why? Because he had just been drafted by the Detroit Lions in the 2nd round of the NFL draft. He was one of the best young receivers in the National Football League, he was going to learn from the best wide receiver in the league in Calvin Johnson, and he would have a former #1 overall pick throwing to him in Matt Stafford.

A lot of people didn’t expect that Young would be drafted as high as the second round. He was what is referred to in the business as a “character guy”. Teams were particularly concerned about Young’s lack of maturity, and what kind of advert he would be for their organisation. He was frequently in trouble during his time at Boise State, including being suspended for most of his sophomore year after fighting with a team-mate. A lot of NFL teams ignored Young on draft day because of this.

Despite his knack for getting into trouble, Young was an impressive person to be around in person. Joe Fortenbaugh of the National Football Post recently wrote about the impression Young left on him when they met at the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Alabama, before the 2011 draft: “Confident, entertaining, charming and, most of all, polite. Young was one of the best interviews we ever had in Mobile.” The Lions were obviously as convinced as Fortenbaugh, and decided to take a chance on a kid who showed such bright enthusiasm and such obvious athletic ability.

It all started so well in Detroit for the former Boise State receiver. Young spent his rookie year as the #3 receiver on the Lions roster, coming in on substitution packages and seeing plenty of the field. He finished the year with 48 receptions for 607 yards and 6 touchdowns. Not bad stats for a rookie wide receiver who has to share the field with Calvin Johnson.

However, the promise that 2011 held was short-lived, and once Young’s rookie year was over his dazzling smile and seemingly-limitless charm disappeared. This is when the meltdown started. During an off-season practice session in May 2012, Young fought with a team-mate for the second time in his football career, this time punching safety Louis Delmas. The Lions responded by sending Young home for the day, and put the whole incident behind them. But this was far from the end of the trouble Young would cause.

Just a few months later, Young would be sent home again. During a week 11 loss to Green Bay, the temperamental receiver deliberately and continually lined up in the wrong position on the field. In Football, fighting a team-mate can be tolerated. It’s a violent game after all. Jeopardising the team, however, will never be tolerated. Young’s selfish act went against everything football is supposed to be about as a team game, and he was punished for it. The receiver was pulled from the game, and told to stay away from the Lions facility. Not long after, Detroit placed Young on the injured reserve list as a makeshift way of suspending him, effectively ending his season.

Instead of learning his lesson from that experience and handling it like the professional he was supposed to be, Young decided that airing his grievances publicly was a better idea. The receiver took to his Twitter account to tell the world just how he was feeling, writing things like “Oh I’m not done, if y’all going to cut me let me go. I’m tired of the threats.”, “Never needed the money Give me a dollar and a ball bet I come back #HallofFame” and “I never been selfish but if I’m not going to get the football I don’t want to play anymore.” The charm and manners that Fortenbaugh had seen 18 months ago were nowhere in sight now.

This child-like tantrum got a response from Lions head coach Jim Schwartz, who observed that “every offensive player wants the football, and there’s good ways to go about trying to get that done. This is a pretty good example of a not so good idea.” It became inevitable that Young would be released after this debacle, and the Lions officially cut the receiver on February 4th this year.

Lions Head Coach Jim Schwartz was far from impressed by Titus Young’s antics, and the troubled receiver was officially released in February 2013

But the NFL is a second-chance league, and Young only had to wait a day for his. The St Louis Rams picked him up off waivers on February 5th, deciding, as the Lions had done two years before, that Young was worth the risk. However, the second chance was short lived, as the Rams cut Young just 10 days later, stating that they wanted to go in a different direction. He didn’t even make it to training camp. One can only imagine how much of a locker room cancer Young must have been in those ten days to warrant such severe and hasty action.

So Titus Young found himself on the street, trying to catch the attention of any team that would be willing to look in his direction. A week ago he achieved that; he managed to catch the attention not just of the entire league but of every NFL fan in the world. Just not in the way that he would have wanted…

Early last Sunday morning, Young was arrested not once, but twice, in the space of only 15 hours. The Moreno Valley Police Department informed the media that Young was stopped at 12:01am after police observed him driving into oncoming traffic and making an illegal left turn. He was arrested on suspicion of DUI and his car was towed.

Hours after his release from the detention centre on Sunday afternoon, Young found himself in handcuffs once again. This time, he had been caught jumping over the fence of a tow company yard as he was apparently looking to take back his car that had been towed earlier. He was charged with Burglary for the incident and released on bail.

The story, however, still isn’t over. Young was arrested for the third time in a week in the early hours of Saturday morning. The police received a call from a male home owner shortly before midnight on Friday after an intruder had opened his bedroom door and then left. When police arrived, Young was outside the house and after a short chase, he was caught and arrested by deputies. Apparently, there were some punches and kicks thrown during the arrest. Young was booked on suspicion of burglary, assaulting a police officer and resisting arrest. He will be arraigned on Monday.

Young: Three arrests, three mugshots. All in less than a week.

Young is a troubled young man in need of serious professional help. It is clear that he has damaging mental and emotional issues that need to be addressed. However, it is equally obvious that Young refuses to accept that conclusion. During his time in Detroit the Lions offered on numerous occasions to help Young get the psychological treatment he needs, but he rejected those offers every single time.

If Young’s behaviour before he was put in handcuffs didn’t kill his NFL career, it is certainly dead now. No NFL team wants a criminal on their roster, especially not one who is so clearly in a self-destructive pattern. The future that Young saw when NFL Commissioner called his name on stage at the 2011 Draft will now never exist. He’s more likely to be jumping in and out of prison than offensive huddles, and sharing showers with inmates instead of team-mates.

It is a very sad story, and a real waste of what could have been a successful and rewarding life for Titus Young. Perhaps with a little guidance, the young man, who is not yet 24 years old, can turn his life around and get back to the NFL the way Adam “Pacman” Jones, Plaxico Burress and Michael Vick have done in recent years. For that to happen, though, Young needs to accept the help being offered to him. And he needs to do it sooner rather than later.