'Untold: The Testimony of Vince Young' documentary could be a great fit for series' 'roller-coaster ride' mission

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The latest Netflix 'Untold' installment looks to put a spotlight on Vince Young's wild ups and downs

From this corner at least, many of the most interesting sports documentaries are the ones that fully cover highs and lows. It can be tempting to focus in more on the positives, especially in projects with a high degree of subject participation, but that can carry a risk of conversations just about how great something was that don't add much overall insight. That could be a concern if you watched only the first half of the official trailer Netflix released this week for Untold: The Testimony of Vince Young (debuting Aug. 25), which sees figures such as Matt Leinart, Mack Brown, and Young himself talk about the heights of Young's college career at Texas.

But the second half of the trailer dives into some of the struggles Young faced in the NFL and off the field, including with an interview with his former head coach and frequent adversary Jeff Fisher and with Young's own honest comments on his drinking issues and how Steve McNair's death impacted him. And that sets up what could be a fascinating documentary on one of the most remarkable figures in football over the past quarter-century. Here's the trailer:

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The trailer does a good job of showing off just why Young is so interesting. The massive level of success he found in college, especially with putting Texas over the top with a fourth-down touchdown run against the incredible USC powerhouse in the 2006 Rose Bowl (ranked by many, including ESPN's Chris Low in 2018, as the top CFB title game ever), stands out, as did the way he did that. When Young joined the Longhorns ahead of the 2002 season, they had shown some promise in Mack Brown's first four seasons (9-3, 9-5, 9-3, and 11-2, following John Mackovic's final 4-7 campaign in 1997), but hadn't won a consensus national title since 1969. Young first hit the field as a redshirt freshman in 2003, splitting reps with Chance Mock, and he went on to really take the CFB world by storm in 2004 and 2005, winning the Maxwell Award, the Davey O'Brien Award, and the Manning Award that latter year in addition to leading Texas to that title win.

Huge parts of that were about Young's versatility as both a passer and a rusher, and about the trust Brown eventually placed in him to make changes on the field, as shown in that trailer. And Young was a trailblazer there. The 2005 season saw him become the first FBS QB to throw for 3,000 yards while rushing for 1,000; 11 others have since joined that list, including Lamar Jackson (twice), Jalen Hurts, and Kyler Murray.

But Young's superlative individual talent didn't lead to smooth NFL sailing for him. And a big part of that was about the Tennessee Titans drafting him third overall, the first quarterback taken in the 2006 draft, despite seemingly-inevitable clashes with their uberconservative head coach, Fisher (who drops a "He showed weakness" in his interview in this trailer). Young still showed incredible promise in the NFL ranks at times, including in a 2006 rookie season that saw him throw for 2,199 yards and 12 touchdowns and rush for 552 yards (a record for a rookie quarterback) and seven more scores while earning the Offensive Rookie of the Year award and a Pro Bowl nod. But Fisher's highly-planned and conservative offense never seemed like a fit for Young, to say nothing of the personality clash there that saw even such moments as Fisher leaving Young on the tarmac after he was late for a team flight.

And Young would only get four years as a starter in Tennessee. Following that, he had a brief stint with the Philadelphia Eagles in 2011, offseason appearances with Buffalo, Green Bay, and Cleveland in 2012-14 respectively, and finally a CFL attempt with the Saskatchewan Roughriders in 2017 that was cut short thanks to a training-camp injury. So his pro career wound up with a lot of thoughts of what could have been, to say nothing of the issues he faced around mental health (including a four-hour disappearance in 2008 that saw police called to search for him, although Young's side of that is a lot different than Fisher's), finances (he filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2014 before eventually reaching a settlement), alcohol (he picked up DWI charges in 2016 and 2019), and the 2009 murder of McNair, who had been a mentor to him. That all could make for a remarkable documentary as long as Young's willing to be candid about it and as long as it's not just unchallenged comments from him, and this trailer shows promise on both fronts. And that fits with what Untold series co-creator and executive producer Chapman Way told me in 2023 ahead of the release of the third volume of the series of documentaries:

“I think for us it’s raw, complex, compelling stories, that’s what we’re looking for. There’s a ton of sports media, a lot of sports documentaries, a lot of, like, vanity sports documentaries. And I think audiences are smart and they sniff that stuff out right away. Our agreement with our athletes has always been ‘We will tell your whole story, but that includes everything, the highs and the lows, maybe some things you’re not so proud about.’ When the audience clicks on an Untold, we want them to know that they’re going to go on a real roller-coaster ride and they’re going to get a whole experience.”

Young's career certainly wound up being a roller-coaster ride. And Untold: The Testimony of Vince Young looks like it may well live up to that.