It’s fitting, we suppose, that on the tenth anniversary of the first time Kordell Stewart officially lost his starting job in Pittsburgh, a parallel is being drawn between Stewart’s career arc and the still-to-be-determined football fate of Vince Young.
The key? Handling adversity.
For the full argument and comparison, click here.
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Spell check… Use it.
nice title… CONJURIES… perfect
“Conjures”
Fact is, for all the VY pumping going on right now — he hasn’t begun to reach Kordell’s heights. Pro Bowl, conference championship game — once, Kordell was thought of as a top QB.
For about ten minutes.
Once defenses are coached to take different angles when Young runs – like they were for Stewart – Young will be forced to be an NFL caliber passer again – just like Stewart was – and he will have the same problems as before.
When Stewart first started playing QB when he ran out of the pocket he looked like he was twice as fast as every other player on the field.
Once defenses were coached to take safer angles on him he looked like he was back to average speed.
So Mike… was Vince Young caught in the park performing oral on someone or something?
Kordell Stewart is one of my all time favorite Steelers. Living in Pittsburgh, I get laughed at when saying that, but If you look at the numbers:
In 1996: Set an NFL Record for longest run by QB 80yards for a TD.
1997: In his first season as a starting quarterback in the NFL, he led the Steelers to an 11–5 record and the AFC Championship Game.
1998: Helped WR Yancy Thigpen go to the Pro Bowl.
2000: Team started 1-3 with QB Kent Graham, Graham got injured and Stewart lead the steelers to 9-7 record and almost a playoff berth.
2001: Stewart led the Steelers to a 13–3 regular-season record and the top seed in the AFC Playoffs, Made the Pro Bowl and voted Steelers MVP with 81.7 passer rating, Over 3000 yards passing, 14 passing TD’s, 5 Rushing TD’s.
Before Stewart was the Full-time starter at QB, the Steelers used Stewart for a total of 15 or so gimic plays a game. Those plays alone took up over half of the practice schedule for the other team as they tried to prepare for him.
Do not get me wrong, Kordell Stewart was not a HOF-type player, but he was one of a kind. Before you say Mike Vick, VY, Tebow are like Stewart. Think of ALL the positions he played at the NFL level.
QB
RB
WR (some think, if he would have stayed at WR, he could have been a great one)
P (remember some of those booming punts out of the shotgun formation?)
Hey Florio, why are you are crediting Sportingnews.com for this lame comparison when YOU are the one who wrote the artice….the title should be, “Florio: Vince Young’s career path ‘conjuries’memories of Kordell”.
Kordell was an enigma. I watched him closely from above and behinds one day at practice when the Steelers were at Three Rivers and the Allegheny Club had window views onto the field during lunch hours. (Imagine that being the case now!) I was chagrined about how inaccurate he was. Reminded me of a young pitcher who threw hard but couldn’t find the strike zone. Especially the out patterns. I think that was his downfall. The plays we remember are his Hail Mary at Colorado and the 80 year run at the Georgia Dome. Not the precision pick apart the defense manner of more successful QBs. Probably should have stayed as “Flash”….running, receiving and only occasionally throwing.
Kordell never “led” the steelers to anything he was by no means their leader and didn’t lead the offense to very many yards. Young played better than kordell ever did just in his performance this past sunday. QB’s throw the ball to get the big yards, unless you’re planning to have a low powered offense like Pitt always had.
Wow what a racist article i guess every black QB that runs is Kordell Steward what a joke article…i guess there are not white QB’s who got benched and then redeemed themselves….Drew Brees, Trent Dilfer, etc. Are you going to compare Alex Smith to Kordell too?
I think this article should have been posted last year. It would have more intrigue, and it would have significance then.
See, Vince Young came up and had some success. Then, he started to stumble, remember? And people started booing him. And he couldn’t take it anymore and he had some weird episodes. That’s about as Kordell as you can get.
So he didn’t handle adversity well. He had the breakdown. He lost the starting job.
But here’s where he departed Kordell Stewart. He worked hard. He sat on the bench. And he bided his time.
The Titans lost a lot of games and the owner took it upon himself to try to get VY back on the field. And he handled it beautifully so far. Right now, he’s beyond the Kordell Stewart comparison because he went through it.
Oh, and another thing: Kordell Stewart was a “Slash” player. No other mobile QB will EVER want to be a “Slash” player again. They want to be quarterbacks. Vince Young is working to be a good quarterback and will not be sucked into that Kordell Stewart mess.
@reginaldlewis
I was thinking the same thing and I’m not a minority. How long before the “How long have you been a black quarterback” question?
VY has something that Vick and Stewart didn’t have, touch on the ball. Vick had a the ability to throw a 25 yard frozen rope, but could not put the ball in between an underneath LB and over the top Safety.
Let’s see how VY does before passing judgement…
Another thing Kordell and Vince Young have in common is they both predicted they’d be in the Hall of Fame one day.
First of all, I’m not clicking the link to read the story which is probably a huge leap from reality.
Anyway, Kordell never won anything and only held his team back. Have fun Titans.
darius_hayware_butterfingers, you have no earthly idea what you’re talking about. Why don’t you pipe down.
@Tomthebombtracy …
It was “Slash” not “Flash” because he was a QB slash WR slash RB slash Punter.
He was unique and I fail to see the comparison, Mike. A lot of QBs have had their ups and downs, and Young may crash and burn yet. But I agree with jzimmpa, Kordell made quite an impact during his heyday with the Steelers. And as Slash, he played a major role in getting them to SBXXX. Young has yet to accomplish anything close to that.
I don’t see too much in common other than their color and uniform number.
I never saw Florio as “that type” of writer, so I gave it a shot, and I still see it as sort of a reach. I don’t see them having much in common since Vince Young has shown flashes of greatness from college, was an extremely big star upon entry and was a top five pick.
Kordell never had expectations, until he was made a starter where his expectations were just to be good enough to lead the team, with no one expecting him to be the next Terry Bradshaw.
VY is the highly touted rookie big star QB, who looked good at first, stumbled badly, and when it seemed his career was over, he’s been given a second chance and is doing well so far. Maybe Tommy Maddux is a closer comparison!
This is an outstanding comparison VY to CryDell. They are both great athletes who are not good quarterbacks. Both had the benefit of great offensive lines, great runningbacks and most importantly, gret offensive lines. As the VY defenders say “he just wins, he doesn’t always have great stats.” The media gave him Colstons ROY award because the Titans won. They one despite VY not because of him. Much like the Steelers of the 1990s.
This is an outstanding comparison VY to CryDell. They are both great athletes who are not good quarterbacks. Both had the benefit of great offensive lines, great runningbacks and most importantly, great defenses. As the VY defenders say “he just wins, he doesn’t always have great stats.” The media gave him Colstons ROY award because the Titans won. They one despite VY not because of him. Much like the Steelers of the 1990s.
runtheball,
Did you actually watch any of the games Vince Young played in this year? If you did, can you give us some examples of Vince Young’s ineptitude at the QB position displayed since he returned to be the starter, please? I would love to be educated on this, because I didn’t see him playing like a bad quarterback this year. But show us how we’re wrong.
Thanks!
Titans fans better hope that Young isn’t the next Stewart. I don’t see how Stewart looks any better in retrospect some of the Steelers worst seasons of the last 20 years were with him at the helm.
The steelers went to two AFC championships with Stewart as awful as he was. If not for 3 ints in each game they may have won them. Vince Young doesn’t read defenses. He drops back and either forces the ball to a predetermined receiver whether he is open or not, or takes of running. It is the same thing he did at UT. It worked well for him his senior year. It will not work in the nfl. Teams are scared to death of Chris Johnson. They will let VY dink and dunk all day long. You don’t need to draft a guy 3rd overall and pay him all that money to throw 7 and 8 yard passes at a 61% completion percentage. Its like in his rookie year when they would win games because the defense would return an int for a td and pac man would return a punt for a td. VY received a lot of credit and stole a ROY, but he had little to do with them winning. Even his own family probably does not believe that he earned the ROY over Colston and Jones-Drew.
Most people will blame his receivers, like they did with Vick. Go look at Roddy White’s career, he was considered a first round bust, but a funny thing happened when Vick left Atlanta, he became a Pro Bowl receiver. Maybe he narced Vick out.