Young’s generation hurts easily

With Vince Young back safely with the Tennessee Titans after several tense hours on Monday, the National Football League will likely treat the episode like a speed bump and keep on going.

But maybe it shouldn’t. Maybe it should heed this warning and, if not slightly alter how it does things, at least take a step back and study what will likely be the first of many peculiar situations involving its youngest players.

After throwing two interceptions and injuring his knee in a 17-10 victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars last Sunday, Young had trouble dealing with the boos that cascaded down from his home crowd at LP Field.

Titans coach Jeff Fisher, director of player development Tina Tuggle and a psychologist visited Young on Monday at his home. The psychologist, according to The Tennesseean, said Young was depressed and she expressed concerns to the Titans about Young’s safety.

Young, the NFL offensive rookie of the year in 2006, later sped off from his house without his cell phone and couldn’t be found. Fisher called police to help locate Young, who was found at a friend’s house just after midnight. The police report on the matter later revealed that Fisher told police that he had mentioned suicide several times and was in possession of a gun when he fled his home.

This week the NFL did not offer any new directives to player development offices around the league. No bullet points were sent out to the people who are charged with making sure their players’ mental health needs are being taken care of.

“NFL Player Development at the league and team levels makes available counseling and support services to all players,” a league spokesman said. “We encourage participation in these programs and developing relationships with key support staff who can offer assistance.”

It’s not to say the league is at fault for the Young situation. Actually, it does a good job of being proactive when it comes to its players’ mental health.

But the ultimate tough-guy league needs to realize it is no longer dealing with likes of Ray Nitschke or Dick Butkus. The young players coming into the league now just think differently.

Their generation – born between 1980 and 1995 – is referred to as the “Millennials.” They are expected to outnumber both Baby Boomers and Gen-Xers by 2010.

“You do have to speak to them a little bit like a therapist on television might speak to a patient,” Marian Salzman, who manages and tracks Millennials, told CBS’ “60 Minutes” last year for a story on that generation. “You can’t be harsh. You cannot tell them you’re disappointed in them.”

Obviously, most of the players coming into the NFL should be somewhat hardened because they are football players. Probably most have been brought up the right way and taught to fight for everything they’ve received.

But there will be some, like Young, who aren’t used to adversity when they encounter it.

The NFL, like teachers and parents before them did, doesn’t need to all of a sudden change the way it does things and adapt to the young players. But given the Young situation, it wouldn’t hurt to learn and prepare for future episodes.