Quick, Vince Young, hit the ground--Steve Young just threw an errant metaphor

Sadly, Vince Young of the NFL Tennessee Titans is on a leave of absence. The former University of Texas star quarterback has not fit in well thus far with the Titan offense and NFL defenses. He has also regrettably sustained an injury. Young is experiencing emotional duress.


Steve Young (no relation), former star quarterback for the San Francisco Forty-Niners, recently commented on Vince Young's relationship with his teammates. The question put to Steve Young: Will he (Vince Young) and they (Young's Titan team mates) be able to trust each other when he returns?

Steve Young's response: "Like I said...it takes a few weeks before you can hit the ground running."

Presumably, Steve Young meant by "hit the ground running" the ability of Vince Young and his team mates to immediately trust each other. However, "hit the ground running" implies no preparation is required for taking up some endeavor immediately.* If Vince were to hit the ground running, he'd be back on the field right now in his position of starting quarterback. There would be no need to propagate mutual trust between Vince and his team mates, no need for them to learn how to trust.

As it is, trust has been damaged, and Vince Young and his team mates will require mutual work together to regenerate the trust that leads to points on the board, which we are not putting above Young's emotional equilibrium.

*hit the ground running (mainly American) to immediately work very hard and successfully at a new activity (The Free Dictionary, Farlex, online)

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