Vince Young fired by Texas

AUSTIN, Texas – Former Texas quarterback Vince Young, whose last-minute touchdown against Southern California in the 2006 Rose Bowl presented the Longhorns' only undisputed national championship in the last 50 years, has been fired by the school from his part-time job as a development officer for poor performance and often being absent from work or not in touch with his supervisors.

The move comes after job warnings dating to 2017 and a second drunken driving arrest within three years on Feb. 4. After initially accepting responsibility for the driving incident, Young said he will fight the charge.

Young was reported March 1 he'd been fired from the $ 50,000 job "for not demonstrating significant and sustained improvement in the performance of your job responsibilities and failing to maintain standards of conduct and acceptable to the university," the letter said.

The Associated Press obtained a copy of the letter Young's personal file through an open records request. Young declined to comment Saturday. A Texas spokesman said the school would not have a personal matter.

Firing Young is a prominent step by Texas, coaches and coaches close to the school as ambassadors, athletic department advisers and fundraisers long after their careers on the field.

None has been bigger than Young, and none has been delivered to him or her more than a few years ago: His scrambling touchdown on 4th-and-5 against the Trojans won a game of the greatest in college football history.

After turning pro and signing a $ 25 million NFL contract, Young was out of the league by 2014 and filed for bankruptcy. Texas gives him a full-time job, $ 100,000 job as a development officer in the school's Division of Diversity and Community Engagement. The job later became part-time.

Young's personal file includes several good annual performance reviews. In March 2018, his supervisor wrote Young was "incredible in front of a crowd" and said, "We are so glad you are part of the NLP team."

But Young had already been in the process of working on a plan of action in July 2017 in which he agreed to show up for work during normal business hours and a better job of accounting for his time out of the office. He asked his office hours be part-time "because I work better in the streets."

In September 2017, Young was given a strongly-worded "Unacceptable Performance and Conduct" reprinted and put on record he could be terminated. He was cited for being a member of the board of directors, and he said: The timesheets were eventually submitted by an acquaintance not affiliated with the university.

Eleven days after his arrest, Young was notified on Feb. 15 his firing was imminent unless he could demonstrate a reason not to.

Patrick Patterson, Assistant Vice President for the Longhorn Center for School Partnerships in the Division of Diversity and Community Commitment, Young did not tell his supervisors .

When the men spoke the next day, Young said he was going to resign immediately but did not. He then requested medical leave but did not qualify because he had not worked until the previous year.

"Young would be fired, Patterson wrote. It would be helpful if it were to provide medical care. According to his termination letter, Young never wasted that paperwork and he was fired.

In a response to Patterson, Young said he wanted to stay on, arguing that he should be a good ambassador for the outreach program. He also said he's trying to stay sober since his first drunken driving arrest in 2016.

"I have shown good faith towards my actions and gone beyond to maintain a level of sobriety," Young wrote. "Unfortunately, with a straight and narrow path, incidents occur out of one's control."