That Time A NFL QB Booked An Entire Southwest Flight To Fly Alone
This is not a new story, it is more than a decade old to be honest, but I had never heard it before. I assume many people reading this have never heard it either. Yesterday I found myself going down a rabbit hole of Googling after reading an article on The Athletic (well worth a subscription). It took me way down the path of … whatever happened to Vince Young? I knew he dealt with some mental health issues when in the NFL and struggled with the pressure of being a professional athlete. Even knowing that much I was curious to see if there was more to the story, what he was up to now so to speak. Vince Young was probably the best college player I have ever seen and played in what many believe is the greatest college bowl game of all time (USC vs Texas national championship game).
While I was going down this Google rabbit hole, I know we have all been there before, I read some interesting stories. One such story was the time that Vince Young bought 120 seats on a Southwest flight so that he could fly alone (well, kind of). You heard that right, he didn’t charter the plane, he just purchased the remaining seats on the flight.
There are many questions I have with this. Why Southwest? Why not book out a first class cabin on Delta or United etc.? Why book a plane with only standard seats? Why not just charter a small private plane instead?
The really funny thing is that 10 tickets had already been sold before he bought the rest of the flight. So he wasn’t even truly alone! And, with Southwest’s boarding seating setup, which some hate, he couldn’t even guarantee that he would have a ton of space around him. I mean if someone sees Vince Young on a flight they are going to want to sit near him. It isn’t like he could block a ton of assigned seats like he could have on literally ANY OTHER AIRLINE.
This is the epitome of strange, and over the top. Such a bizarre choice and probably the worst possible airline to do it on. Some other crazy stories about him were that he would spend around $5,000 a day at the Cheesecake Factory. I know the menu is huge and all but that is a lot of food! Even though he was the #3 overall pick, and made more than $25M in the NFL, he finished his career with nothing left. I guess he always has that story of flying on a Southwest flight with only 10 other people though…
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Hard to take this kind of writing serious when the phrasing ‘mental issues’ is in an article. There’s enough stigma around mental health to begin with, please consider using more appropriate terms to convey the same message.
Apologies not sure how I missed that when editing. It should have said mental health issues and has been updated. Thanks for pointing it out.
Vince Young owned a Steak house restaurant in both Texas and Tennessee and I remember one night after a Titans game, Vince Young was bartending at his own restaurant, 2 hours removed from playing in a NFL Game!!!!
That is pretty crazy lol. We just talked about athletes owning restaurants on our MtM Vegas YouTube show and how it is always a steakhouse.