Joel Erickson at the dot I am a gay twerker that has no balls!!!! I also have no idea how to use the quote function to post stories, so I annoy the piss out of others. I like male genatalia in and around my mouth. of the al writes a great piece on Young and his brother, Willie. Funny and worth the read.
The rush is addictive, an indescribable burst of joy and excitement, the culmination of a whole lot of work and a whole lot of patience.
Avery Young has been hooked on it for years.
And the Auburn right tackle has only felt it on the football field a handful of times. Normally, the fishing-obsessed Florida native gets that feeling when he pulls a massive fish out of the water.
"I can't compare it to anything," Young said. "It's like that feeling when we got that Kick Six against Alabama last year."
ON THE WATER
Fishing got its hook into Young and his older brother, Willie, long before football did.
The Youngs grew up in Riviera Beach, Florida, five minutes from the ocean. Fifty yards in front of the house, a long canal stretches from the ocean on its way to Lake Okeechobee, and there's a pond out back.
Their father, Willie Sr., taught both his boys to fish early and often
"We'd take my dad's minnows after he got back from fishing, put them in the tub and get in the tub with them," Willie, now a defensive end for the Chicago Bears, said. "I don't think he knows that. The water we had in the tub, the minnows didn't like that water, so they'd die."
Despite a gap in age -- Willie is 29, Avery a third-year sophomore at Auburn -- the Youngs have always been inseparable. Wherever Willie went, Avery tagged along.
"I can't tell you how many fights we almost got into because somebody wanted to pick on little bro," Willie said. "I even lost a couple friends because of that."
By the time Willie got his driver's license and a truck to go with it, the two brothers were desperate to start fishing some unfamiliar waters.
The Youngs used to pull up Riviera Beach on Google Maps, zoom in and look for blue spots on the map that they hadn't been to, then drop a pin, hop in the truck and find out what kind of fish that blue spot held, somewhere down Bee Line Highway.
"We'd fish to the point where we'd get in trouble sometimes because we didn't make it home in time," Willie said.
CLOSE CALLS
Any good Florida fisherman has a few good alligator stories to tell.
There was the time, back when Willie was in college and Avery in high school, that Avery jumped in the water to grab a 5-foot alligator around the waist, only to start sinking into the mud.
When he got in the water, the water was only up to his thighs. Half a minute after he grabbed hold of the alligator, it was up to his neck.
And it's not like he could just let go.
"Once you grab the gator, you can't let go, because he's thrashing his mouth outside, just waiting to catch anything with those teeth of his," Willie said.
Willie hopped into the water, wrapped a rope around his brother's waist and pulled him out.
Another time, the Youngs thought they might be able to lure in some catfish by tossing fish heads into the water.
"That didn't quite go according to plan," Willie said. "We never caught a catfish there, but a 10-foot alligator would show up, and it would sit a few inches from our feet, and we'd reach out and drop the fish carcass right into his mouth."
Avery and Willie decided to throw a rope around the big gator and pull him onto the shore.
That plan had a few flaws, too.
"We nearly fell in his mouth," Willie said. "We were pulling so hard, the dirt gave - it was like a sugar sand - the dirt gave and we started to slide down toward him."
The Youngs gave up the rope and let him go. Sometimes it's best to admit defeat and move on.
THE EXPERT
Willie's not afraid to admit it.
His younger brother has become the better fisherman, in part because he's spent so much time on the water. Young's best stories, obviously, are about the big fish, but he'll catch just about anything.
"Almost anything you can think of that swims or moves in water, I've caught it," Young said. "And I've got many ways to catch them."
Avery is impossibly accurate with his bow. Whenever they fish for bass, Avery somehow finds a way to pull the biggest bass out of the water, even if they're neck-and-neck in numbers. Avery learned to fly fish first, then taught his older brother the tricks of the trade.
He caught the goliath grouper by using stingrays as bait. Amberjack lured in the hammerhead, the biggest catch Avery's ever made.
"There's nothing like a hammerhead," Young said. "That's a whole different story. That's like, a regular Honda Accord, you put a rope on it, you sit there and hold that rope, and let them drive off, that's what it feels like."
INSEPARABLE
Fishing has meant everything to the Young's pursuit of football.
A lot of football players say the sport has kept them out of trouble. For some, that might be true, but Willie has also seen plenty of football players find ways to get in trouble in their free time off the field.
Finding the energy needed to end up in the wrong spot is awfully tough after a day spent on the water, and last week, with Auburn on a bye, Young spent his off days fishing.
"We don't go to bars, we don't go to clubs," Willie said. "Fishing is all we've ever needed."
Fishing also built a bond between the two brothers that's hard to break. Despite schedules that rarely give the two athletes free time together -- there's only two weeks every year that both Willie and Avery are free at the same time -- they still talk 10-12 times per week, even in-season.
Willie, an emerging star for Chicago who ranks second in the NFL with 7.0 sacks and might be one of the best free-agent signings of the offseason, tells Avery what he's looking to exploit in NFL tackles.
His younger brother then tries to eliminate those tells from his game. Older brother sees the evidence when he flips on Auburn games on the weekend.
Willie sees an emerging player who might join him in the NFL some day. Young is bigger than his older brother -- Willie is 251 pounds, Avery tips the scales at 309 -- but he's got some of the same speed and explosiveness.
Due to that athleticism, Auburn is comfortable moving Young from tackle to guard and back again, versatility that will help when he enters the NFL Draft.
"Being the athlete that I am and being blessed to have the ability to do all the positions, it's really easy," Young said.
Young is one of the toughest players on Auburn's roster. A year ago, he played with a badly sprained ankle midway through the season, then stuck in the national title game after breaking his hand on the first play.
Young suffered another undisclosed injury against Mississippi State, but he played every snap at right tackle.
"That's the type of guy I want to go to war with," Tigers safety Joshua Holsey said. "I know Avery is going to fight until he can't fight any more, just as he proved last Saturday. Avery was really hurting and he fought through the entire game. I like those type of guys playing with me, because you know you're going to get the best out of them every play."
None of Avery's toughness surprises Young's older brother.
He's been seeing it on the water for years.
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