After thorny past, Young's path rosy; Overcoming tough times, Texas QB became a star.(Sports)

Byline: JIM VERTUNO Associated Press

AUSTIN, Texas - Seventh-grader Vince Young toiled away in his yard, raking leaves and piling them in bags. After each time he finished the chore, his mother would dump them out and tell him to do it again.

It was his punishment for participating in a gang fight, and it was torture.

Felicia Young wanted him to hate it. Having struggled with drugs and alcohol for years and with Vince's father's in jail most of her son's life, she was trying to scare the kid straight.

``She told me I'd end up dead or in jail,'' Young said, recalling his childhood in Houston, ``walking with the wrong crowd and getting …