Vince Young's had a busy week. He started the Titans season opener against the Jaguars, played poorly, threw a couple picks, strained an MCL, got booed, supposedly threatened to retire/kill himself (not necessarily in that order), had his employer call the cops as a result, and spent the last few days refuting much of the speculation.
ESPN's Chris Mortensen spoke with Titans head coach Jeff Fisher about all this, and here's what we know (well, through Mortensen's eyes, anyhow): Young isn't guaranteed his job when he returns from the knee injury, and pretty much everything we read this week about the circumstances surrounding the Titans quarterback as he left the stadium following Sunday's game are false.
Apparently, much of the police report is wrong, thanks to Mike Mu, Young's local marketing manager. Mu called the team therapist, Sheila Peters (Young doesn't have a personal therapist), saying that Young had left his home without his cell phone, "threatening to quit and was speeding down the interstate with a gun in his car after talking about suicide." Reports had previously stated that Peters had spoken to Young, which wasn't the case.
Upon hearing this news from Peters, Fisher "did what anybody would do" and called the cops.
"So when Vince finally got home later that night, he called me and said, 'What's up?' I told him he had to come down to the facility to meet with the police. Vince said, 'I'm fine, coach.' I said, 'I know you're fine but there's a protocol now and you have to come down here and see the police face-to-face.' And he did.This is certainly better news than what was initially reported (and I'm paraphrasing): Young is freaking bonkers, was contemplating shooting himself in the face because the NFL is nothing like the University of Texas. Or some such.
They talked to him. Yes, there was a gun in the car -- you can't say that's unusual with players these days -- but it wasn't loaded and the police didn't have a problem with it. Then Sheila spoke with him and determined he was all right, too. And everybody went home."
As to Young's state of mind regarding possible suicide, Fisher said, "I don't buy it," and was irritated with Mu's involvement with Young.
This isn't to suggest that Young having a grand old time; Fisher admits that his quarterback had hit a rough patch.
Fisher acknowledged that Young had hit a "valley" with his emotions stemming from his performance, the fans' reaction and an injury the quarterback suffered during Sunday's 17-10 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars.It's good to have people around who believe in you. Let's hope Alex Smith reads this; if anybody could use a pick-me-up, it's that guy.
"Sometimes in life, you hit a wall and that's what is happening with Vince," said Fisher. "You get booed, you throw [interceptions] and you have injuries. But we're going to turn this into a positive experience. One day, when he's ready, he'll be our quarterback again."
