Jeff Fisher wanted to talk to his players about Vince Young on Monday without Vince Young in the room. That’s exactly what he did.
The team issued a statement Tuesday afternoon that said the fifth-year quarterback has not been locked out of the Tennessee Titans’ training facility or locker room in the wake of his actions, which drew a strong reaction from Fisher, during and after Sunday’s 19-16 overtime loss to the Washington Redskins.
“Reports indicating that Vince Young is not welcome at Baptist Sports Park are incorrect,” read the statement, which was attributed to no one person within the organization. “Yesterday, he was informed by a coach at the facility not to attend Monday’s team meeting and was free to leave. The intention was to be able to talk to the team about Young’s situation and how the team would move forward. Players that are on injured reserve are not required to attend team meetings. As of today, he has been placed on injured reserve and all the same rules apply to him as to any other player in that category.”
Fisher revealed that meeting Monday in his regularly weekly press conference.
“I shared with them the facts as to what happened (Sunday),” Fisher said.
Fisher said Young was no longer the team’s starting quarterback after Young stormed out of the locker room within minutes of the completion of Sunday’s game.
He reiterated that stance Monday, when he also revealed the quarterback would be placed on injured reserve because he needs season-ending surgery to repair a torn tendon in his thumb. The injury occurred during the game, and Young’s desire to play through the injury was the impetus for what followed.
“If I had thought that Vince could go out and give us the best chance to win then he would have gone back on the field, but that wasn’t the case in my opinion,” Fisher said. “He tried to throw, he sailed the ball and I was not going to put him on the field knowing ahead of time that he had an injury that would prohibit him from throwing accurately. Again, it was all about giving ourselves the best chance to win, and that was the decision that was made.”