- [Host] Jeff Fisher and Vince Young
never wanted anything to do with one another.
Fisher was already a conference-winning head coach
when Young arrived in the NFL,
and VY, a college megastar at Texas,
was heralded as the evolution of quarterback play,
a literal game changer.
Maybe because both men had already achieved success and fame
before being forced together,
that's why neither seemed to give a damn
about the other's opinions or ideas or anything else.
And maybe that stubbornness meant each
was destined to burn out on their own.
Maybe it was just a terrible pairing.
Either way, their forced NFL marriage
guaranteed mutually assured destruction.
(pensive music)
Jeff Fisher became the Houston Oilers'
interim head coach in 1994.
The following yeah the franchise
drafted quarterback Steve McNair,
a year later they picked up Heisman winner Eddie George,
and in 1997 the team left Houston over a stadium dispute.
Despite playing in three cities
and four home stadiums in four seasons,
Fisher built a winner,
guiding the franchise to a 13-3 record in 1999,
their first official year as the Tennessee Titans.
The Titans made it to the Super Bowl
with a little bit of luck
before running just a yard short against the Rams.
Even with the loss,
the new Titans had exploded onto the NFL,
and Fisher was the architect.
But the McNair-George Titans
never made it back to the Super Bowl.
The Titans only won two playoff games
in the next four seasons
and then just started losing in general.
George went to Dallas in 2004
and McNair knew he'd likely be traded
or released by the team as a salary cap casualty
after a 4-12 season in 2005.
So imagine the serendipity for the Titans
to be searching for McNair's heir in 2006.
Vince Young was a Heisman runner-up
and star of the greatest football title game in history,
leading Texas over USC in the Rose Bowl.
Scouts believed Young was still raw
and needed to work on his mechanics,
but that he had the physical makeup and skill set
to become a literal game changer at his position.
Even McNair himself saw Young's entry
into the 2006 NFL draft as kismet.
The quarterback actually recommended
Young as his replacement
after meeting Young at a high school football camp.
Vince's uncle and McNair
both attended Alcorn State together,
and as the Texas quarterback's star rose,
so too did his relationship with McNair.
It all seemed to make sense.
At Texas, head coach Mack Brown and his staff
adjusted their offense to maximize Young's potential.
The Horns recognized the value of Young's speed
and wanted to increase his threat as a runner,
so they shifted from an under-center I formation scheme
to a shotgun with multiple receivers.
Oh, and, uh, Titans owner Bud Adams
happened to be a diehard Longhorn.
He and general manager Floyd Reese
believed that while Young didn't fit the specific mold
of an NFL quarterback in 2005,
he would become a game-breaking superstar
as a professional too.
The Titans wanted him,
but Young's hometown Houston Texans,
the expansion franchise that had replaced the Oilers,
held the first pick.
The Texans taking a Texas superstar
to rebuild their franchise
felt like a dream come true to Young,
who could play down the street from where he grew up
and continue his burgeoning Lone Star legacy.
Fisher, a former USC Trojan himself,
wanted to draft USC quarterback Matt Leinart,
much more of a pro-style prospect.
We should also mention that a year prior
the Titans had hired Norm Chow,
one of Leinart's play callers with the Trojans,
to run the Tennessee Titans' offense.
Suddenly that epic Rose Bowl was replayed,
this time inside the Titans' front office on draft night,
and Texas won again.
Houston passed on their native son
and the Titans selected Young at number three.
Fisher, a highly popular head coach
who'd brought a Super Bowl run
to the city of Nashville as a welcoming gift,
was now paired with a rookie quarterback
who'd already become a folk hero superstar and a champion
all before he'd played a down of professional football,
and both were used to getting their way.
It didn't help that one person who had the best chance
to ease the superstar rookie into life in the NFL
was sent packing.
McNair was traded to the Ravens in June,
and Young lost his mentor and ally.
Young started 2006 as a backup,
which the Titans had planned on from the very beginning.
Young was a rookie and Fisher felt it best
for him to learn behind journeyman Kerry Collins.
But the Titans stalled out of the gate at 0-3,
so Fisher called Young to tell him he was the starter,
saying, quote, "You got the keys to the Hummer."
The rookie instantly showed a knack
for leading come-from-behind wins
and the Titans finished 8-8.
Vince's stats weren't wonderful, but his athleticism,
freelancing inside of a Titans offense that didn't fit him,
still showed promise.
Titans fans had reasons to feel excited about the future,
but behind closed doors there were already problems.
Coaches concerned Young was living
as the college superstar he had been
and not the NFL rookie he currently was.
Chow told Sports Illustrated
when Young was questioned about his attitude in meetings
the quarterback told his OC, quote,
"he was 'the only guy in this room
with the owner's phone number,'"
referencing his Texas-size relationship with Adams.
Chow thought he was spoiled, quote,
"pampered, coddled, whatever word you want to use."
Meanwhile, Young felt Fisher
was singling him out to make an unfair example
because he was the player the head coach never wanted.
Things such as not holding the team plane
when he was a few minutes late to the tarmac.
Quote, "'I feel like Fisher
did that shit on purpose,' he says.
'I'm pulling in, seeing them pull the door down.
I could hear the team yelling.'"
Year two of the Young-Fisher marriage began
when VY was benched for the first preseason game,
as a punishment, not a precaution.
According to Fisher, Young violated team rules
when he left the Titans' hotel to sleep in his own bed.
In addition to what Fisher said publicly,
according to Young,
the head coach started leaking information to the press
about the pair's private meetings.
Young told Sports Illustrated in 2017
that specific details of his private meetings with Fisher
would show up in the newspapers, but only Fisher's side.
Young also claimed that Fisher
would randomly cancel meetings and not tell Young,
and that at least once Fisher allegedly did this
and then went fishing with Collins,
Young's competition for the job.
Young led the Titans to a 10-6 season in 2007,
albeit with shaky stats and nagging injuries,
and the Titans were eliminated by the Chargers
in the wildcard.
2008 started with big expectations for Young and Fisher,
who had said repeatedly he believed it took three years
for a quarterback to, quote, "find themselves in the NFL,"
Then Young suffered a knee injury
in the Titans' season opener.
Some reports indicated that Young
was actually healthy enough to reenter the game,
but refused to because Tennessee fans booed him
after throwing a second interception.
Then things got really bizarre.
Young no-showed meetings at the Titans' facility
and postponed an MRI on his injured knee.
After he didn't turn up at work,
a meeting was called with Young, Fisher,
a psychiatrist, and team officials
at his home in Nashville.
After that meeting, Young left his house for a few hours
but decided or just forgot to take his cellphone.
This prompted someone at Young's house to call Fisher,
who in turn called Nashville police.
Then, later that same night, another meeting occurred
with Young, Fisher, and, quote, "police crisis negotiators."
That week Young's mother Felecia told the press
her son was hurting inside and out
and felt, quote, "tired of being ridiculed and persecuted"
after the Eagles game.
Fisher and the rest of the Titans roster
remained vague about police involvement
and downplayed the incident,
blaming the media for blowing it out of proportion.
Years later, Vince claimed
that Fisher's handling of the incident
created an unfair image of Young as mentally unstable.
Keep in mind, the same man who contacted police
about Young's mental wellbeing
was the same man who Young believed
was leaking their private conversations to reporters.
Quote, "Now I gotta walk through the airport
as the Suicidal Guy for the rest of my life," Young told SI.
Collins became the Titans' official starting quarterback
for the rest of 2008.
Fisher told the media that Collins would play
until the Titans lost and that Young would be the backup.
Quote, "Kerry's gonna go ahead and play for us
until either he struggles or whatever else happens."
Fisher's rationale made a messy situation considerably worse
as it neither gave full confidence in Collins or Young,
but it did strip Vince of the starter's role.
The rest of the Titans were forced to comment
about Young's attitude, his health,
and defend their locker room culture publicly.
Young spend the rest of the year on the bench
and the Titans went winless in the playoffs again.
Entering 2009, Fisher stated publicly
that if Young wanted to be the starter,
he'd have to, quote, "earn it back."
And one way to earn a starting quarterback job back
is when the other guy goes 0-6.
With Collins in charge,
the offense scored more than 20 points only once.
Things fell apart completely
in a 59-nothing loss to New England
in which Collins finished 2 of 12
for negative-7 yards and an interception.
As the Titans limped into the bye week,
multiple reports emerged
that Adams demanded Fisher put Young in.
Adams didn't say this outright to the media,
but the owner was never scared of expressing his opinion.
Back in 2002, the Titans started 1-4
and Adams said his team was getting out-coached.
They finished 11-5.
Finally, Fisher made the switch back to Young,
quote, "for competitive reasons,"
but then immediately went on
to support Collins publicly, not Vince.
Quote, "I'm still in Kerry Collins' corner
because I don't believe that our record
is a reflection of the quarterback play," Fisher said.
Quote, "It's a reflection of the team play.
I'm still in his corner,
but we've decided to go ahead and make this change."
After the news, Young told the media he was more mature
and denied Adams' help.
Quote, "I don't have nothing to do about that.
All I know is Coach Fisher gave me the job back
and I want to take care of my responsibility.
If we win it is going to be good,
and if we don't it will all be Vince Young's fault.
I just want to put smiles on my teammates' faces,
coaches' faces, and fans' faces."
With Young back as the starter,
the Titans won their next five games
and eight of their final ten.
They're still the only team in NFL history
to win five straight games after losing their first six.
Oh, and about ownership's influence?
After a 41-17 blowout of the Bills,
Adams was seen giving Vince
the "hook 'em" sign from a luxury suite
before throwing double middle fingers to the crowd in...
Celebration?
The Titans finished 8-8,
with Young as their starter for every win.
Sporting news voted VY Comeback Player of the Year in 2009,
and expectations for the 2010 Titans
were to finish better than .500
and finally make a run in the playoffs,
ostensibly with Young as the starter.
After four seasons of injuries and inconsistency,
it was plain to see Young
couldn't be the same kind of quarterback
that made him a college football god.
He had to adjust, he had to do the work,
but it's just obvious that Fisher's management style
of tough love in good times
and possible gaslighting in bad
was ruining the psyche of a player
who had never been a losing quarterback
in his entire career until this point.
So if Young just needed to shut up and listen,
Fisher's on-field decisions and off-field comments
had to stop undercutting his most important player.
But Fisher's quarterback carousel never stopped spinning.
In Week 2 of 2010
he used Young's struggles in a loss against the Steelers
to insert Collins in the fourth quarter.
After the game,
Fisher said Young was still the team's starter,
and he led the Titans to a win the following week
against the Giants.
Collins saw some time after Young suffered a knee sprain,
and the Titans started a respectable 5-2.
But the frustration of three losses in a row
and yet another battle with Fisher
would cause Young to literally throw his job away
for good in Week 11.
Vince tried to reenter a tied game with Washington
after suffering a torn tendon in his thumb
but, according to reports, was not allowed to by Fisher.
Washington would go on to win in overtime,
and Young was seen throwing his shoulder pads and uniform
into the stands as he left the field in frustration.
According to multiple accounts,
Fisher and Young had a confrontation
in the locker room after the game.
Young apparently muttered and cursed under his breath
while Fisher spoke to the team,
prompting an exchange with the head coach.
Young gave his version to Sports Illustrated,
saying that Fisher told him, quote,
"'You're walking out on your team,' he said.
'I'm walking out on your motherfucking ass,'
Young yelled back."
Titans safety and former Texas teammate Michael Griffin
chased Young into the parking lot
and, according to reporters present,
said, quote, "You can't leave, you can't do this,"
before Young shrugged and left.
In his postgame press conference,
Fisher seemed done with the relationship.
Quote, "I'm very disappointed.
I think his teammates are disappointed," Fisher said.
Quote, "You know there's going to be frustration in losses.
There's going to be times when you have to dig deep
and fight and turn to one another.
I don't think you run, and so I am disappointed."
Titans players told the media they'd been instructed
not to comment on Fisher and Young's relationship.
Tennessee finished the year 6-10,
spelling the end of both Fisher and Young.
On January 27th, 2011, the Titans and Fisher,
then the league's longest-tenured head coach,
announce a mutual parting of ways,
ending their 17-year relationship.
A day later, a press release from Adams
said that Vince Young would be released from the team.
This relationship was only ever going to end one way.
Neither man saw NFL success after the breakup.
Young played for one year in Philadelphia
before bouncing around training camps.
Fisher became head coach of the St. Louis Rams,
who never won more than seven games in a season
during his run.
In the years following both of their careers,
Young claimed to have reached out to Fisher
in an effort to bury the hatchet.
In his 2017 interview with SI and again to ESPN in 2018,
Young said he sent Fisher a letter around 2012,
extending an olive branch,
leaving his cellphone number in the note,
but Fisher had yet to respond.
Quote, "I forgave him, hope he forgave me," Young said.
But in the same interview,
Young angrily said that he wanted to, quote,
"expose his ass" to show how Fisher had treated him,
so maybe he never got over it.
Fisher has remained mostly quiet
about his relationship with Young,
but was asked by journalist Paul Kuharsky in 2018
if he received Young's letter.
Fisher said, "Yes, I got a letter from Vince,
and I didn't respond.
My name was spelled wrong on the letter,
the letter came from the University of Texas,
and I had no way of knowing if it was really from him.
It came from the athletic department,
but my name was spelled incorrectly.
I still have it, but I didn't know if it was from him
so I felt no need to respond," Fisher said.