1) What you would have done - and how you would have explained it if the outcome had been far worse.
2) The contributing acts of VY to this scenario.

That’s really it. I feel as though I addressed your worst case scenario months ago. I believe you’ve continued to ignore the worst case scenario that was top of mind for Mike Mu, VY’s mother and Jeff Fisher. Why is that?

Finally, if Fisher’s status has been bumped up to “ringleader” that’s a huge leap from:

Let me make this clear’er’… I don’t think Jeff Fisher is against Vince Young. I don’t believe the Titans’ organization hate Vince Young or that they are blatantly racist.

Don’t you know that RINGLEADERS are always, always, always against someone…and they almost always use hate as the vehicle to galvanize “the ring.” What’s changed since 2008, P? Holla back.

LOL.

Happy New Year…

To answer the title of this blog entry, Vince Young, Whatcha Gonna Do Bruh?..

Well Vince may have given us clues… and that’s to START OVER WITH A NEW TEAM..and demand a trade in the offseason… and his opinion of receiving playing time is reflective of VY trying to move on..

“It’s like a resume for me to go out there and show that I can still play football at this level, and that’s basically it…”

And Temple when you say in your closing..”It seems like the one person who DID NOT behave in a reckless manner is the person you’ve pinpointed for just that…”

The recklessness was a team effort from the media, police and the ringleader Coach Jeff Fisher.

My retort is Fisher’s own words!

“It’s not an accurate portrayal of the events. I know. I was in the middle of it…..”

Now is the time for the potential consequences and Vince possibly leaving the Titans in a amicable manner via trade or being cut.

If Jeff Fisher was a colleague of Vince Young’s, I could entirely see your perspective. If they had a long-standing relationship and he experienced those events first hand, I could totally feel where you’re coming from. Since he didn’t have that luxury, I believe he gave the “benefit of the doubt” to the person who relayed the story. The other alternative would have been to essentially disregard the story and give the benefit to VY. In the calculus of worst case scenarios, which position is more reckless?

I guess I’m just wondering what you would have done — how, if things had turned out differently, you would have explained your inaction to his mother, your bosses, the city of Nashville, the NFL and the families of other persons adversely impacted.

You never deal with the mind set of the actors at the time of the event — only with the outcome. The outcome is irrelevant because it could not have been known at the time. Hence, my emphasis on our respective worst case scenarios. It’s not that I don’t think public humiliation is a big deal — it can be life defining and utterly tragic for some. Nonetheless, it usually pales in comparison to sudden death. I think you need to acknowledge that the possibility of death must have existed in the minds of some people making decisions here.

Which brings me to this:

1) Could you explain why you have so little regard for the statements make by Mike Mu? Do you know something the rest of us don’t know? His claims required a quick, decisive action. You call calling the police a reckless act by Fisher, but say nothing of VY’s actions. Why is that?

2) Let’s assume that calling the police is an overreaction to hearing that a person in whom you’ve invested considerable time, effort and money is engaged in something with the potential for significantly adverse outcomes (and you have no means of contacting the person). What would this mean to you: “It was Mike Mu, who is Young’s local marketing manager, who called Peters with the alarm 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.”

3) The same article you quote seems to indicate that Fisher has a strong commitment to Vince Young quarterbacking the Titans. Fisher is not the QB of the future. Why do you give such short shrift to that aspect of the article, but not others?

4) Finally, you’ve quoted quite a bit of legal reasoning here. I’m no attorney, but I’m wondering if you’ve contemplated the Principle of the Reasonable Man as an explanation for why Jeff Fisher was not charged with filing a false police report. Fisher was not unreasonable in accepting the veracity of Mu’s claims. Mu did not have an apparent motive for lying or an obvious opportunity to gain from doing so. Moreover, his believe may have been supported by other factors: the reaction to being booed, the reaction to being benched; the reaction to being injured. I don’t think Fisher had anything to fear from the police.

I don’t think they thought he was reckless. If anything, the police were reckless in writing the report and sharing it with the media. I think its possible that your critique should be directed at the police and the media since if they’d told the truth, there would not be a story. It seems like the one person who DID NOT behave in a reckless manner is the person you’ve pinpointed for just that.

Thanks again.

Let me make this clear’er’… I don’t think Jeff Fisher is against Vince Young. I don’t believe the Titans’ organization hate Vince Young or that they are blatantly racist.

However, they have made bad judgments in the way they handled the Vince Young ordeal, and should be held accountable.

Fisher is a football coach, not a clubhouse counselor nor a security detail guy. He was reckless in the way he handled the situation even though he had good intentions. There is and should always be consequences nonetheless.

When he called the police with inaccurate third-party information, he could have been ‘technically’ viewed as filing a false police report…

Before I go any further Temple…. this is about BAD JUDGMENT BY JEFF FISHER, NOT ABOUT RACE in this specific issue in regards to Vince Young…the Titans’ history of considering a black QB isn’t in play here…SO LET’S SEPARATE THIS RIGHT NOW… temple your assertion that: …”the proclamation that VY has been significantly harmed due to racial animus on the part of an organization that has had Black QBs…” does NOT minimize (in my view) the egregious error of judgment Coach Fisher made in handling this matter…

Fisher filed a false police report, but was not charged… and Temple when you say this:

…”I believe that the use of words like “gun,” “car,” “suicide,” and “speeding” were sufficient cause for intervention that rose to the level of notification to the PD — especially given that the suppositions in play involved the safety of countless others (highway travelers)….”

There are buzz words, but there was no evidence of VY speeding or any police reports reflecting any negative criminal, illegal behavior..You may think public humiliation is just a small consequence, but sometimes people go to court over that (i.e. libel, defamation of character, etc…)

And actually when you mention this intervention could have saved lives well, lets look at a definition of a filing a false report and why doing so is not a good thing…

****Class B misdemeanor, fine and possible short jail sentence. You are liable for additional charges and civil damages if your report were to tie up resources that were needed to intervene in another location w/ resulting damages.*****

I am not saying Fisher should go to jail, but he made a very bad decision, and should have and could have handled it better. He had other QUALIFIED resources within the Titans’ organization with legal and counselor expertise who would have provided Fisher with a better alternative than reporting third-hand information and inciting a media firestorm…and jeopardizing Vince Young’s career and the eventual BENCHING was really the straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back..

Vince should ask out of Tennessee. Legally, he could take the Titans and Jeff Fisher to court…but Vince WOULD NOT do it..

I believe Vince wants to move on (quietly), and there is a quote from the Tennessean prior to the last game of the season when Fisher decided to let him play two quarters in a worthless game…

“It’s definitely big for me,” … “It’s like a resume for me to go out there and show that I can still play football at this level, and that’s basically it…”

Vince wants out. Just an amicable break. Trade him. Cut him. Just let him go.

Fisher isn’t a racist and I am not accusing the Titans’ organization either. Just move on with Kerry Collins and Chris Simms. And if VInce does well else, then so be it..

Here’s more Fisher, backtracking, but admitting that he didn’t know…

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3586215

“Some of that stuff in the report was just flat-out wrong …erroneous,” Fisher said. “It’s not an accurate portrayal of the events. I know. I was in the middle of it. And Vince is fine and he’s going to be fine …there’s going to be a positive outcome.”

Specifically, Fisher clarified certain aspects of the police report he said are misleading:

• Young was never at LP Stadium “let alone going off …with a gun,” as the report stated. In fact, a Nashville public information officer early Saturday morning also corrected the report and stated that Young never appeared at the stadium.

• Vince Young does not have a personal therapist, as cited in the report. Fisher said the therapist, Sheila Peters, is employed by the club and is available on-site to all team personnel two or three days during the week.

• It was Mike Mu, who is Young’s local marketing manager, who called Peters with the alarm 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. Peters, in turn, called Fisher with Mu’s account but she never spoke to directly with Young, as indicated in the report, until the end of the night.

“Look, when I got the call from Sheila, she was reacting on [Mu's] story and I had no way to reach Vince because he didn’t have his phone. So I did what anybody would do — I called the police,” Fisher said. “Once the police are involved, there’s certain protocol that has to be followed.

“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. 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.”

Your sarcasm sucks. “Here” is not a place where a lack of analysis will usually suffice. If you’re going to suggest otherwise, I suggest you ditch the sarcasm and commence to doing some heavy lifting. Save the sideline banter for another site where it will be well received. It won’t work “here.”

I still think there are too many missing pieces from your interpretation of Tennessee and VY. Pardon me if I’ve missed your explanations in other posts. Please feel free to enlighten me.

As I’ve said before — we certainly have agreed to disagree about the extent of the intervention by Fisher earlier this season. I believe that the use of words like “gun,” “car,” “suicide,” and “speeding” were sufficient cause for intervention that rose to the level of notification to the PD — especially given that the suppositions in play involved the safety of countless others (highway travelers). You do not. You believe the issue should have been handled in house and that regardless of an inability to contact VY during the critical moments, the concerns of his mother and associate should have been handled in a manner that first preserved his reputation. My worst case scenario was a high speed collision on the highway that kills innocent children. I believe your worst case scenario was a bad press conference, benching and public humiliation. Okay. I think that’s correct. I don’t think I’m overstating this, but I welcome correction. Rescue me if I’m wrong on this.

The question of race with the Titans at the QB position just seems misplaced to me. This franchise has had a nearly uninterrupted tradition of Blacks at this position since 1984…that’s almost a QUARTER CENTURY. Norm Chow is gone. Vince is still there. The Titans clearly like what he offers or they would have drafted him. I have maintained that there was a split in the organization during the draft time about Vince or Leinart. I believe that someone told Norm Chow that the team would definitely draft Leinart. I believe that’s the only reason he accepted the job — and perhaps someone with the reputation and standing of Steve McNair lobbied on behalf of Vince — and that was the factor that determined the Titans draft pick.

From what we’ve all seen on the field, the selection of Vince Young was far superior to the decision to draft Matt Leinart. That notwithstanding, both are riding the pine and Norm Chow is back in college.

It’s not clear to me that the fact that Chris Chandler played while McNair is a sign of “racism.” It’s not like McNair was a random draft pick or that he didn’t actually become the franchise QB or even that Chandler was a bum. He wasn’t. He was the QB of the NFC champion Falcons in ‘98 and he make some big throws to get them to the SB. He was fragile though. Moreover, different franchises have different approaches to whether or not guys should start as soon as they come out of college. Manning and Aikman took their lumps right away. Philip Rivers watched. Others who have had tremendous success have had to wait awhile. I believe the approaches are too varied to ascribe “racism” to the time McNair sat while in Houston. (Now, if you wanted to talk about his unceremonious departure, that might be different.)

I don’t know all the particulars of what happened. I think you just need to share a bit more about what you actually know that drives your sentiment. I just can’t see where your coming from on this. If Vince was traded and Chow was still in Tennessee, I could see it. If Fisher was bad mouthing Vince, I could see it. If Vince was a pariah in his own locker room, I could see it. If Vince was a “race man” who stood behind McNair or McNabb when related questions were put to him, I could see it. He ain’t that dude.

I haven’t heard you say that post-Chow, VY’s work ethic is unquestioned. I haven’t heard you say that like Tavaris Jackson, VY has clearly progressed in making reads on the field and in getting the ball downfield to speedy, talented, but underutilized receivers (I’m not talking about that scrub of all scrubs Justin McCareins.) I haven’t heard you say that the Titans locker room is split along racial lines because players believe a great injustice was done to Vince. I haven’t heard any of that.

What I have heard, without demonstration, is the proclamation that VY has been significantly harmed due to racial animus on the part of an organization that has had Black QBs (while playing in the deep South — formerly in Texas, then in the birthplace of the Klan) for almost 25 years.

I think you can see why I have a problem with what you’re advancing. Help me to see what I’m missing. Thanks. And happy new year to all.

(I apologize for the length, but I wanted to be as clear as possible.)

Vince is black, hence his benching is based on that, and that’s about as deep as it gets here.

Next.