Titans head coach Brian Callahan opened his Wednesday press conference by confirming that the team was making a quarterback change, but another topic brought out the most impassioned moment of the media session.
It came after Callahan was asked how he would respond to people thinking that the 3-11 Titans are a soft team mentally and physically. His answer was that such thoughts make him very angry because “one of the things mentally that’s really been impressive about the team is the way that they keep fighting” and that it is “insulting” to say that the results are because the team has not played hard.
“I think to be honest with you, I think that’s complete and total bulls—t, if you want my honest opinion,” Callahan said. “These guys are tough f—kers, man, they go after it every day. They play hard as hell, and at no point, at no point, have we ever put on tape at any point this season that this is a soft football team. I can’t even wrap my mind around how that would even be a conversation. I mean, just because we don’t win games doesn’t mean we’re soft. . . . that makes me relatively angry that that would be some presumption. That means you just don’t watch s—t. You don’t know what you’re talking about, you don’t know what you’re looking at. So, I’m not going to stand for anybody calling this football team soft.”
There’s nothing that Callahan can do to change the team’s record after 14 games and arguing that they’ve executed at a high level isn’t going to get him anywhere, but Callahan isn’t questioning his players’ effort and he made it clear that he won’t stand for anyone else doing it either. If that inspires better play in the final three weeks, it will be something positive to take into the offseason in Tennessee.
