Remember last year when I called several Tennessee Titans players a collective of jerks for how they acted after they defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers in late-December? If you don't recall, I got a little bristly when Titans players LenDale White, Keith Bulluck, and Jevon Kearse decided to take the "Terrible Towels" that fans wave at games and stomp on them for all to see in the waning seconds of their victory over the Steelers. If you require video proof to jog your memory, allow me:
When confronted about this by the press following the game, the Titans players pathetically tried to back track, saying they didn't mean to disrespect anyone.
Try not to laugh to hard at that, please.
The Steelers went on to win the Super Bowl while the Titans lost at home to the Baltimore Ravens in the Divisional Round two weeks after the Colts blew the Thumb Tacs out at The Lube, 23-0.
Well, it seems not all Titans players are jack-offs like Bullock, White, and Kearse. And it seems some one of those Titans, like Pro Bowl CB Cortland Finnegan, didn't take to kindly to Bulluck and others acting like unprofessional asshats following the Titans last meaningful win in 2008:
In a chat on NFL.com, Finnegan was asked if we will see more Terrible Towel stomps this season--something Lendale White and Bulluck did after the Titans' regular season win over the Steelers last year. Finnegan made it clear that not only does he not expect to see it again, but he's pretty upset that any Titan would do it.No, absolutely not. Certain individuals may do that, but that's not what this team is all about. That's not what this coach is about, that's not what our team is about. You do it in between the lines ... the rest of it is unacceptable.
Finnegan isn't really treading on particularly dangerous ground here. His coach, Jeff Fisher, had called the stomp unnecessary, but by calling it unacceptable and saying its not what the team is about, he's basically calling out two of the veterans of the Titans team.
Finnegan deserves a ton of credit for calling out his teammates on this behavior. I have new found respect for him. Titans coach Jeff Fisher should have been a man and called this crap out immediately following the game, but chose to be cowardly and call it "unnecessary."
In the end, it all worked out the way karma normally works out. The jerk-off team lost badly at home while the team that generally plays with class (Pittsburgh) won it all.
As always, I'm sure some Titans fans will ride in here and start screaming, but none of them have a leg to stand on. When Tennessee's best cornerback is saying LenDale White, Keith Bulluck, and Jevon Kearse acted like unprofessional pricks, any argument defending the action doesn't hold up. I know fans will generally side with players on their team, but when players act like overgrown children by disrespecting players on another team, that simply cannot be condoned by fans. If any Colts player did what Bulluck and others did, we would roast him alive on this blog.
That said, cue the LenDale White apologists.