Titans LaGarrette Blount talks about “The Punch”
This year, a talented running back, LaGarrette Blount fell all the way through the draft and the Titans claimed him as an undrafted free agent, he recently spoke about “The Punch”. The punch caused him to get the label as a trouble maker and a player with character issues. Blount hit Boise State player, Byron Hout after Boise defeated Oregon 19-8 last season. Every football fan saw the incident, it was on nearly a non-stop loop on ESPN’s Sportscenter. Hout claims that all he said to Blount was “How about that ass-whuppin”.
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Blount appeared on KFXX in Portland, Oregon and was asked about the incident and his time with the Tennessee Titans. You can hear the entire interview right here. Blount said that he just wants to come out and play football, while putting his past behind him.
When asked by the hosts about what Hout said, here was Blount’s response, (transcribed by sportsradiointerviews.com)
“That was half the truth, but that’s not the whole thing. I’m not going to repeat what else he said. That was just a hostile environment there with the fans and the players. (Host: Did he say something personally offensive to you or about you?) Definitely. I’ve had people talking trash to me my whole career of football. Something like that is never going to trigger me to do what I did. Nothing like that is going to trigger me to act the way that I did – by saying ‘How about that ass-whuppin?’ He definitely said something way more harsh and disrespectful to me than what he said.”
Will the Titans burn out Chris Johnson?
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Do the Tennessee Titans run the risk of burning out Chris Johnson? SportsIllustrated posted a story this morning with the headline, With CJ2K running, do the Titans even need backups? Certain the unnamed author can’t be serious but it raises a very good point. Last season, Johnson accounted for slightly more than 50% of the Titans offense. The temptation is there to feed a speed burner like Johnson the ball all the time. One head fake and he’s in the endzone. But just how long is Johnson going to be able to put up with this kind of pounding on his frame.?
David Climer of the Tennessean.com wrote a similar story about the risk of over using Johnson. Climer points out that Johnson has had 609 carries in the past two seasons with the Titans. However, if you factor in Johnson’s receptions, he has 703 touches in two years.Climer makes a comparison of all the backs which rushed for 2,000 yards and what they did the subsequent season.
What I want to compare is what Larry Johnson did in Kansas City in 2005-2006. Johnson was the bulk of the offense for the Chiefs during those two seasons and is a bigger back than Johnson (6’1″ 235 pounds) and in those two season touched the ball 824 times. In 2006, Johnson carried the ball 416 times alone.
After the 2006 season, Larry Johnson was toast. He was constantly injured and never played another full season again. The Titans organization is well aware of this fact I’m sure and that might be some of the reason they weren’t willing to offer up a bigger contract to Johnson.
Just as a top quality pitcher might have a pitch count, the Titans should run Johnson smarter and not simply keep feeding him the ball if they want to have him around for a few more years. Otherwise, another 400 touches for Johnson this year would be similar to driving your car 100 mph down the highway 2 quarts low on oil, eventually something is going to give.
Scaife poised to remain Titans starter
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It appears that TE Bo Scaife is poised to remain the Tenneessee Titans starting tightend. The Titans have tried out other tightends, but Scaife remains. As Mike Beacom writes, that Scaife has at least 45 receptions in each of the last 3 seasons. Scaife stated last month that he did in fact have a knee injury which hindered his performance last season.
The Tenneessee Titans organization must be delighted to be rid of the problems surrounding DT Albert Haynesworth. His demands and problems with the Washington Redskins are well documented. One writer in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette says that Haynesworth’s behavior is a teachable moment for children in and out of sports. One lesson is that being good in the past doesn’t mean you’ll be good in the future. In other words, past performance doesn’t guarantee future results. Check out the story right here.
Will Titans QB Chris Simms brother win the starting job at the University of Tennessee? Seems like he has a good chance.
Haven’t heard the end of Titan’s Johnson deal
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It appears that the Tennessee Titans fans haven’t heard the last of the story surrounding RB Chris Johnson. Johnson is in camp and said he will play this year despite still being upset with his re-worked contract.
Johnson told reporters, “I couldn’t be in here mad. If I was going to come in here mad, I shouldn’t have taken the money”. Johnson and the Titans reached an agreement to what basically was a shifting of money from one end of his contract to another with Johnson receiving an additional 1.5 million this season.
Johnson has said in training camp this year he is looking to gain 2500 yards or at least break Eric Dickerson’s single season rushing record.
“Basically I have to come in here and have a great year and get my history deal next year”, Johnson said. CJ2K has said he wants a deal with 30-40 million in guaranteed money. I doubt that the Titans would be willing to pay out that kind of guaranteed money to a back which posted 2 back to back 2000 yard seasons. If, and I say if, Johnson rushes for 2,000 yards this year his production will have to fall off. Running backs start to break down after touching the ball more than 370 times in a season.
While I think Johnson will be an effective back this year, I’m estimating somewhere around 1500 rushing yards and 10 touchdowns. A very good season, but I don’t look for him to break Dickerson’s record this year.
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Titans Simms talkin’ about tokin’
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Tennessee Titans backup QB addressed the issue of his arrest in New York City for driving under the impairment of drugs. Simms told the Tennessean that during the incident he immediately thought of his father Phil and his coach, Jeff Fisher.
Simms claims that the NYC police misquoted him. “I can’t get into it, but what they have me quoted as saying is something I definitely didn’t say”, Simms said.
The details surrounding Simms arrest are suspicious, but Simms claims that everything should work out fine. “I always try and look at myself as a high-character guy and I hope I don’t get judged off this incident. But I think in the end everything will be okay”.
