Merril Hoge, still not sure about VY as a QB

Merril Hoge has never been shy about criticizing Vince Young. He has never felt that Young had the ability to be an NFL QB and he has made it known that many in the Titans front office were less than thrilled about Bud Adams' decision to draft Young. But to many Titans fans and some in the Nashville media, Hoge went over the line in his comments about Young he made to a Pittsburgh radio station WDVE.

The audio is here thanks to Profootballtalk.com: http://a1135.g.akamai.net/f/1135/18227/1h/cchannel.download.akamai.com/18227/podcast/PITTSBURGH-PA/WDVE-FM/Merril%20on%20young.mp3

Here's a summary of what Hoge had to say.

Hoge blasted Titans quarterback Vince Young, calling Young “a soft baby.” Not sure if he's talking about Young being a soft physically or soft mentally, either way it's a pretty harsh statement.

Among other things, Hoge said that Young was recruited to attend Oklahoma, and that the folks at Oklahoma pulled the plug because he “was the most immature crybaby they’d ever met.” Hoge doesn't say who he talked to at OU about that one, only that he heard it. (Hey CK maybe you can ask 5er about that one, he's a big OU fan. Only joking babe)

Hoge also said that, during the Week One game against the Jaguars, when Young reportedly tried to pull himself out of the game and later got hurt, some of the defensive players were happy, since they believed it gave the team a better chance to win the game. Hard to know if that one is true or not, some may have felt that way when the injury happened but I doubt anyone was happy a guy got hurt.

Hoge also dredged up an incident from 2006, when Young missed the team plane for a road game. Hoge says that, after Young caught up with the team, he pulled his hood over his head and cried in the locker room. There's more to that one that Hoge mentions, in fact, Hoge makes the incident sound better than both Young and Fisher did in an interview with 60 minutes.
From the interview:

They spoke on the cell phone, with the plane on the runway.

"The conversation went like this, 'Vince.' 'What?' 'This is Jeff.' 'What?' 'Vince, look, things come up, I understand. You're late. That's OK. You need -- U.S. Air rep's gonna call you in about five minutes. Be on the U.S. Air flight to Philadelphia.'

And I said, 'Vince, you need to be on that airplane.' He says, 'I'm not coming.'

But he made it in after probably 11 or 12 in the evening. And we settled him down and then he went out and won the game for us," Fisher remembers. "

He's got a temper,"Pelley remarks.

"I think he was embarrassed," Fisher says.

How did Young feel when the plane left without him? "Oh, man. I, like I told coach, I told him I felt like it was like, you know, F him, you know? I was just so mad. I was to the point that I didn't wanna play," Young recalls. Asked what he learned from that, Young says, laughing, "Be on time."

Titans players believe that Vince Young takes all the credit when things go well, and disappears when things go bad. Plenty of evidence of that, look at any game tape or interviews after losses that Young usually blows off, with Fisher giving the excuse that Young is taking the loss hard because he so competitive and takes losses so hard. Sorry coach, answering questions after a loss is part of an NFL QB's job, except your QB's.

Most importantly, Hoge claimed that coach Jeff Fisher “fought like crazy” to keep the Titans from drafting Young, who was drafted (per Hoge) because Titans owner Bud Adams wanted to stick it to the franchise’s former city of Houston. It's common knowledge, despite what Fisher claims, that VY was not the guy the Titans front office wanted to draft. But if they had gotten the guy they wanted, it looks like they would be answering the same questions about Leinart as they are having to answer about Young.

Fisher called what Hoge said incorrect but did not come out and defend his QB, rather he took offense to what Hoge had to say. Whatever he reported that I disclosed with him is incorrect,’’ Fisher said earlier Monday. “He implied, or stated, that Vince (also) takes a limo to work every day and lives three miles away from the facility. That is so far out of line. He doesn’t do that; we all know he doesn’t do that. So if you are going to start there, I think it discredits everything. He accused me of saying a lot of things that I never said.’’

Fisher said “up until this point’’ he’s had no problems with Hoge, a former Steelers running back.“I’ve helped Merril. He has called me and asked me questions. But we talk football, we don’t talk about life,’’ Fisher said. “If I spent all my time trying to figure out why people say things or do things, I am taking away from coaching my football team. I don’t want to spend any more time discussing it.’’

Not exactly refuting everything that Hoge said, just the stuff that Fisher told him which was one comment, not a strong backing of your QB. And at some point Fisher has tio realize that the only way to stop this is to play Young. Unfortunately for Young, Fisher is going to worry more about how the team is playing and if they continue to play as well as they are right now, Young will be either on the sideline or on the coaches box or wherever Fisher thinks is best for him, except on the field.

Final note, this story is now officially a big story in the world of real news, William Rhoden was discussing VY and his problems on NPR.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=94760783&ft=1&f=1055