NASHVILLE, Tenn. – As Vic Beasley signed to the Raiders' practice squad he posted an appreciative tweet to Titans' fans.
So for about the 50th time during and after his Tennessee ordeal, I dialed his number. And for the first time he answered.
In the conversation I had with him Monday evening he declined several opportunities to really address his lack of effort during his time with the team or to move from thanking Jon Robinson and Mike Vrabel for the opportunity to apologizing for his failure to do anything with it.
“I don’t want to make no stories, boss,” he said a few times.
That said, he couldn’t offer any assurances that what’s to come with the Las Vegas is going to be different. He signed with the Raiders practice squad Monday. [Unlocked]
“That same thing can happen out here, I mean who knows? I can’t predict the future,” he said. “All I know is I can go hard and work my butt off. That’s all I can do. I can’t control everything else, I can’t control what decisions you make of me. I can’t control that.
“Can’t anybody control if they get released. Maybe by their performance. But there have been good players that’s got released before.”
The Titans signed Beasley to a one-year $9.5 million guaranteed deal on March 31. He attended offseason Zoom meetings as the COVID-19 pandemic kept players away from team facilities throughout the offseason.
But he absorbed $500,000 in mandatory fines for 10 days of unexcused absence at the start of training camp and missed the remainder of camp on the Non-Football Injury list with knee issues until the cut down to 53.
He missed the first two games, was completely ineffective in five after that and was released on Nov. 4.
“I think it was simple like the GM said, he said they wasn’t liking what they saw,” Beasley said. “…I didn’t come early to training camp, so I guess that wasn’t a good look from me on my part for the team. There were a lot of things that played into that decision.”
Regarding his effort during his time with the Titans, he said: “Everybody has their opinion. If you say the effort isn’t there, then that’s just your opinion.”
After the Titans swallowed the big contract and decided to move on from Beasley, Robinson discussed letting him and Johnathan Joseph go at a press session.
“I think that not every decision that we make works out,” he said. “We spent a lot of time working with him, trying to get him going. At the end of the day, we thought it was best for us to go a different direction and release him from the football team.
Even as Beasley called his Tennessee chance the “opportunity of a lifetime,” he said expressing any regret or wishing he did anything differently during his time with the Titans would have no bearing on anything now.
“I’ll just keep going,” he said. In everything in life there is a lesson. You’ve just got to keep going. If I said I would (go back and do anything differently), it wouldn’t matter. It’s too late for that. Why would I want to go back? That’s hindsight, that has no effect on now.”
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