NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The Titans concluded weeks of hiding Vic Beasley and made him available in a Zoom call with the media Friday, during which he mysteriously spoke of “disagreements” that prompted his 10-day unexcused absence at the start of camp and offered assurance that he does in fact love football.
“Any time you come to a new environment you want to have a great first impression,” he said. “You want to just show the people that you’re really, really into working with the team and want to be here. I’m excited. I feel like this is an opportunity to put myself back in that category of one of the elite pass rushers. This is a new start for me.”
This is an incredible statement.
It completely contradicts what he actually did.
Beasley, in fact, made a terrible first impression, perhaps not on his teammates who were focused on who did show up, but on the organization. He didn’t show people he was really, really into working with the team, or that he wanted to be here. HE DIDN’T SHOW UP. While his teammates got to work, the franchise couldn’t even find by phone him for several days. Then all indications are he slow-played an injury.
What he did was made Jon Robinson and Mike Vrabel look foolish for giving him a one-year $9.5 million guaranteed contract. If he goes out an is productive this season the hassle may prove worth it. But today, the Titans are enduring the nonsensical.
"Nobody ever sees, necessarily, eye to eye,” Beasley said of a GM and a head coach he’d never stood on a field with before his failure to report. “People, even in the real world they don’t necessarily see eye-to-eye about certain things. They may have the same mission, but they don’t necessarily agree on the same things. I think here we all got on the same mission, that’s to win the Super Bowl.
“Coming to it we may not have seen eye-to-eye about certain things. Now it’s an understanding of what is expected of me, I have some areas that I worked on myself and a human being and I’ve got that under control. Now we’re on the right path heading toward being one of the best teams in the NFL.”
Vic Beasley: I love the game. I wouldn't waste nobody's time if I didn't love the game. I'm not going to give nobody half-hearted effort. #Titans pic.twitter.com/NyxVhwodKd
— Paul Kuharsky (@PaulKuharskyNFL) September 25, 2020
Robinson said he's seen extremely hard work from Beasley since he arrived.
"I think any time you go into free agency, you do your best to find out about guys and get intel on them," he said. "You don't really know until you've got them.
"But once we got Vic here and started working with him, he's been diligent in the training room with the strength and conditioning staff, he's been diligent in the classroom. It's been all positive once we were able to get him here on campus."
What's the expectation now?
"Go help us win the game when his number is called," Robinson said. "Play hard, execute and do all he can to help us win."
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