The Tennessee Titans had quite the day at training camp practice. First, news spread of Arden Key's upcoming six-game suspension due to PEDs . The defense dominated for much of practice with physicality and forced turnovers. Then multiple fights broke out between offense and defense. If that had been all it would have already been an eventful day practice, but the drama did not stop there.
The Titans star defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons, after an intense practice full of emotions, tough hits, and a huge fight that ended in a dog pile was absolutely done with the negativity following practice. So much so that he went out of his way to interrupt the live radio broadcast of Buck Reising (of A to Z Sports and 104.5 The Zone). Simmons found Reising just as he was about to begin an interview with Titans cornerback Roger McCreary, sharing some choice words as you can see in the post below.
The source of Simmons' frustration
Today was the first padded practice of Titans training camp and players were hitting hard. Those hard hits and full contact led to an initial physical exchange between Jeffery Simmons and first round rookie left tackle JC Latham. Things got so heated Simmons actually took a swing at Latham. Despite this, coach Brian Callahan decided to leave Simmons in.
Shortly thereafter another much bigger fight broke out among several teammates following a run play that ended in a dog pile. Among the players that got caught up in the scrum were Jeffery Simmons, JC Latham, Peter Skoronski, Lloyd Cushenberry, Arden Key, and Leroy Watson. There were a few others as well, but it was an absolute mess to sort through.
Coach Callahan immediately broke things up and spent a good amount of time chewing his players out, communicating his disappointment quite clearly. Somehow the Titans went on to finish practice without ending it early for any of the players involved, but tensions were still obviously high.
Related: Titans practice observations: Fight breaks out and defense dominates
Buck Reising had tweeted, "Simmons just swung at Latham after some pushing and shoving. Refs said [Simmons] would have been tossed in a game. [Simmons] is back in for the next two [plays] and immediately starts a brawl. Sloppy. Simmons needs to lock tf in.", right after the big fight broke. That apparently did not sit well with Simmons, as it was likely the catalyst for his post-practice confrontation.
Reising commented on his live radio interaction with Simmons later on in the show by saying :
"I'm here every day so [the players] can do that. When we have opinions on stuff, they should be able to address it with us. There's a lack of accountability, just generally, with people who talk in front of microphones and talk on Twitter and things like that. I don't think there's anything wrong with having a discourse."
Just last week Titans general manager Ran Carthon had called Jeffery Simmons the "leader of the whole team", so this was rather disappointing to see. Coach Callahan likely should have just simply taken Simmons off the field immediately following his initial back and forth with JC Latham--at least for a play or two. That would have given Simmons, Latham, and the whole team a moment to diffuse the building tension.
Given Simmons' role on the team Callahan may have felt pressure to keep him on the field. However, this inevitably just looked like Simmons was receiving special treatment and a much longer leash than he perhaps should have been given. Hopefully this is just a one-off situation and the team emerges stronger from it, but multiple fights and confrontations on live radio certainly aren't a great look to kick off the padded practices at Titans' training camp.
Buck Reising will address the incident tonight on A to Z Sports Primetime, live at 7pm CT on YouTube and Facebook .
Related: Tennessee Titans defense will now face uphill battle without key edge defender to start the 2024 NFL season
Be looking for more Tennessee Titans coverage here at A to Z Sports all year long! Follow me (@FF_TravisM) and A to Z Sports (@AtoZSportsNFL) on X for all the latest football news!
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