Fisher uses McNair as source of motivation

[#98QBKiller]

I thought this was an awesome story. This is how a coach is supposed to light a fire under their players.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news;_ylt=AtHayPDHYxgt4lgAf21gliSr0op4?slug=ms-thegameface122409&prov=yhoo&type=lgns&print=1

Fisher uses McNair as source of motivation

If I had told you on Halloween that the Tennessee Titans would be playing a meaningful game on Christmas, you’d have wondered if it were some kind of April Fools’ joke.

Yet here they are – the team that brought you an 0-6 start, topped off by a humiliating 59-0 defeat to the New England Patriots – getting ready to host the San Diego Chargers on Friday night in a game crucial to Tennessee’s playoff hopes.

The Titans (7-7), one of eight teams battling for two AFC wild-card spots, remain a huge long shot: With a 4-7 conference record, they’d likely lose out on a tiebreaker to every team but the Miami Dolphins, who they defeated in overtime last Sunday, and the Houston Texans, who have a worse divisional record. But even if Tennessee’s quest falls short, its unlikely journey back to contention has been inspirational.

The story of the Titans’ turnaround begins with a coach and a quarterback, as these things so often do – only it’s not the quarterback you’d expect.

It begins on Thursday, Oct. 22, when the Titans conducted their final practice before dispersing for their bye weekend. Four days after their debacle in snowy Foxborough, Mass., the players’ attention to detail was predictably poor.

“Practice was horrible that day,” Titans coach Jeff Fisher recalled earlier this week. “I cut it short and called a team meeting – told them to be in the auditorium in 45 minutes. They didn’t know if they were going to get lectured or get their butts chewed out or just told to stay out of trouble during the bye week or what.”

Two days earlier Fisher had caused a stir by showing up at a Nashville-area charity event and donning a Peyton Manning(notes) jersey when introducing Colts coach Tony Dungy, joking, “I just wanted to feel like a winner.”

On this day, he went with a far more serious approach.

When Tennessee’s players filed into the room, they looked up to find an image of former Titans quarterback Steve McNair(notes) on the screen, his arms raised in triumph after a dramatic touchdown pass. McNair was smiling; everyone in the room was a bit choked up.

The Titans’ players were well aware of Fisher’s deep connection to his former quarterback, slain July 4 by his mistress in a murder-suicide. Yet aside from his eulogy at McNair’s memorial service, this would be the first time the coach had gone into any depth with them about the bond they shared.

Fisher recounted a story from Tennessee’s 2000 home opener against the Kansas City Chiefs, which came after a disappointing defeat at Buffalo: McNair, who eight months earlier had led the Titans to their only Super Bowl, left the field on a cart after suffering a severely bruised sternum in a game in which he’d struggled. As McNair was heading up the tunnel, he heard the fans roar at the announcement that his backup, Neil O’Donnell, had entered the game, and he was devastated.

McNair would spend several days in the hospital, and when Fisher came to visit two days after the game, the quarterback was physically exhausted and emotionally drained.

“I can’t do this,” a despondent McNair told Fisher. “I’m going to quit. It’s not fun anymore. I just don’t have the passion. I’m done.”

Recalled Fisher: “I spent countless hours with him over the next few days trying to talk him down … to get him back. Fortunately, we didn’t have a game the next Sunday. That was the key.”

Fisher told his players that McNair, who’d planned to go to Chicago with friends during the bye weekend, instead went to Houston and met with a former team chaplain, with whom he hashed out his feelings. “When he got back, he was still a little shaky, but he was better,” Fisher said. “He still wasn’t sure he wanted [to keep playing], but he agreed to be the No. 2 quarterback for our game in Pittsburgh.”

Late in the fourth quarter against the Steelers, O’Donnell was knocked out of the game with the Titans trailing by four points. “I looked at Steve,” Fisher recalled. “He looked at me. He winked and ran out on the field, threw [three passes] and completed them all. The last one was a [game-winning] touchdown pass to Erron Kinney(notes), and we were on our way.”

The Titans went 13-3 in 2000, the same record they would achieve in the ’08 season. Each time, they suffered a crushing divisional-round playoff defeat to the Ravens – and in both cases a hangover ensued the following season.

By recounting the story about McNair, Fisher wasn’t merely trying to inspire his players to fight through adversity. He was also trying to encourage them to flee from football for a short spell and return with the intention of starting anew.

“You can make the most of the bye weekend by getting away,” he told them. “Take a few days to yourselves, come back on Monday and let’s just start over.”

When the Titans returned to their training facility a few days later, they saw a revised “2009 schedule” that Fisher had displayed: It consisted of just 10 games, beginning with the upcoming Nov. 1 matchup with the Jacksonville Jaguars at LP Field.

“Jacksonville is our season opener,” Fisher told the players. “Let’s go out and get it done.”

The Titans did, with one key personnel change: Fourth-year quarterback Vince Young(notes), who as a rookie had sparked a similar revival that pushed Tennessee to the brink of the postseason after a 0-5 start, had replaced veteran Kerry Collins(notes). Owner Bud Adams had prodded Fisher into making the move a week earlier than the coach had otherwise planned, and it turned out to be the right call.

With Young displaying a previously unseen degree of polish and calm, the Titans beat the Jags, then came from behind the next Sunday to beat the 49ers in San Francisco. They crushed the Bills at home, won a tight road game against the Houston Texans and came home to defeat the Arizona Cardinals in dramatic fashion, winning 20-17 on Young’s fourth-down, last-second touchdown pass to rookie wideout Kenny Britt(notes) in the back of the end zone.

After playing poorly in a road defeat to the Indianapolis Colts, Tennessee beat the St. Louis Rams and Dolphins to keep hope alive.

Fisher’s memories of McNair might have resonated most deeply with his young quarterback. Like Fisher, Young had enjoyed a close relationship with McNair, who had mentored him since his days as a Houston high school star.

People in the Titans’ organization say Young has displayed a newfound maturity in the wake of McNair’s passing. He has remained in close contact with two of McNair’s surviving sons, Trent and Tyler, who stood between Young and Fisher in the locker room after the victory over the Dolphins as the team conducted its postgame prayer.

Young’s ascent – and the brilliance of second-year halfback Chris Johnson, the league’s leading rusher with 1,730 yards – gives Fisher an abundance of hope for the future. But even though the math doesn’t work in his favor, he’s not giving up on doing something big in ’09.

Fisher knows the score: Even if the Titans win out against the Chargers and Seattle Seahawks, at least one of the AFC’s two 8-6 teams, the Broncos (at Eagles, vs. K.C.) or Ravens (at Steelers, at Raiders), would have to lose twice. In all likelihood the Jaguars (at Patriots, at Browns) and Steelers (vs. Ravens, at Dolphins) would each have to suffer at least one defeat, and the Jets (at Colts, vs. Bengals) might have to as well.

Throw in the fact that San Diego has won nine consecutive games – and 17 in a row in December – and a trip to the postseason seems remote. Fisher, however, is feeling lucky.

“If we win two, I think we’re going to make it,” he said. “And then I don’t think anybody’s going to want to play us.”

Presumably that would include the Patriots, whose 59-point blowout came against a much different team, in what Fisher would describe as a different season. I, for one, have this strange feeling that if the Titans get in, they’ll be heading back to Foxborough the second weekend of January.

“I do too,” Fisher said.

Even if the dream dies on Christmas night, this won’t have been a lost season for Tennessee.

“I still feel like this can be an example for anybody, at any level,” Fisher said. “You’re just never out of it, until [it’s official]. You just keep doing what you’re doing – if you believe in what you’re doing, don’t change it – and find a way to keep battling. Now look at us … “

And though anything that happens on the football field is trivial compared to the tragic events of last July, this much is true about McNair: In an eerie way, the late quarterback’s grit has sparked another improbable comeback.