A new Netflix documentary released this week is shedding more light on the contentious relationship between former Tennessee Titans quarterback Vince Young and head coach Jeff Fisher.
While Fisher was explaining the deliberation process ahead of the 2006 NFL draft in the Netflix documentary, titled “Untold: The Testimony of Vince Young,” the coach revealed that he and his offensive coordinator Norm Chow preferred two other quarterbacks instead of the Texas Longhorns national champion.
However, Fisher says influence from former Titans owner Bud Adams overruled them partially due to a grudge the owner had with former Houston mayor Bob Lanier and his wife, Elyse Lanier.
Fisher said he was leaning toward taking ex-Vanderbilt quarterback Jay Cutler, while Chow wanted Matt Leinart, who was coached by Chow at USC before he accepted Fisher’s offer to join the Titans ahead of the 2006 draft.
“But Bud Adams was obsessed and consumed with drafting Vince,” Fisher said in the Netflix documentary.
“That all stemmed from an adversarial relationship that he had with a mayor in Houston that dated back decades,” Fisher continued. “In that draft, I was told, ex-mayor’s wife came on a radio station and they were talking to her about who she thought the Houston Texans should draft with the first pick in this year’s draft.
“And she went on and on about Vince. And she says, ‘As a matter of fact,’ … tongue and cheek I would assume, ‘A matter of fact, if they don’t draft Vince Young, I’m going to go jump off the 16th Street bridge.’
“And Bud said, ‘We’re drafting Vince cause I want to see the bit—h jump.'”
Adams and Bob Lanier had a strained relationship because the Titans owner moved the team from Houston to Nashville in 1997; prior to the move, Bob Lanier refused to endorse a taxpayer-funded plan to build a new stadium in Houston.
The Texans did not agree with Elyse Lanier’s preference that year, and instead selected defensive end Mario Willams with the first overall pick. Reggie Bush, who beat out Young and USC teammate Leinart for the Heisman Trophy months prior, went No. 2 to the New Orleans Saints.
That cleared the way for the Titans to select Young with the No. 3 selection, while Leinart was taken 10th by the Arizona Cardinals and Cutler was drafted one pick later by the Denver Broncos.
The misalignment among the Titans brass on who to pick may have foreshadowed the rocky relationship that developed between Fisher and Young over the quarterback’s five seasons with the franchise.
Young said in the Netflix documentary that he could not trust Fisher after he felt like the coach was responsible for leaking to the media that he had been late to a team meeting.
Young played his final game for the Titans in 2010, when he was not allowed to reenter a Week 11 game due to a thumb injury. As he exited the field following the loss, Young threw his shoulder pads into the stands, and then had an altercation with Fisher in the locker room before leaving the stadium.
Adams announced in January 2011 that the team intended to part ways with Young, and the Titans subsequently released their former first-round pick that July.
Young went on to appear in six games with the Eagles during the 2011-12 season, posting a 1-2 record in three starts. Those were his final appearances in a NFL game.
Young announced his NFL retirement in July 2014, and currently hosts a weekly podcast with his former Texas coach Mack Brown.
“A lot of people wanted to tell my story, but they weren’t telling it the right way,” Young said on the podcast about his decision to participate in the Netflix documentary. “Because they weren’t walking in my shoes, and understanding how I took it, and the things that I did, and the mistakes I have made.
“I wanted people to hear from me, my testimony.”
