Fisher uses McNair as source of motivation

Dolphin1184 · Dec 25, 2009

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

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.”
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What a job Fisher has done with that team. He has them playing out of this world considering their horrendous start.

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