Fisher: Young not welcome at team meeting

NASHVILLE, TENN. (AP) - Tennessee coach Jeff Fisher says though he had an assistant tell Vince Young not to attend a team meeting, the quarterback has not been banned from the team’s headquarters.

“I went to look for Vince in the locker room prior to a team meeting, couldn’t find him. I had one of my assistants inform Vince he was not welcome in the team meeting for obvious reasons,” Fisher said Tuesday night on his weekly radio show. “I discussed the situation that happened the night before” at the meeting.

Young’s teammates witnessed the heated exchange between the quarterback and coach in the locker room after Sunday’s overtime loss to Washington. Young, who had tossed his pads into the stands when leaving the field, then stormed out of the stadium.

Fisher said what happens in the locker room after a game is supposed to be confidential.

“We had an incident in the locker room, and it was very unfortunate. It’s been well documented,” Fisher said. “As a result of not only the incident in the locker room but also more importantly the injury to Vince’s thumb, Vince is not going to play anymore this season.”

The quarterback needs season-ending surgery, and Fisher said that involves inserting a pin to help the flexor tendon heal.

But Young’s situation is more complicated than the injury.

The Titans placed Young on injured reserve Tuesday even as media reports surfaced that the quarterback wasn’t welcome at the team’s headquarters and had been told to leave. The team issued a statement a couple hours after the first report, saying Young had been told not to attend the team meeting and was free to leave.

Fisher said Young is on injured reserve, and that such players are permitted in the building. Players on injured reserve work with team trainers on their rehabilitation.

“There’s been speculation he was banned from the building. That was not correct,” said Fisher, who added that he would not address Young’s situation again after Tuesday night.

Young could not be immediately reached Tuesday, nor his agent, Tom Condon, who was traveling and unavailable.

The statement Tuesday called the first report by The Tennessean “incorrect.” The Tennessean, citing unidentified sources, said Young was in the training room Monday when asked to leave the facility by the quarterbacks coach and told he wasn’t wanted in the building after what happened Sunday. The newspaper said Young left without incident.

The Titans can’t ban Young from team property, not with his contract running through 2011.

The franchise learned that lesson in 2006 when Steve McNair won a grievance after an arbitrator ruled his contract had been breached when the team barred him from working out at the facility. Team officials had worried about being on the hook for a $23.4 million salary cap hit if he got hurt.

Complicating the Young situation even more is that while his relationship with Fisher seems likely beyond repair at this point, owner Bud Adams told The Tennessean on Monday that he wants his quarterback and coach to work together.

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