NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Cam Ward walked down the tunnel under NRG Stadium after the Titans played horribly Sunday, getting shut out by another bad team.
And he did what he’s been doing since the Titans drafted him: He offered a thoughtful, honest assessment of what unfolded.
“If we keep it a buck right now, we ass,” he said. “We’re 0-4. At this point, we’ve got nothing to lose. We dropped a quarter of our fucking games, and we’ve yet to do anything. So we have to lock in. Especially myself.”
On Wednesday, the Titans’ prudes and locker room editors came to the forefront.
Jeffery Simmons, who plays with a fire that matches Ward’s angry quote, basically said the quarterback needs to tamp it down.
“Cam has the right to speak how he wants to speak to the media, but I had some advice for him," Simmons said. "I’ll keep that off the record. When these microphones are in front of you, they can blow up just one part of what you are saying.”
Cody Barton, who is not playing at anything close to a Simmons’ level, was even worse.
“We talked to him and he didn’t mean it, it came off bad,” Barton said. “We knew what he meant, but we just told him, you’ve got to be careful with your words, and that’s that. We’re with Cam, he’s one of our teammates, we all love him and so there’s no animosity or anything like that toward him.”
While Ward said his interaction with teammates about what he said was good, this reaction to Ward’s comments is all wrong.
How about: "We ARE ass, and we’ve got to stop being ass. Listen to that frustrated kid over there, telling it like it is. We should all be so self-aware."
Instead, the politically correct machine wants to quiet him, make him boring, get him to talk in standard cliches.
The quotes got blown up. So what?
Ward said he wasn’t surprised.
“Not really,” he said. “They're going to blow it up no matter what, whether it’s good or bad for the Titans,” he said. “We’re trying to go win football games, that’s the biggest thing and that’s what we’re trying to go do this week.”
Does he care about the reaction?
“No,” he said. “I care about my teammates and trying to win football games.”
He spoke the truth and moved on, didn't sit and look at his phone gauging social media's reaction, something Simmons is known to do a lot.
That’s where Ward should be counseling Simmons and Barton, not the other way around.
Don’t worry about a clip on social media. Get back to work.
Brian Callahan waded in on this too.
“He's still a young player, he's the number one overall pick, he's a face of a franchise, if you will,” Callahan said. “He's got high expectations for himself. We have high expectations around him. We all want to meet those. His ability to be in that spotlight in that moment I think, is a growing process for him. I think he's growing up. I think he’s starting to understand the weight of his words. What those things mean when he speaks and everyone's listening and watching.
“Even though he follows up the commentary with a lot of the right things, it's the one-liner that gets taken. He's learning how to deal with you guys and how to understand how to have those conversations and still maintain the image that he wants to maintain as a starting quarterback. Growing up is not always easy. I think there's some things that he's learning along the way just like we all do.”
Ward is dealing with the media just fine -- as well as anyone on the team. This is the last thing the Titans should be worried about.
Ward had footwork and timing issues. He needs to be put on the move more and used better. Those are the concerns. Not him being honest about the team's performance.
Do Simmons and Barton and Callahan think no one would know the Titans are ass if Ward didn't say it? That a secret got out of the bag?
Speaking honestly and getting a snippet picked up and talked about is hurting the team how, exactly?
If Simmons and Barton want to give honest critiques about things that are hurting the team, where are they when a decision can’t be made on kicking a field goal or going for it after two timeouts? When the team 
doesn’t challenge a clear in-bound catch that is called out of bounds? When the defense is still too complicated after the first four weeks?
No, no, they wouldn't dare comment on that. Like they are asking Ward to do, they must follow protocols, even when the team embarrasses itself week after week.
What the whole things show is that Ward is an even bigger leader and voice and face of the franchise four games in than we thought, while Simmons, who’s been far better in the leadership department, and Barton shrink to convention when something new and bold is right in front of them.
You’re supposed to have your QBs back, fellas.