First-year Tennessee Titans head coach Brian Callahan hasn’t won many football games, but he definitely won a press conference this week.
Fresh off Tennessee’s most recent loss to the Bengals—their fourth in five games—reporters questioned the competitiveness of Callahan’s team during a Wednesday press conference.
Callahan was having none of it.
“You really want to get me going today?,’ Callahan asked. “Yeah, I think, to be honest with you, I think it’s complete and total bullsh*t, if you want my honest opinion. These guys are tough f*ckers, man. They go after it every day. They play hard as hell.
“At no point have we ever put on tape at any point this season that this is a soft football team. I can’t even wrap my mind around how that would even be a conversation.
“Just because we don’t win games doesn’t mean we’re soft. These guys, they play their a** off. They play hard. They play physical.
“You can ask any team that plays against us that when they come off the field, they know they played us. Yeah, that makes me relatively angry that that would be some presumption. That means you just don’t watch the sh*t. You don’t do anything about it that you don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t know what you’re looking at.
“I’m not going to stand for anybody calling this football team soft. I think that’s bullsh*t. If there’s opinions out there that feel that way, then they don’t know anything about NFL football.
Callahan continued, “I’d like you to walk in there call one of these guys soft and see what happens. This is not a soft football team at all, mentally or physically. I think one of the things mentally that’s really been impressive about the team is that the way that they keep fighting through the way this season has gone.
“They’ve not shown at any point that they’re not up to the task. They come out every day and work. You’re going to really get me going now. These guys come out here and they do everything possible to win games.
“If there’s any assumption anywhere that’s outside of this building, again, we don’t focus on all those things, but there’s no possible explanation to say that this team is soft in any way, shape, or form, mentally or physically. The way that they go about their work, it’s insulting to me, to them, to everyone that works here.
“I’m not… no chance ever in hell would I ever admit that to be the case, and neither would anybody in this locker room. You can shove that one right up your a**, to be honest.”