By A to Z Sports,Buck Reising
Copyright yardbarker
Cam Ward’s frustration finally boiled over last Sunday after his Tennessee Titans fell to 0–4. The 2025 No. 1 overall pick offered a brutally honest assessment following Tennessee’s 26-0 shutout loss to the Houston Texans (1–3).
Ward described himself and his teammates, top to bottom, as “ass.”
Ward’s honesty should be commended
Thank the football gods that someone in the Titans organization is willing to give an unfiltered appraisal of where things stand.
Importantly, Ward’s outburst wasn’t an attack on his teammates or coaches — it was raw accountability. Imagine a 23-year-old holding himself and those around him to a higher standard than the adults tasked with fixing this mess.
Sure, sugarcoating would be easier for the organization. But God forbid someone besides Ward or defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons show some fight about how this season has started.
“He’s still a young player,” coach Brian Callahan said of his quarterback. “He’s the number one overall pick. He’s the face of the franchise, if you will. He’s got high expectations for himself. We have high expectations for him. We all want to meet those. His ability to be in that spotlight in that moment — I think it’s a growing process for him. I think he’s growing up. He’s starting to understand the weight of his words — what they 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, how to have those conversations, and still maintain the image he wants as a starting quarterback. Growing up is not always easy. He’s learning along the way, just like we all do.”
Ward — who famously cares only about family, football, and his dog — doesn’t need to be patronized that way.
Players and coaches don’t have to air dirty laundry in the media, and Ward didn’t. An NFL head coach once told me, “I’d never say anything in front of [the media] that I wouldn’t say in front of the team.”
Ward’s rebuke of the “hot ass” that is the Titans’ four-week performance should resonate with everyone in the building — from ownership down. Players in the locker room didn’t object. And if a few of the business-side suits — more worried about selling tickets to the shiny new monument to mediocre football that is the new Nissan Stadium — left the press conference a little butthurt, good.
They all need to be better instead of failing Ward as miserably as they have. More people in that organization should have the honesty and fire to call it what it is: ass.
