Jeff Fisher on why Bud Adams drafted Texas QB

If you’re sufficiently old to recollect the 2006 NFL draft, you then bear in mind what the dialog was like round Houston at a time when the Texans had the No. 1 total choose with Madison High School and University of Texas star Vince Young out there recent off main the Longhorns to a nationwide championship.

Sports radio hosts barely needed to present up for months, as a result of all they needed to do was flip on the cellphone strains and it was time for Vince Young-to-the-Texans discuss.

In the most recent in Netflix’s Untold series “The Testimony of Vince Young,” which was launched Tuesday, former Houston Oilers and Tennessee Titans coach Jeff Fisher tells a narrative — maybe embellished — about a type of cellphone calls that impressed Bud Adams, the person who took the Oilers out of Houston and moved them to Tennessee.

Before the Oilers left city, Adams regularly clashed with Houston mayor Bob Lanier as he pushed town to assist him construct a brand new stadium that may hold the Oilers on the town simply years after he threatened to maneuver if the Astrodome didn’t take away its iconic exploding scoreboard to place in additional seats within the higher deck.

In 2006, the Texans had the primary choose within the draft adopted by the Saints and Titans. Adams, who nonetheless owned a house in Houston, wished Young to be his quarterback, so he was relieved when the Texans used the primary choose on defensive finish Mario Williams and the Saints took USC operating again Reggie Bush, sending Young into Adams’ ready embrace.

In Nashville, nevertheless, there was battle about who the Titans ought to take. In the Netflix documentary, Fisher says his offensive coordinator Norm Chow, who he had simply employed from USC, wished Matt Leinart, who ended up going tenth to the Cardinals, whereas Fisher wished Vanderbilt’s Jay Cutler, who went eleventh to the Broncos. But, Adams was the proprietor and he wished Young.

“Bud Adams was obsessed and consumed with drafting Vince,” Fisher mentioned. “That all stemmed from an adversarial relationship that he had with the mayor of Houston that dated back decades. In that draft, I was told the ex-mayor’s wife came on a radio station and they were talking to her about who she thought the Houston Texans should draft with the first pick in this year’s draft, and she went on and on about Vince and she says, ‘As a matter of fact …,’ — tongue in cheek, I would assume — ‘as a matter of fact, if they don’t draft Vince Young, I’m going to go jump off the 16th Street Bridge.’ And Bud said, ‘We’re drafting Vince ’cause I want to see the b— jump.’”

Now, it’s up for debate if Elyse Lanier truly ever mentioned the NFL draft on Houston radio or if Adams made up the complete story or perhaps Fisher embellished it, however Adams did have severe beef with Bob Lanier.

In 2000, three years after Adams and the Oilers had left city and simply months after Houston had been awarded an enlargement franchise that may change into the Texans, Adams was on TV displaying off his Titans’ AFC championship ring on one hand whereas sporting an Oilers AFL championship ring on the opposite. A reporter requested Adams the place he would put a potential Super Bowl ring.

He held up his proper hand, extended the middle finger and said, “I’m going to put it right on this finger and say to the mayor of Houston, ‘There it is, mayor, take a look at it.’”

The day after Adams drafted Young, which broke the guts of lots of Houston soccer followers, he rubbed it of their noses by getting his non-public jet to select up Young and fly him again residence the place Adams and Young held a press convention at Sugar Land Regional Airport the place the jet landed.

“Not only is Vince a one-of-a-kind prospect who’s so good we couldn’t pass him up, but he’s a heck of a kid, too,” Adams informed reporters that day.

As for that draft, Williams performed six seasons in Houston, making an All-Pro workforce and two Pro Bowls. Bush performed 5 seasons with the Saints and did not make any Pro Bowls however he did assist deliver New Orleans its first Super Bowl title. Young obtained off to a scorching begin in Nashville, profitable offensive rookie of the yr and went on to make two Pro Bowls, however because the Netflix documentary delves into in nice element, he usually butted heads with Fisher, together with over his draft desire.

“Damn, you didn’t even want me, coach?” Young recollects considering within the documentary.