Reese: Injuries But One Part of 5-7 Record
By Michelle Manson December 16, 2001

(Editors Note: Titans Radio Executive Producer and Game Day Host Larry Stone sat down with Titans General Manager Floyd Reese this week to discuss the struggles of his 5-7 team and what the future holds for the Titans. This is the first of a two-part interview. Part two airs during the Rafferty's Titans Countdown prior to the Oakland game.)

Titans General Manager Floyd Reese said the team will spend a lot of time the next few months looking at what went wrong as the Titans struggled to a 5-7 start this season.

'We're going to have to take some time and reevaluate and go back and look at what we're doing,' Reese said. 'We've got to be very critical about the things that we do whether or not we end up changing some things or not will be something we have to decide.'

'You cannot be happy when a season goes this way. If we wanted to make a list of some the reasons we could have a long, fairly illustrious list. But, unfortunately that doesn't help us very much.'

Reese said most NFL teams face injuries during a season, but younger players are able to respond and step up.

'Even though they're there and they are devastating, it's something you have to cope with, you have to learn to live with,' Reese said. 'The key is how you're going to react to it.'

Reese says the disappointment in the 2001 season thus far has been devastating and completely unexpected.

'I think when you have high expectations and then you go through some of the things we've gone through,' Reese said, 'I think that's when it (disappointment) becomes an issue and something that you really have to deal with.'

With the chance of reaching the playoffs virtually non-existent, many have wondered the past week whether the Titans will lay down and quit for the last four weeks of the season. Reese said no.

'I think character and things of that nature have been very, very important to us for years,' Reese said. 'I don't think anybody would say that Steve McNair, or Eddie George, or Jevon Kearse would quit playing hard. If those guys won't quit, the rest of the team won't quit either.'