Tennessee Titans: Arthur Smith apologized to A.J. Brown for yelling at him

Tennessee Titans offensive coordinator Arthur Smith apologized to wide receiver A.J. Brown for yelling at him early on in training camp.

Wide receiver A.J. Brown seemed to be having a rough first day at training camp when offensive coordinator Arthur Smith yelled at him for slipping during a drill and not finishing his route.

As it turned out, Brown had injured himself on the play, and the injury kept Brown out until he returned to practice in a limited fashion for the first time on Day 12.

Smith, who didn’t know at the time that Brown was hurt, felt bad for yelling at the rookie and decided to apologize. The Titans OC even got some heat from his wife, per ESPN.

“If I had known he was hurt, I would not have gone over to do that,” Smith said. “As soon as I realized it, I felt awful, so I walked over and said something and then I walked to the training room and apologized to him and I told him that. My wife gave me an earful about it, too. There was a video going around.”

Here’s the video Smith is talking about (warning: NSFW).

Brown also acknowledged that his coach said sorry.

“He apologized a couple of times. He felt bad for that one,” said Brown. “He’s a great guy and he was just apologizing, saying he said he didn’t know what happened.”

At the time I saw the video, we knew that was the play Brown had injured himself on. I thought to myself “man, that’s kind of harsh” on Smith’s part, but it’s understandable seeing as how he didn’t realize an injury occurred on the play.

It’s all water under the bridge now, though. Smith apologized, and Brown is finally back at practice, slowly making progress to a full return.

The hope is that Brown can make it back enough to get into the Titans’ second preseason game, which takes place on Saturday night against the New England Patriots. That would be a great sign for the Titans’ 2019 second-round pick.