Lions' Schwartz Talks Redemption, Says The Ball Is In Titus Young's Court
DETROIT (97.1 The Ticket) Detroit Lions Coach Jim Schwartz announced -- along with some scathing comments -- that WR Titus Young will be inactive against the Houston Texans this Thanksgiving after a "behavioral" issue.
It left a lot of questions -- so Schwartz joined Karsch and Anderson today on 97.1 The Ticket and talked about the issue with Young.
"Well, anytime we go through a week and we have 53 guys on our roster, we have to go through who we think are the best 46 to be able to play that week," Schwartz said. "The bottom line is you try to go with the 46 who give you the best chance to win and right now, Titus isn't one of them due to his actions on the field. We need guys who put the team in front of themselves, and that's what our decision is."
Schwartz went on to talk about redemption, adding the redemption tale is usually the best story in sports.
"There are things that happen in athletics and professional sports -- Going back to high school you certainly want to help guys work through things," Schwartz said. "Some of the greatest stories ever are guys who overcame injuries or personal issues ... In this situation we are going with what our best 46 are."
When Schwartz was about if this will be a redemption story for Titus Young, he said, "Well, I think that is gonna be up to him. The ball is totally in his court."
Schwartz was also asked about Thanksgiving being a short week for the team. "It's just what you deal with in professional sports," he said, adding, "There's Sunday night games, Monday night games, short weeks, bye weeks ... Every team in the NFL has a Thursday game this year so I think everybody goes through it at least once this year. You don't have very much time on the practice field ... You have to learn an opponent pretty quickly. It's just life in the NFL, every team goes through it."
He added the Thanksgiving game is one "that means a lot for the city ... It's great to be part of that tradition and that certainly makes it special for us ... There's a long history that we're part of and respect."
Listen to the full interview below:
