Ryan Tannehill finds common ground with Malik Willis at Tennessee Titans OTAs
NASHVILLE — MentorGate is dead. Quarterbacks Ryan Tannehill and Malik Willis made sure of it in their comments after Tuesday's OTAs. Tennessee Titans fans will have to find something else to bicker about until September. Tannehill addressed Tennessee media after his day on the practice field with the intention of clarifying comments on mentoring the rookie […]
NASHVILLE — MentorGate is dead. Quarterbacks Ryan Tannehill and Malik Willis made sure of it in their comments after Tuesday's OTAs.
Tennessee Titans fans will have to find something else to bicker about until September.
Tannehill addressed Tennessee media after his day on the practice field with the intention of clarifying comments on mentoring the rookie Willis. The veteran expressed both his surprise and disappointment at the media maelstrom his words had caused. Willis quickly dismissed any tensions between the two in his rookie minicamp debut.
Tannehill and Willis now share a common bond
Check this box if you were marked safe from mentorship madness today.
"I meant no disrespect to Malik or anything like that," Tannehill said on Tuesday. "We've been in constant communication since he was drafted through the madness that ensued after my last press conference. Over the last few weeks he's been in the building and getting to know each other. He's a good person and a talented player. He's coming off of a great college career and we're really happy to have him in the room. Really disappointed in how things got spun and twisted a little bit. I pride myself on being a great teammate my whole career going back to when I was a kid playing youth sports. It's been something that's been important to me since the beginning, and will always be important to me."
The Titans starting quarterback continued to go on at some length to set the record straight.
Why shouldn't Ryan Tannehill be anything but let down with how quickly the situation devolved? In a slow news cycle, every sports outlet descended upon Tennessee's facility just because a quarterback spoke a little too honestly. Lowest common denominator drivel at the sports talk trough won the day. For all the narratives of potential rifts or perceived derision in the Titans quarterback room, however, MentorGate seemed to have quite the opposite effect.
Tannehill and Willis appear to have used this collective stupidity to form their first bond as teammates.
"As soon as it blew up, I reached out to (Willis)," Tannehill said. "I said 'Hey, I'm going to be a great teammate to you. I'm going to support you and they are making this out to be something that it was not meant to be.' He's been good. He's been great about it the whole time."
Both quarterbacks have handled this nonsense with grace. Far more than could be said for the rest of us.
Featured Image: USA TODAY Sports.
