Tennessee Titans quarterback Cam Ward stepped up to another press conference Wednesday and this time the entire local media corps was in their seats ready to ask him questions.

Sunday after the Titans 24-18 loss in Baltimore to the Ravens, Ward stood at the visiting press podium and the chairs were empty. Titans media who traveled to the road game was still in the locker room in a scrum with defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons, according to Jim Wyatt.

Ward joked with team employees, who were the few in the room about having nobody there, so he would leave. He joked to Titans PR Jared Puffer about setting a clock for him to wait “I got three minutes, Puff.”

After roughly 90 seconds to two minutes, the group of media members entered the room, Ward answered their questions, and they all went on their way. The internet however took the hot mic moment and blew it out of context with many sports media personalities, former players, and anybody else drawing conclusions about Ward’s professionalism.

After nearly three full days of internet nonsense, Ward addressed the moment and was able to clear the air.

Titans QB Cam Ward addresses his viral hot-mic press conference moment

“They’re talking about that? That’s a that’s something for them to talk about if they need something to talk about. We’d rather them talk about that than you know our performance. So we just trying to put good product on the field.”

“It wasn’t us for the record,” Paul Kuharsky added.

“It don’t matter to me. It don’t matter.” Ward ended.

Easton Freeze added that Ward and Puffer peeked out of the door in a playful manner to check to see if they were there.

Ward was asked again and went in more detail about the social media reaction and went deeper.

“Actually, didn’t know until I got sent it. So a lot, a lot of times I really don’t know anything was going on, whether it’s for myself or another teammate. But they gonna say something end of day. I attack the, I attack the same you know progress that I have. You know, getting better each and every week. At the end of the day, they can say whatever they want about me. The people in this locker will know what type person I am. My family know what type person I am. So, with any with any you know fan or other person out there on social media, what they think of who I am as a person will never have any meaning because at the end of the day, they don’t get to step up here and play a sport for a living. They go do their job that you know some of them may hate. I get up here and I love to do this. I love to go out here and work with my teammates. So it has nothing to to do mentally with us because we know it’s something that’s out of our control. And and with it, it’s fun because it’s just somebody else you get to prove wrong.”

Terry McCormick joked back about how the young Titans QB loves talking to this local media group. Ward smiled with a “yes, and no.”

“I love talking to y’all because you know with y’all and y’all know you know some of the stuff that we just got to say. But but with that, I mean who wouldn’t want to get up here and get to do this? I mean we get up here and get to do stuff that you know people dream of. It’s the reason why we’re 1% So if you can’t come up to a podium, you can’t you know get on your phone after a game. If you can’t handle some criticism, in my opinion, I mean you’re in the wrong profession. You’re not gonna be be able to do nothing in life. So you gotta be be accountable. Be accountable person. Take accountability, whether it’s from the fans, from the coaching, and you know if you can do that, if you’re a mental, you know, strong-minded person. A lot of stuff gonna go your way.”

As Wyatt said on his appearance on 3HL Tuesday that most don’t know who Ward is, and his personality. He cuts up. He’s formed relationships with team employees across the board. He just happens to be very confident in himself.

“I think just what keeps me going is the amount of work I know I put into it,” Ward said when asked about what keeps him confident.

“Whether it’s early mornings or long nights, you know, at the end of day, you know, the good is going to come out of you know everybody in this building. We all put a certain amount, you know, works into it, and you know the the confidence, you know, with it just watching films, lots of, you know, I I know what they’re going to do even before they do it, so I’m able to anticipate a lot of stuff. But then they still have to be able to react to you know certain coverages they got to play you know post snap, and that’s when you know the athletes I have around me. That’s when they come into play. You know they made my job a lot easier.”

Getting the joke and being critical of Cam Ward, the QB

In my opinion, we all are developed enough to use our brains and see when a person is “cutting up” and joking with people they know, where nothing harmful or offensive was said.

No one in the group of five traveling Titans media had an issue with any of it. Wyatt mentioned Paul Kuharsky, Buck Reising, Turron Davenport and Tyler Palmateer as those in the group.

The Titans are 0-4 and, remarkably, are 7.5 point home underdogs to the also winless Houston Texans in Week 5. Part of the reason for the losses is Ward’s quarterback play. It’s shown signs of life, signs of being good, but also stretches of not being good enough to over come mistakes by others on the roster.

He is not the sole reason for the 0-4 start. The Titans have lost each game in a different way. The Jets blew them out in the opener where the team looked lost in all phases. The Titans defense let Jalen Hurts score a winning touchdown in under 20 seconds left in Week 2, and the next Week Ward threw an interception when he was in the same position against the New York Giants. Week 4 in Baltimore was a collection of critical errors, including turnovers, that spoiled the best first half of offense this team has put together.

Cam must be better. He’s shown progress in the right direction on the field, but he’s not there, still. His off-field narratives have mostly been ridiculous, overblown moments that take on a life of their own by the internet, while the people involved thought nothing of it.