Titans ownership makes her executives eat their own words after the firing of head coach Brian Callahan

The Tennessee Titans became the first team in the NFL this year to fire its head coach on Monday, sending Brian Callahan packing after just 23 games at the helm. Team brass broke the news to him this morning; he relayed it to his staff at noon, and yet it still took seven and a half hours to get their act together for a press conference.

That was the first big hint that owner Amy Adams Strunk drove this decision and not her executive leadership. The second big hint came when we listened to what president of football operations Chad Brinker and general manager Mike Borgonzi had to say in their primetime press conference.

Chad Brinker and Mike Borgonzi at A loss for words

Patience over panic. That was the guiding principle that this regime came into the year preaching. And it was scuttled in just six short weeks. Now, I’m not saying that the writing wasn’t clearly on the wall about the Callahan regime. The question of whether this staff should be moved on from was answered quickly this year. But the question of when that change should be made was a fair one, and it’s why the public was largely surprised to see this news handed down today.

“Amy has entrusted me to make tough decisions in this organization,” Chad Brinker opened the press conference by saying. “And working with Mike (Borgonzi) and I and meeting with her this morning, and talking through all this… we just felt like this was the right time to make a change.”

This being the right time was a recurring theme from Brinker’s presser. Seeing a lack of growth was the other theme.

“Now, that doesn’t change the things that we said in the preseason about looking for growth in this football team,” he continued. “And that’s what this is about right now, is we’re not seeing enough growth from this football team.”

So it was the right time, because they weren’t seeing enough growth. Sure, fair enough. We all agree this team hasn’t been growing. We all agree that the time was coming one way or another. But what made this, the Monday of Week 7, the right time in particular? Why not after starting 0-4 when things were miserable after an offensive no-show in Houston? Why not after getting a crack at home against Vrabel this week, aside from the personal humiliation you stand to endure if you’re Amy Adams Strunk?

Was this the “right time” because something specific happened? Or was it the right time because the owner decided she couldn’t take this anymore?

The answer seems to be the latter. In this presser, Brinker and Borgonzi looked miserable. Borgonzi, in particular, looked like a man shellshocked, caught off guard by what he walked into when he took this job in the spring.

The whole affair tonight was brutal. To be clear, Brinker and Borgonzi handled the assignment fine. But this was a public humiliation ritual. These were two men who did not intend to fire their head coach today. They were being made to answer for the decision of ownership, whose reputation for impatience only grew today. They couldn’t say what they actually think because they’re just the messengers. That’s an impossible situation that far too many people have been put in at St. Thomas Sports Park in recent years.

They say they met and agreed this was the right time, despite preaching patience and continuity all offseason and then taking all day long to get their act together with a plan for the future. To that I say, I do not believe you.

I understand why you have to say it, but let me say the quiet part out loud for you: Adams Strunk compelled us to move “fire Brian Callahan” up many, many slots on the to-do list this year.