1:32pm: The Titans have begun an internal investigation into this situation, and head coach Mike Vrabel has been in contact with Downing, as noted by team reporter Jim Wyatt (on Twitter). The NFL, meanwhile, has also opened an investigation into the matter, one which could produce a range of consequences. ESPN’s Adam Schefter tweets that the league has been in contact with Tennessee, no doubt to ascertain exactly when it is that Downing began drinking. Depending on the outcome of the probe, significant discipline could be coming.
8:25am: Titans offensive coordinator Todd Downing was arrested on a DUI charge early Friday morning, Terry McCormick of TitanInsider.com reports. Downing was speeding at the time of the arrest, Tony Garcia of WSMV adds.
This arrest occurred in Tennessee hours after the Titans’ 27-17 win over the Packers at Lambeau Field. Tennessee Highway Patrol pulled over Downing at 3:49am; he was released from Williamson County Jail at 6:46am. Downing, 42, is in his second season as the Titans’ play-caller.
An Eden Prairie, Minn., native, Downing has been with the Titans since 2019. This is his second OC gig, coming after a one-and-done stay as the Raiders’ play-caller back in 2017. Downing has been an NFL assistant since 2005, when he broke into the league with the Vikings.
Downing’s stock will undoubtedly take a hit as a result of this development. Suspensions have followed other staff DUIs in the recent past, so it will be interesting to see how the Titans proceed here. The team’s plane landed at approximately 2:11am, Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk adds, raising questions about where Downing began consuming alcohol Friday morning.
After hiring Downing as their tight ends coach in 2019, they promoted him to replace Arthur Smith in 2021. The Titans are coming off their best offensive performance of the season. They gained a season-high 408 yards in their road win, seeing their 29th-ranked passing attack produce 320 yards.
Guess this is one call he made that got sacked.
This is not what is supposed to be meant by “blitz pickup”.
Man, he had a very effective game plan against the Packers last night so he must’ve been out celebrating. It’s a shame cause he’s been roasted here in Nashville all season for poor play calling. Ya gotta Uber.
it was effective cause it was against the Packers defense. I wouldn’t take too much out of his calling. Tannehill will not look that good the rest of his career but GB made him look like Prime Tom Brady out there.
The Packers have a below average D but it’s not like the Titans were carving up the Lions, Chargers, Texans, Falcons, Bears, or Browns.
That should tell you how bad our secondary is. (which was supposed to be the STRONG part of the defense this year)
Don’t let your disappointment this year blind you. Winning in Green Bay is a big deal any year.
What an idiot
Send him to Arizona he and Keim would be perfect buddies here.
I’m sure Irsay would take another party buddy
A bit too much celebrating on the flight home.
He wasn’t out celebrating. 100% drinking on plane. Teams are on the plane and wheels up within an hour or so of the game wrapping up. Methinks the NFL will start cracking down on the drinking on the planes soon. The recent video of Heineke sitting on the Washington plane after the win over the Eagles with a small garbage can full of ice and a six pack of a Busch Light (?!?) along with this kind of news will start some policy changes. These guys are still “on the clock” and WHEN one of them kills somebody after getting drunk with the consent of their boss and then having their boss watch them climb into a car at 3:00 am, it will be very tough to defend legally – the team, the player, the league, etc will all be found liable = $$$$. Eventually the league’s insurer will say no more.
People 21 and older can drink. How will the league be liable for that? It’s not freshman & sophomores in college.
It is like over serving at a bar. If they over serve they are liable. Same at your house someone comes to your party leaves and kills somebody you best hope you have better ins than Jake from Allstate is selling you. I haven’t looked at their how much you need is but most of these guys will sell you a policy that is lacking and have you sign statements saying you understood you signed a policy that didn’t have enough coverage. They won’t tell you that is what it is. Probably tell you just a paper agreeing to the policy. At least skim a document before signing.
So you’ve never had drinks at a friend’s home or invited guest over to your home for drinks?
How can the league be liable for it? He was drinking on the plane? Hence he is still on the NFL dime.
These guys are adults with unbelievably painful jobs. They also have access to car services. You can’t ask them not to drink, but you can make sure they know it’s gonna cost them if they make a dumb choices. You can also have someone actively coordinating rides home when the drinking was done on team premises or transportation.
Are you over 21? Are you able to drink at work? Just because they are 21 doesn’t mean your employer can’t make rules that you need to follow when you are operating as an employee. Riding on the plane and being at the facility, you’re still an employee
I’ve absolutely had drinks at work after major deadlines, accomplishments, etc., often provided by higher ups. We also have leadership that sets standards and expectations about behavior.
Do you know how many Christmas and New Years work parties are about to happen over the next 6 weeks? Lots of booze will be flowing during the holiday season.
Yep, and a whole lot of people will be exited not to drive drunk *without* job provided car services.
So you’re saying that these drinking work parties happen at work? On the clock? What year is this 1975? Any business that allows for this is foolish. Where I live and worked, most everyone met at a local bar/restaurant after work if they wanted to drink. Work hours, it was just food. This guy deserves any punishment given to him
What’s the difference in the argument? A business will be buying drinks at a bar/restaurant where the staff will over serve them during the holidays. Who’s to blame the biz, bar, or the drunk driver? And if a business is buying drinks after hours, like the flight, are they ‘still on the clock’ employees?
Tenn won the game. The OC had a few too many celebrating the win and got popped for it. That’s him not the franchise.
Oh course they are. They are returning from a work related function. This started with the fact that the league and the team has a right to not allow employees to drink at the facilities or on the plane on the way home. A business can make practically any rules it wants while you’re on their premises or at a work function. This guy needs a quick 3-4 game suspension
Downing absolutely should be punished. Anyone else? Hard to say. I’ve been in offices where drinks were poured the moment a big project was completed or launched. Setting standards for behavior, respect for people who don’t drink or don’t want to drink, and expectations of responsibility are all important. One of the best bosses I ever had would personally check how people were getting home, encourage people to plan ahead, and in at least one case, confiscate keys. He was also overseeing a lot fewer people than a 53 man roster plus coaches, etc.
Confiscating keys because of suspicions of what might be in someone’s egg nog sounds like a training program the Stasi would run.
Your boss shouldn’t have to be a babysitter. Grown adults need to accept responsibility
Yes 100% right!!! Individuals have their own responsibility.
He wasn’t being a babysitter. He was making sure he was accountable, even though he could have gotten away with less.
And comparing taking an inebriated person’s keys in a good natured, protective way to the Stasi is nuts.
Google data mines every scrap of your personal information they can “in a good natured, protective way”. Does that sound nuts as well?
That isn’t remotely similar.
He sounds like a den mother. Are you sure you weren’t in a sorority?
You think having a drink on work premises is something out of 1975, but the thought of people looking out for each other brings out knee jerk misogyny.
If the employees knew that the boss was looking out for them, which you seem to indicate, then he’s babysitting. It’s one thing if you and your wife go to a party and she ends up driving home, but getting your load on at a office Christmas party is immature. Did your boss also make sure that no married people cheated too?
Lol ok. So you’ve never looked out for a friend or co-worker and none has ever looked out for you? Sounds lonely and depressing.
Not on a yearly basis. Your office sounds like a fraternity. I guess I just never thought it was cool to get lit at work parties
Attempts to deprive individuals of personal rights and freedom have acquired many guises.
There is no personal right to drive drunk. This is an incredibly stupid hill to die on.
Andy Reid’s son almost did and that’s why he is going to Jail(Probably will only end up doing a few months. Honestly this guy should probably be suspended for the rest of the year and any along with the HC should face a suspension as well for allowing one of his OC to drive drunk.
He is an adult and he is responsible for his own actions. With that being said, I am surprised that an organization of a high public profile like a team in the NFL which is very image conscious didn’t have someone watching the drinking on the plane and insist that they all a cab if they think a player or coach drank a few on the plane.
NFL teams are kept to higher standard and bad press is not good…even if the OC is an adult and is responsible for his own actions.
As learned from the Ruggs situation, all NFL players have access to a free 24/7 Uber like service that will take them anywhere at any time. It’s amazing how many people fail to understand this.
Ruggs + Reid’s son .. gotta clean this up
F ‘em! If they wanna be stupid be stupid..
Yeah I doubt someone’s stock is going to take a hit for this unless it’s a second offense. It’s gonna be a “well, I’m sure you know we have to suspend you for the optics. See you next week.” And it has absolutely zero effect on his career unless there’s another incident.
What is there to investigate? Dude got drunk he drove go to jail drop $10G’s get back to work and plan for next Sunday