Titans focus on language with officials on hand
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) Titans safety Bernard Pollard has worked the past couple of years to clean the cursing out of his trash-talking.
He ran some words by officials working Tennessee's training camp Friday to make sure he'll pass the NFL's new crackdown on racial slurs and verbal abuse.
''Now I want to keep my cuss words at zero, so I'm saying a lot of `suckas' and `punks' and things like that,'' Pollard said. ''So he said it's OK as long as we both jaw jacking and get back to the huddle.
''But if we're coming at somebody's head after we hit them, standing over them, things like that, that's obviously demeaning somebody or whatever. We can't do that. The trash-talking's going to continue.
The NFL has vowed to clamp down on verbal abuse in games. Pollard is no stranger to officials, having been fined at least three times last season with one for $42,000. Pollard joked that he eyed down one official who flagged him for a penalty last season.
''So I had to eye him down when he came in, so it was a little bit of a standoff. I wanted to swing, but I like my money,'' Pollard said with a laugh.
Officials are working practices Friday and Saturday night with the Titans along with sitting in on some position meetings to answer questions. Officials also go over the league's video that reviews rule changes for the upcoming season.
''They've been in meetings today with our players already, so any questions that you have, any year when they have changes on what they're going to do and how they're going to see it, just communicating that with us is great because we get to see it actually on the field,'' coach Ken Whisenhunt said.
''Then we get to go in tonight and they'll do their presentation, and also anything that came up from practice today, we'll have a chance to discuss.''
Rookie defensive back Marqueston Huff got help immediately Friday when an official alerted him he held a receiver too much.
''You get an opportunity to just really correct your mistake,'' said Huff, who played in college at Wyoming. ''Without the refs, you get to do a lot of hands-on stuff. And for me coming from college, college is a lot more physical game as far as the down field bumping and to the NFL it's a big transition. To have those guys around here to correct those mistakes is great. It's there immediately. You know what you did wrong, and it's correctable.''
Notes: Pollard got into a bit of a skirmish with center Brian Schwenke. The center was back at practice after missing Thursday's session with a sore right knee. DT Antonio Johnson (left leg) missed a second straight day. WR Justin Hunter beat CB Tommie Campbell twice for TD catches, while Coty Sensabaugh picked off a Jake Locker pass for Kendall Wright in an end of game situation.
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