Titans offensive coordinator Todd Downing celebrated a bit too hard after his team’s huge win in Green Bay on Thursday night.
Downing was arrested early Friday morning in Williamson County, Tenn. for driving under the influence and speeding, as was first reported by Titan Insider and confirmed by NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport.
Head coach Mike Vrabel acknowledged Downing’s arrest on Friday, hours after the Titans defeated the Packers in a huge 27-17 victory at Lambeau Field, bringing their record to 7-3 on the season and strengthening their lead in the AFC South.
“We all have a great responsibility as members of this community, as fathers and husbands and teammates to make great decisions and we understand that,” Vrabel told reporters. “Out of respect to the situation there are going to be things I’m not able to talk about.”
According to an arrest report, Downing was booked into Williamson County jail around 4:30 in the morning and was released on bond just before 7 a.m.
Tennessee Highway Patrol stopped Downing on Interstate 65 and noticed “obvious signs of an intoxicant,” per their report.
Vrabel refused to call Downing’s arrest “discouraging.”
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“I don’t think ‘discouraging,’” Vrabel said. “I don’t want to try to give it an adjective. It’s an incident that came up. It’s something that we are going to take very seriously, going to gather all the information that we can, figure out what the next step is and do our best to move forward. I don’t think discouraged is something that I’ve thought about today.”
Vrabel did not divulge if alcohol was served on the team plane, but confirmed the Titans have a partnership with a ride-sharing company to get players and staff home after games.
He deferred to NFL policy regarding whether Downing will face punishment from the team of league, though an NFL spokesperson told Pro Football Talk it is looking into the incident.
“We have been in contact with the Titans regarding the matter which will be reviewed,” Brian McCarthy said. “All league and club personnel, including coaches, are subject to potential discipline when a violation is determined to have been committed.”
Vrabel had yet to inform the team as a whole.
“I’ll make sure that it gets addressed when we get back in here,” he said. “Still a lot of things that we’re working through. We’ll address it and we’ll provide support where support is needed. We’ll make sure that just as always if there’s something that needs to be held accountable we’ll hold that person accountable. Just haven’t had the time to get everybody together with just the timing of it.”
