Titus Young Unclaimed Through Waivers

September 11, 2011; Tampa, FL, USA; Detroit Lions wide receiver Titus Young (16) during the second quarter against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Raymond James Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

Despite Jeff Fisher’s insistence that Titus Young was strictly released due to contractual issues he wasn’t claimed off waivers for a second time in as many weeks.

Some aren’t shocked by this. Some are.

Titus Young has been gifted with the scarlet letter in the NFL, the dreaded “troublesome wide receiver” label. And it’s emblazoned all over his chest, or Twitter account.

Veteran players, Hall of Fame players couldn’t shake this label. Terrell Owens tried and got black balled by the league essentially. Randy Moss played for several teams in the same season then retired and is trying to make a come back.

St. Louis Rams head coach Jeff Fisher though insisted they claimed Titus Young off waivers to negotiate with him and partially in an effort to keep themselves from having to compete with other NFL teams. Regardless of whether that’s true or not, releasing him 10 days later helped that label grow.

Apparently though there wasn’t much competition and the Rams were the only ones to put a claim on him last time he was on waivers.

So it’ll be hard for him to find a team, and he certainly won’t go early in free agency. He’ll be a last minute acquisition by a team that failed in free agency desperate for a wide receiver. It might even take into preseason or season for him to get signed to replace a player who was injured.

He caused this problem for himself, but it’s sad to see.