Nate Burleson Shocked St Louis Rams Released Titus Young

May 29, 2012; Allen Park, MI, USA; Detroit Lions wide receivers Nate Burleson (13) and Titus Young (16) during organized team activities at Lions training facility. Mandatory Credit: Andrew Weber-USA TODAY Sports

If you don’t know the St. Louis Rams cut wide receiver Titus Young just 9 days after picking him up off waivers. This helped cement many peoples opinions of Titus Young as a trouble maker. Earlier today however Jeff Fisher said that the reason for the Rams releasing Titus Young had nothing to do with his personality or reputation.

Instead, Fisher suggested it was simply a chance to negotiate with Young before he hit the open markets. A savvy business move.

Nate Burleson went on NFL AM this morning and amongst making a pitch for Reggie Bush to come to Detroit addressed the Titus Young situation. The quotes from the show were transcribed by Dave Birkett of The Detroit Free Press.

“It was very shocking. I got a text message that morning from my little brother, because people in my family know how much I love Titus and how much I tried to be hands-on with him. And the text I sent back was just, ‘Wow,’ with exclamation points. I really couldn’t wrap my mind around it because in this league you’re known as what you do last. When you get cut by a team, released by a team, there’s a certain taint that you have on yourself and I just don’t want him to get that this early in the career.”

Certainly that “taint” he references is hitching it’s wagon to Titus Young. But Nate Burleson tried to shed some light on why Titus Young seemingly acted out and threw public Twitter tantrums.

“For Titus, he’s so competitive, and he wanted to be so much of playmaker, and he wanted to be ‘the guy,’ it got in the way of him being a great teammate. He’s a really good kid and, hopefully, he’ll get a chance to play, because, plain and simple, I’d rather see Titus in a jersey than sitting at home on the couch.”