Merril Hoge of ESPN has been on the anti-Vince Young bandwagon since VY first entered the league. In his most recent comments, Hoge told a Pittsburgh radio station that Vince Youngis a baby, and that Tennessee Titans Head Coach Jeff Fisher was against the drafting of Young.

Jeff Fisher was asked about Hoge’s comments on Monday, and said that Merril doesn’t have his facts straight.
From The Tennessean:

“Whatever he reported that I disclosed with him is incorrect,’’ Fisher said earlier Monday. “He implied, or stated, that Vince (also) takes a limo to work every day and lives three miles away from the facility. That is so far out of line. He doesn’t do that; we all know he doesn’t do that. So if you are going to start there, I think it discredits everything. He accused me of saying a lot of things that I never said.’’

Interesting. First Fisher said the police had inaccuracies in their report about a suicidal Vince Young, and now he has beef with Hoge’s comments. How did Merril Hoge respond to basically being called a liar by Jeff Fisher? With some nice backpedaling.

Hoge also said Fisher told him he was going to threaten to use the Texas offense if the Titans picked Young “because he has no chance to run an NFL offense.’’ But on Monday Hoge said he was the one who told Fisher he should run the Texas offense if the Titans picked him.

“I know people think that I hate Vince Young,” Hoge said. “I’ve never met Vince Young and I don’t want him to fail. I’ve been critical of him, but that’s my job. Everything he has gone through, I hope he’s able to work his way through it.”

It reads to me like Merril is admitting he bent the truth during the radio interview. If you’ve ever heard Hoge speak on Vince Young you know he doesn’t like the guy. That’s cool. But lying about Young makes it seem like Merril Hoge is piling on and trying to reinforce his “Vince Young is a bust” take.