In retrospect, Titans wide receiver Justin Hunter said Tuesday he regrets his now-famous locker room jump of last week.
The former Vol, who’d sat out last Thursday’s OTA session with a sore ankle, tried to jump up and touch the locker-room’s 13-foot ceiling afterward on a dare from a teammate. The jump took place in front of teammates and media, leading to plenty of criticism for Hunter on social media.
“Yeah, I wish I hadn’t done it, but it was just like fun and games, things like that between teammates,” Hunter said. “It was last week, so I’m thinking more about now.”
Hunter said the ankle wasn’t a significant injury, but still realizes the move didn’t look good to those who didn’t know the severity.
“It was just for that day I couldn’t practice – it was just the running part that really hurt (the ankle) the most,” Hunter said. “I didn’t feel like the jumping part was hurting much. It didn’t take too much energy to do that. But you know, everyone else (thought it did), so I can’t do that.”
Hunter said there was no money actually involved in the dare from teammate Phillip Supernaw, though Supernaw was yelling “Pay me the money,” after Hunter came up short on the leap.
Titans coach Mike Mularkey said Tuesday he would have preferred Hunter didn’t make the leap, and he expressed that to Hunter not long after the incident. Mularkey had held Hunter out of the OTA session as a precautionary move to make sure he’d be healthy for this week’s mini-camp.
“It can put you in a bad position when I’m trying to take care of them,” Mularkey said. “I really am trying to be smart with them, and then they’re going to expose themselves to something further.
“I’m constantly talking about choices, decisions, consequences. Something bad could have come out of that that none of us wanted. Think about some of the things you’re going to do before you do them, especially when you just have not practiced.”
Was it just a matter of Hunter acting more maturely, Mularkey was asked?
“I think so,” Mularkey said of the three-year veteran. “I think he has a better understanding of it now than he does before.”
-- Reach John Glennon at 615-259-8262 and on Twitter @glennonsports.
