In 2003, former Tennessee Titans quarterback Steve McNair fell victim to a variety of injuries. The Titans backup at the time was Billy Volek – a former undrafted rookie free agent from Fresno State that the team signed in 2000.

Volek stepped in to the starting role and played in a total of seven games that season in ‘03. His completion percentage was 63.8, he threw four touchdowns, no interceptions and finished the season with a QB rating of 101.4.

That season opened up eyes in the Tennessee organization that the kid could play. In 2004, the Titans fought off other teams for the rights to keep the free agent to be, and thought of Volek as an eventual replacement for McNair.

Fast forward to this past offseason when Tennessee essentially tossed McNair out on the streets (a player who had served the franchise well for over 10 seasons) and handed the starting role over to Volek.

Now granted, the Titans did select NCAA National Championship winner Vince Young of Texas with the third overall pick in April’s draft, but head coach Jeff Fisher was adamant that Volek was his man.

However, something happened between then and last week, when Tennessee traded Volek to the San Diego Chargers for a sixth round pick and a ham sandwich.

What happened to the guy everybody in Tennessee thought would be McNair’s replacement?

In a story posted on Tennessean.com on Wednesday, Volek wanted to know the same thing:

“If you want to point the finger at me, point the finger at me. I am fine with that. But let me know why I am not playing, and that never happened here. No one told me. Yes, I leave with some bitterness. But I am trying to think of the good times. And I am excited about my new opportunity.”

“When Steve left, I was told it was my job, but I was never told I earned it. I was always told I inherited it. I remember Coach (Jeff) Fisher floating that out there, and that bothered me,” Volek said.

The story doesn’t end there.

Fisher, a man who is regarded in high standards by many NFL officials and someone who normally doesn’t speak on in-house issues, responded to Volek’s comments with a barrage of slams on his former QB in a follow-up Tennessean.com article:

“I never at anytime in my career have gone into such detail (about a trade). But I felt the responsibility, as Billy felt he was thrown under the bus,” Fisher said. “Billy threw this organization under the bus, along with a number of his teammates.”

“He was untruthful with me, untruthful with his head coach, about where he was and what he was doing. So we started off on the wrong page there, and that did not sit well with me,” Fisher said.

In the same interview, Fisher goes on to say that after the team signed veteran quarterback Kerry Collins before the final preseason game, Volek marched into Fisher and general manager Floyd Reese’s office and demanded a trade.

The most intriguing quote from Fisher’s interview was the comment about Volek lying to the head coach.

Fisher wouldn’t go into detail about what Volek lied about, but gauging from the little Fisher did unveil, maybe the quarterback wasn’t preparing for the season like a starter normally would (whether that means studying the playbook, getting into playing shape or being a leader in the locker room).

This is all speculation of course, but perhaps Volek didn’t show the kind of desire or work ethic in demonstrating that he wanted to be more than just the backup. Volek did say that Fisher told him he inherited the position – he didn’t earn it.

The man mum on the situation in both of these articles is Norm Chow, the Titans offensive coordinator. Something tells me he is behind the story as well – maybe he and Volek weren’t on the same page, which led to Fisher saying he was lied to about where the quarterback “was”?

Regardless of what really happened in Tennessee with Billy Volek, it’s interesting that Fisher has admitted that the quarterback was on bad terms in the organization. Because I found it a little odd that all of a sudden after a few bad preseason games the Titans gave up on him and delegated the guy to third string once Collins was signed.

Maybe Volek was a bad egg?