Former Titans GM's wife: 'I was hoping they'd run it to 100'

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- The wife of former Titans general manager Floyd Reese called a Nashville radio station Thursday to blast the team and Jeff Fisher, a day after hearing talk that her husband has hated the coach since losing a power struggle in Tennessee.

Sally Reese waited until her husband was on a plane headed to London with the New England Patriots then called WGFX-FM to defend him on air. Reese was let go by the Titans when his contract expired in January 2007.

"He kept Jeff from getting fired two times," Reese said of her husband. "So if he'd let him get fired, he'd still be there. Hello? That's hindsight. ... Sunday I was hoping they'd run it to 100. And I love Tennessee. All you Tennessee people, my dad's from Tennessee, but when you get sucker punched, you want to sucker punch back."

She also said her husband wasn't even allowed to clean out his office when told the franchise was going in a new direction after he had spent 21 years with the team. She also said a senior team official wrote a statement supposedly from her husband.

Floyd Reese was hired by New England in January as a senior adviser, and the Patriots handed Fisher and the Titans a 59-0 loss last weekend that matched the biggest defeat in the league since the NFL-AFL merger in 1970.

Fans have been calling for Fisher's firing because of the Titans' 0-6 start and the big loss to New England. Fisher didn't help cool their anger when he wore a Peyton Manning jersey Tuesday while introducing Tony Dungy at a Nashville fundraiser.

A message left with a Titans spokesman was not immediately returned late Thursday night.

Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press