By DAVID CLIMER
The Tennessean

OAKLAND, Calif. - Ya gotta love the NFL. The same grown men who routinely shrug off spleen-splattering mayhem on the field suddenly get their noses all out of joint when sticks and stones give way to the spoken word.

Titans' safety Lance Schulters fired the first shot on Tuesday and we've spent the rest of the week with U.N. weapons inspectors on site. All this because Schulters suggested that Oakland receiver Tim Brown is a "crybaby" who expects white-glove treatment from officials.

So said the mouth that roared: "Tim Brown's a crybaby, first of all. You can put that in there. He's always whining for the ball. 'They grabbed me. They touched me.' He's a crybaby, man."

The next thing you know, the days leading up to the AFC Championship Game are disintegrating into third-grade recess.

"Who is that? Who? Has he made any plays? Who is that? Lance Schulters? What's he talking about?" said Oakland defensive tackle Sam Adams. "That's probably a cat that ain't been here or been on the bench somewhere. You got to shut your mouth and play the game."

Brown at first takes the high road but then recalls that Titans' rookie Albert Haynesworth "blasted me" with "a cheap shot" during the Raiders' 52-25 win in September. Brown then suggests that "the boys wanted to get back" at him, which we assume is a reference to retribution from Oakland's offensive line.

As for Haynesworth, he has spent the week in self-imposed silence to the media.

Frankly, the Raiders have trouble playing the role of the offended party. From Al Davis, Oakland's managing general fruitcake, to the guy washing socks and jocks after practice, this is an organization that has carefully nurtured its outlaw image. The whole skull-and-crossbones motif doesn't exactly fit with this newfound Miss Manners sensitivity to Schulters' comments.

All the while, Jeff Fisher has gone into damage control in an attempt to keep aggressions from escalating until sometime after the kickoff Sunday afternoon. In doing so, Fisher adhered to a time-honored coaching tradition by blaming it all on the lousy media.

"Lance has great respect for Tim and also Jerry and the rest of that offense," Fisher said, referencing Brown and fellow Hall of Famer-to-be Jerry Rice, "so I think maybe the question was somewhat loaded. I'm not sure, but it's not Lance's nature to stir things up."

There are a couple of problems here. First, the question was not "somewhat loaded," as Fisher suggested. During an interview about the Titans' secondary and the Raiders' receiving corps, Schulters was asked: "Do you have to play guys like Rice and Brown differently? Are the refs going to call it different with them?"

Contrast this with what would qualify as a "somewhat loaded" question: "C'mon, Lance, this is just you and me talking. Tim Brown's a weenie, isn't he? Can you believe how much that guy whines?"

Beyond that, the suggestion that it's not Schulters' style to stir things up is absurd. Fisher and the rest of the Titans' brass signed Schulters as a free agent precisely because he is a spleen-crushing, trash-talking presence in the secondary. Otherwise, they would have stood pat with Bobby Myers at safety so receivers could run unencumbered over the middle and nobody's feelings would get hurt.

And so it goes. A berth in the Super Bowl hangs in the balance, but first we need to wash a few mouths out with soap.

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David Climer is a senior writer and columnist for The Tennessean.

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