Tennessee Titans head coach Brian Callahan showed his lighter side this weekend after pulling off a funny prank on wide receiver Mason Kinsey.
During Saturday’s practice, Kinsey recorded a touchdown catch off a pass from backup quarterback Mason Rudolph and then proceeded to celebrate the score by punting the ball into the air. The ball would end up in a lake nearby.
Of course, doing something like that in a game would draw a flag, so Callahan did something to make sure that Kinsey wouldn’t forget it. The Titans head coach sent Kinsey a letter with a fake fine totaling around $18,000.
“I got a letter from the head coach yesterday. A little ‘fake fine,'” Kinsey said after the team’s latest practice on Sunday, according to Alex Daugherty of The Tennessean. “It was a lot of money. Not real money, thankfully. It was more than I was comfortable paying,”
Brian Callahan gave Mason Kinsey a fake $17.9k fine letter for punting the ball in celebration. Believed it until he got to silly stuff at the end, #Titans pic.twitter.com/qWqDet25UR
— Paul Kuharsky (@PaulKuharskyNFL) August 4, 2024
According to Spotrac, Kinsey’s contract has a base salary of $915,000 this year. The fake fine amount works out to a little under two percent of that total.
“So, yeah, no more punting,” Kinsey said. “Keep the ball inside the field of play. Not over the fence, for sure.”
Lesson learned.
Kinsey is entering his fifth season in the NFL after being signed as an undrafted free agent by the Titans in 2020. He’s competing for a depth role in what is a crowded wide receivers room.
