Backup Collins represents expensive insurance policy

Titans backup quarterback Kerry Collins is slated to make $5.5 million this season.

[picapp align=”right” wrap=”true” link=”term=Kerry+Collins&iid=6510017″ src=”http://view4.picapp.com/pictures.photo/image/6510017/tennessee-titans/tennessee-titans.jpg?size=500&imageId=6510017″ width=”175″ height=”220″ /]Yes, it’s a lot of money to pay a guy to carry a clipboard. But Collins is an excellent insurance policy if you’re Jeff Fisher or Mike Heimerdinger. Vince Young is the starting quarterback, but perhaps his head coach and offensive coordinator aren’t 100-percent sold on him. He didn’t exactly engender anyone’s faith with his offseason citation for misdemeanor assault in a Dallas strip club in the wee hours of a Sunday morning.

Collins, 37, is a wily veteran. His arm may have failed him at times during last season’s 0-6 start, but he looked in OTAs as though his arm was as strong as it ever has been.

Who knows how much longer he can keep going? I wrote this piece for ESPN’s Page 2 on Collins’ probable future after football. He’s an interesting, introspective guy at this point in his life. As big-time country songwriter Lee Thomas Miller told me, “Who better to write country songs than a guy who has been through as many victories and defeats as he has?”