WEBVTT - THE OTP: Steve Underwood's Exit Interview 0:00:10.360 --> 0:00:13.480 We welcome you to the Official Titans Podcast, brought to 0:00:13.520 --> 0:00:17.080 you by Farm Bureau Health Plans. Look to the folks 0:00:17.079 --> 0:00:19.520 at Farm Bureau Health Plans when you need someone who 0:00:19.640 --> 0:00:23.439 understands the exes and ohs of healthcare coverage. They've been 0:00:23.480 --> 0:00:27.440 protecting Tennessee And since nineteen forty seven. And he hasn't 0:00:27.440 --> 0:00:30.920 been protecting Tennessee And since nineteen forty seven, but he 0:00:31.000 --> 0:00:34.280 did it for a long time in many roles, the 0:00:34.400 --> 0:00:37.800 last of which the president and CEO of this organization 0:00:37.960 --> 0:00:42.479 until just days ago. Steve Underwood, your exit interview on 0:00:42.560 --> 0:00:46.600 the Official Titans Podcast, We welcome. I'm looking forward to it, Mike, 0:00:46.680 --> 0:00:49.879 and thanks to our friends at Farm Bureau. That's good stuff, 0:00:50.200 --> 0:00:54.320 all right. So we have done interviews with you in 0:00:54.360 --> 0:00:57.680 the past, and we've talked about so much history, and 0:00:57.760 --> 0:01:01.320 if people haven't listened to your ot from twenty eighteen, 0:01:01.360 --> 0:01:04.440 we certainly want to encourage them to do that because 0:01:04.520 --> 0:01:07.360 the talk of the move and everything that went with 0:01:07.480 --> 0:01:12.840 it is fascinating, particularly as we enter sort of the 0:01:12.959 --> 0:01:17.160 second stage of the Titans, going into the second generation. 0:01:17.880 --> 0:01:21.840 But I want to talk about the most recent incarnation 0:01:22.680 --> 0:01:27.679 of your time with the team and how fascinating. It 0:01:27.720 --> 0:01:30.399 is from the standpoint you retire in two thousand eleven, 0:01:31.160 --> 0:01:34.479 you head back to Texas. You love retirement. Things are 0:01:34.520 --> 0:01:38.039 going well, Texas is good, and life is good, and 0:01:38.120 --> 0:01:42.520 everything's going well, and then in two and fifteen the 0:01:42.560 --> 0:01:48.240 phone starts ringing. Did you consider turning it down? And 0:01:48.360 --> 0:01:51.680 did you think you'd be here five years? I never 0:01:51.760 --> 0:01:55.480 necessarily considered turning it down. I did go to my wife, 0:01:55.520 --> 0:01:58.240 Francis and asked her if she was going to be 0:01:58.440 --> 0:02:00.760 okay with it. Of course, what I've to her, Mike, 0:02:00.920 --> 0:02:03.240 was what Amy had pitched me, which was a couple 0:02:03.280 --> 0:02:07.280 of months. Francis and I had or I had had 0:02:07.320 --> 0:02:10.720 a project under the way for many years, which was 0:02:10.880 --> 0:02:15.040 to buy a brand new Corvette and take delivery of 0:02:15.040 --> 0:02:19.960 it at the assembly facility and boweling brain, and I 0:02:20.000 --> 0:02:22.240 had put aside the money. It had taken me many 0:02:22.280 --> 0:02:25.520 many years to save the money for the car, and 0:02:25.560 --> 0:02:28.120 because we still had children at home and still going 0:02:28.160 --> 0:02:31.119 to college, I had never committed money to buy the car. 0:02:31.760 --> 0:02:34.240 And Francis said, I'll go along with it, see if 0:02:34.240 --> 0:02:37.160 you'll go ahead, and the order year of car wow, 0:02:37.200 --> 0:02:40.079 which I did, and we she and I picked it 0:02:40.200 --> 0:02:43.920 up in July, after I had started work in Nashville 0:02:44.000 --> 0:02:47.359 in March. Actually started to believe it or not, Mike 0:02:48.000 --> 0:02:51.880 at the NFL's annual owner meetings, which that year were 0:02:51.960 --> 0:02:57.280 in Phoenix at the Billmore and that's where my first 0:02:57.360 --> 0:03:01.080 day on the job was. Of course, I know most 0:03:01.080 --> 0:03:03.239 of all those people I knew, and many of them 0:03:03.280 --> 0:03:06.280 remembered me from other clubs and from the league office 0:03:06.280 --> 0:03:09.720 and so forth. Then it was several months later and 0:03:09.919 --> 0:03:13.799 he said, Hey, we're still going through the transition. Would 0:03:13.840 --> 0:03:16.800 you mind staying through the end of the season That 0:03:16.800 --> 0:03:20.239 would have been the twenty fifteen regular season. And again 0:03:20.320 --> 0:03:23.040 I consulted with Francis and we were okay with it. 0:03:23.520 --> 0:03:26.000 But all that time I was trying to help them 0:03:26.000 --> 0:03:31.720 look for someone to be their permanent resident in charge 0:03:31.760 --> 0:03:35.400 executive in charge. And from time to time I would 0:03:35.400 --> 0:03:38.520 send them lists and resumes and this guy might be good, 0:03:38.560 --> 0:03:42.520 you might want to interview this guy, and I would 0:03:42.640 --> 0:03:48.320 never hear anything back from an After several months of that, 0:03:48.400 --> 0:03:51.800 I mean, I was still sending things, but I think 0:03:51.880 --> 0:03:55.040 any sort of cut off for foreclosed further discussion of 0:03:55.040 --> 0:03:58.040 it by saying, well, could you stay through the end 0:03:58.040 --> 0:03:59.880 of the season, so we put all that on the hole, 0:04:00.720 --> 0:04:04.880 the search for someone permanent, and kept working on the 0:04:04.920 --> 0:04:08.560 projects that we were trying to address. Now, I want 0:04:08.560 --> 0:04:12.040 to hit something personally about you before we move forward. 0:04:12.880 --> 0:04:17.520 I would bet that the thought about a Corvette started 0:04:17.600 --> 0:04:21.480 when you were a young man coming from You don't 0:04:21.480 --> 0:04:24.719 come from royalty, as you mentioned on many occasions. You 0:04:24.800 --> 0:04:29.039 come from most humble beginnings, right, And many people in 0:04:29.120 --> 0:04:31.839 this country have who have come from humble beginnings have 0:04:31.920 --> 0:04:35.720 a car dream. We are the land of cars. Obviously 0:04:35.760 --> 0:04:39.960 they were invented here, and so that that sort of 0:04:40.000 --> 0:04:43.320 factored into the process, is that this had been a 0:04:43.400 --> 0:04:47.839 lifelong dream? Correct? Oh? Well, in high school I worked 0:04:47.839 --> 0:04:50.760 at a gas pumping gas, which is something, of course 0:04:50.760 --> 0:04:53.320 people don't do anymore except in the state of New Jersey. 0:04:53.400 --> 0:04:57.080 But I was pumping gas and making dollar and a 0:04:57.160 --> 0:04:58.799 quarter an hour, and there was a guy in town 0:04:58.839 --> 0:05:02.400 who had a silver steam Ray of the fastback model 0:05:03.080 --> 0:05:08.320 in nineteen sixty three, and I became just totally enamored 0:05:08.400 --> 0:05:13.240 of his car. And then from that point on, every 0:05:13.240 --> 0:05:15.279 time I would see a Corvette while I was I 0:05:15.279 --> 0:05:19.960 would get at least a little excited and became more 0:05:20.000 --> 0:05:22.680 and more in love with the car over time, and 0:05:22.720 --> 0:05:26.680 then finally, some time in the mid eighties, I started 0:05:26.720 --> 0:05:31.479 a secret slush fund to buy a Corvette. I eventually 0:05:31.520 --> 0:05:33.760 told Francis about it after I had a few thousand 0:05:33.839 --> 0:05:36.599 dollars in it, and some weeks I was not able 0:05:36.640 --> 0:05:38.920 to save anything. Other weeks I would stay, you know, 0:05:38.960 --> 0:05:42.840 a few dollars. So the savings process for the car 0:05:43.800 --> 0:05:48.279 lasted almost thirty years, and over that time I built 0:05:48.360 --> 0:05:52.760 up enough money to actually buy the car. But by 0:05:52.839 --> 0:05:56.279 then I had two kids at Baylor, and you know, 0:05:56.440 --> 0:05:58.640 was a little concerned about making sure that we could 0:05:58.640 --> 0:06:02.520 pay for all that. Our son was still living up 0:06:02.600 --> 0:06:06.080 until twenty eleven, so I had had that concern as well. 0:06:07.680 --> 0:06:10.800 But all of those things were pretty much taken care 0:06:10.800 --> 0:06:13.360 of by the time I went back to work, and 0:06:13.480 --> 0:06:15.360 my wife had pity on me and said, we'll go 0:06:15.360 --> 0:06:18.040 ahead and order the car and then I'll be okay 0:06:18.080 --> 0:06:20.359 with you. Got I think it's an important part of 0:06:20.400 --> 0:06:23.520 the Steve Underwood story, though, because where you come from, 0:06:23.640 --> 0:06:26.080 how you came up with mister Adams, how hard you 0:06:26.120 --> 0:06:30.440 had to work, how you advanced through the organization, and 0:06:30.560 --> 0:06:33.040 the fact that you would save in that way tells 0:06:33.040 --> 0:06:35.160 a lot about your story, which is why I wanted 0:06:35.200 --> 0:06:38.479 to bring it out, and I think it also tells 0:06:38.520 --> 0:06:41.520 why she picked up the phone and called you at 0:06:41.560 --> 0:06:45.120 this point, because when you walked back into Saint Thomas 0:06:45.160 --> 0:06:53.360 Sports Parks, mess Let's face it. So let me ask you, 0:06:53.800 --> 0:06:56.240 at the moment you walked back into the office in 0:06:56.279 --> 0:06:59.480 the spring of twenty fifteen, what were the first things 0:06:59.480 --> 0:07:01.960 that had to be addressed to get the taiton straight. 0:07:02.760 --> 0:07:06.200 Of all the concerns that Aby and I had at 0:07:06.240 --> 0:07:09.200 that moment in time, the biggest one to me was 0:07:09.240 --> 0:07:14.800 what I was described as among our staff, a sort 0:07:14.840 --> 0:07:18.880 of deep, abiding concern about the direction the team was 0:07:18.920 --> 0:07:23.480 going and our future outlook as an NFL club. Mister 0:07:23.520 --> 0:07:27.280 Adams had passed away, but people there really never gotten 0:07:27.360 --> 0:07:30.600 much of a chance to interact with Tommy and Susie. 0:07:30.600 --> 0:07:35.560 Tommy became with the president immediately after mister Adams's death, 0:07:35.560 --> 0:07:39.640 and Susie was controlling owner. We had a relatively new 0:07:40.000 --> 0:07:44.840 head coach in ken wizen Hunt. Now we had another 0:07:45.080 --> 0:07:49.760 new owner that no one really knew, an interim president 0:07:49.800 --> 0:07:53.160 who had just finished being retired for over three years. 0:07:53.480 --> 0:07:57.360 Had to try to be constructive about it. Had not 0:07:57.520 --> 0:08:01.280 really had very competitive football teams for a number of years. 0:08:01.840 --> 0:08:05.360 All those things I think weight on the staff. On 0:08:05.440 --> 0:08:08.040 top of that, there was an owner who seemed to 0:08:08.080 --> 0:08:11.720 be inexperienced about what to do about an NFL team. 0:08:12.680 --> 0:08:16.720 Now you understand this, Mike, and many of our listeners 0:08:16.760 --> 0:08:23.240 will understand. NFL teams changing hands sends a very difficult 0:08:23.280 --> 0:08:27.800 message to your staff because new owners do things like 0:08:27.920 --> 0:08:31.240 fire everybody in sight and start over again. So I 0:08:31.280 --> 0:08:36.560 think there was this sort of overlay among all of 0:08:36.600 --> 0:08:39.440 the people on the football and business side about Okay, well, 0:08:39.480 --> 0:08:42.400 what does all this mean for us and for our families? 0:08:43.080 --> 0:08:47.520 Where are we going and who are these leaders and 0:08:47.600 --> 0:08:49.679 what do we know about them? But to me, the 0:08:49.800 --> 0:08:55.080 single largest concern was getting our staff on board with 0:08:56.000 --> 0:08:58.520 what was going to happen and having a program that 0:08:58.600 --> 0:09:03.080 they could be leaving and could trust, because those are 0:09:03.080 --> 0:09:06.520 the things that make for successful organizations. But that was 0:09:06.600 --> 0:09:10.560 the biggest, single problem in resetting this thing and gaining stability. 0:09:11.120 --> 0:09:14.560 Probably the most important factor to me was people getting 0:09:14.559 --> 0:09:18.360 to know Amy Adam Strunk and for the league totally 0:09:18.760 --> 0:09:22.360 and for everybody. I mean, it seems like that is 0:09:22.480 --> 0:09:27.320 the real story of her success Over five years. Is 0:09:27.320 --> 0:09:29.439 that once people got to know or whether it was 0:09:29.480 --> 0:09:32.640 other owners, whether it was the NFL office, whether it 0:09:32.679 --> 0:09:35.520 was our fan base, whether it was the staff, it 0:09:35.520 --> 0:09:39.720 didn't make any difference. Once that was in place, things 0:09:39.800 --> 0:09:43.560 started to stabilize. Was that the key people getting to 0:09:43.600 --> 0:09:47.199 know her, oh totally. You know, getting to know her 0:09:47.280 --> 0:09:49.560 or anyone else for that matter, is a process that 0:09:49.679 --> 0:09:54.240 takes time. It's just like restoring the confidence of our staff. 0:09:54.800 --> 0:09:57.600 We had to work at any getting exposure because, as 0:09:57.640 --> 0:10:01.680 you suggest, once people get an opportunity to meet her, 0:10:02.440 --> 0:10:06.800 see how down to earth and friendly she is, which, 0:10:06.840 --> 0:10:10.760 by the way, and again without trying to cast as 0:10:10.920 --> 0:10:15.080 versions was those were not necessarily qualities that mister Adams had, 0:10:16.400 --> 0:10:23.040 but his daughter has them richly. So getting exposure to 0:10:23.080 --> 0:10:27.359 the league's staff to lead officials to our own employees 0:10:27.920 --> 0:10:32.320 who never really had much way to know anything about Annie. 0:10:32.720 --> 0:10:36.200 My view has always been that mister Adams left the 0:10:36.240 --> 0:10:41.040 impression and with other owners, that he suspected his children 0:10:41.080 --> 0:10:44.160 would sell the team, and I have reason to believe 0:10:44.320 --> 0:10:49.760 that that's the impression that he intended to leave. But 0:10:49.880 --> 0:10:52.280 as it turned out, Annie had no intention at all 0:10:52.320 --> 0:10:56.440 of so neither did Kenneth and his family for that matter. 0:10:56.800 --> 0:11:00.439 They wanted to be successful in our business and make 0:11:00.480 --> 0:11:03.679 a name in a mark for themselves, which is very understandable. 0:11:04.160 --> 0:11:08.400 And once it became clear to everyone that Amy was 0:11:08.440 --> 0:11:11.600 not going to sell, by the way, another process that 0:11:11.679 --> 0:11:15.200 took some time. There were a lot of non believers 0:11:15.600 --> 0:11:19.800 about all that. But once they became convinced not only 0:11:19.840 --> 0:11:22.240 that she wasn't selling, but that she was going to 0:11:22.280 --> 0:11:26.319 do whatever was necessary to be successful in our business 0:11:26.320 --> 0:11:29.839 on and off the field. As you can see, not 0:11:29.920 --> 0:11:33.000 only with our business and with our football, with the 0:11:33.080 --> 0:11:38.000 draft and with improvements at Nissan Stadium and all of 0:11:38.040 --> 0:11:41.080 the other things that have happened, to say nothing of 0:11:41.080 --> 0:11:44.960 our playoff run last year, they became believers in aiming. 0:11:45.520 --> 0:11:49.240 And that was probably the greatest single thing that happened 0:11:49.559 --> 0:11:54.080 during that time period that she made the impression on 0:11:54.200 --> 0:11:57.240 people that it was not time to give up on us, 0:11:57.320 --> 0:12:00.520 it was time to double them. In her time owners, 0:12:00.520 --> 0:12:05.000 she's gone from being an unknown figure almost in oiler history. 0:12:05.000 --> 0:12:08.960 Fairly or unfairly, she was not known by many people 0:12:09.080 --> 0:12:12.920 to where she now has a position of prominence not 0:12:12.960 --> 0:12:16.520 only in this community, but she has an amount of 0:12:16.559 --> 0:12:22.320 respect around the league that most owners don't have as you, 0:12:22.480 --> 0:12:25.439 and I'm surprised some business school hasn't studied it because 0:12:25.440 --> 0:12:27.920 it really is quite a case study. Why is she 0:12:28.040 --> 0:12:30.880 so good at this? What is it about her that 0:12:30.960 --> 0:12:34.200 allowed her to come from such a different business and 0:12:34.360 --> 0:12:37.679 step into this and do this so well? There are 0:12:37.720 --> 0:12:41.640 at least two or three things, in my opinion. First 0:12:41.640 --> 0:12:47.320 of all, Amy has remarkably good instincts about our business. 0:12:48.000 --> 0:12:51.680 You know, you sit down an interview five executives who 0:12:51.720 --> 0:12:54.400 have made their own mark in the NFL as player 0:12:54.520 --> 0:12:58.880 personnel directors are in charge of scouting departments, our assistant GM, 0:12:59.559 --> 0:13:02.920 and pick the one person. I'm not saying there weren't 0:13:02.960 --> 0:13:05.640 other people in that group who couldn't have been a GM, 0:13:05.760 --> 0:13:10.199 because Chris Ballard has done a great job at Indianapolis. 0:13:10.240 --> 0:13:14.960 But Amy's decision about John was the product, in my opinion, 0:13:15.120 --> 0:13:20.000 of having great instincts, not necessarily about football, but about people. 0:13:21.040 --> 0:13:24.079 She's very good, I think at reading people, not just 0:13:24.320 --> 0:13:29.480 John Robinson, but all of us. She's very insightful in 0:13:29.480 --> 0:13:33.400 that way. I think another gift of Amy's is that 0:13:33.440 --> 0:13:37.880 she has great and good common sense. She does the 0:13:38.000 --> 0:13:42.280 right thing for the right reason. Almost every time. That 0:13:42.400 --> 0:13:47.400 doesn't exist in every owner that I've ever met. Amy 0:13:47.559 --> 0:13:52.160 is more a student of people and more trying to 0:13:52.200 --> 0:13:56.280 get to know and understand them, and has the ability, 0:13:56.400 --> 0:13:59.839 which is not commonplace Mike, to pick out great people 0:14:00.080 --> 0:14:04.320 from a crowd. Those are some of the qualities that 0:14:04.440 --> 0:14:08.600 I so admired her. It seems like two. She has 0:14:08.679 --> 0:14:11.320 something that a lot of you Texans seem to be 0:14:11.440 --> 0:14:17.400 quite proud of. She has quite a bs meeter. Yes, 0:14:17.600 --> 0:14:22.520 she has a be She can identify it from a 0:14:22.960 --> 0:14:26.040 from a good ways away. And I almost always return 0:14:26.120 --> 0:14:29.160 to this because it's been such an important part of 0:14:29.200 --> 0:14:33.040 the five years that I've been back. John's hiring is 0:14:33.080 --> 0:14:36.720 a great piece of our history and one of Amy's 0:14:36.720 --> 0:14:41.120 boldest moves as an owner. We had assembled a great 0:14:41.160 --> 0:14:44.360 group of candidates, you know. Martin Mayhew was in that group, 0:14:44.440 --> 0:14:49.200 still an executive with forty nine ers, Chris Ballard, who 0:14:49.320 --> 0:14:53.040 is a general manager of great standing in his own right, 0:14:54.520 --> 0:14:58.240 and we spent three or four hours with each of 0:14:58.360 --> 0:15:02.320 the five or six men that he interviewed. Kenneth was 0:15:02.360 --> 0:15:05.560 also in the room, I might add, but when it 0:15:05.640 --> 0:15:08.480 was over, John Bull, I mean, Amy believed that John 0:15:08.560 --> 0:15:11.960 was the best choice, and her instincts had proven to 0:15:12.000 --> 0:15:17.440 be sound, I think is a good word. So picking 0:15:17.560 --> 0:15:21.400 someone out of a group like that, that's a quality that's, 0:15:22.520 --> 0:15:27.760 in my opinion, Mike pretty rare. And while her dad 0:15:27.800 --> 0:15:31.080 did from time to time exhibit a good instinct. You know, 0:15:31.160 --> 0:15:35.000 he hired Mike Halliback when Mike was seventy four years old. 0:15:37.000 --> 0:15:41.440 That was another kind of bold thing. I thought Mike 0:15:41.520 --> 0:15:47.160 had worked kind of behind the scenes and labored in 0:15:47.280 --> 0:15:51.640 obscurity for all those many years. Not two other football executives, 0:15:52.080 --> 0:15:56.040 but to the league in general, most most everyone knew 0:15:56.120 --> 0:16:01.800 Michael was a superb football talented later, but getting to 0:16:01.800 --> 0:16:04.960 be able to pass judgment on someone with just three 0:16:05.040 --> 0:16:08.080 or four hours together with them, and you know, John 0:16:08.840 --> 0:16:13.360 doesn't really have what I would consider to be you 0:16:13.480 --> 0:16:17.840 use the term bs. He doesn't really mence a lot 0:16:17.840 --> 0:16:22.640 of words about That isn't something that he does. He 0:16:22.760 --> 0:16:25.760 thinks about what his position is, he tries to gather 0:16:25.840 --> 0:16:28.560 as much information as he can, and he makes a decision. 0:16:29.080 --> 0:16:34.080 And he has never tried to lay behind the log 0:16:34.160 --> 0:16:39.120 with me. In our conversations and discussions, they've been very 0:16:39.120 --> 0:16:42.760 direct and very candid, And those are qualities that great 0:16:42.800 --> 0:16:47.880 general managers into it. You immediately put together a team 0:16:47.920 --> 0:16:50.360 of people that you work with on an executive level. 0:16:50.360 --> 0:16:52.880 When you came back at twenty and twenty fifteen and 0:16:53.040 --> 0:16:57.480 you had what you called strategic imperatives, Yes, what were 0:16:57.520 --> 0:17:01.800 the strategic imperatives and why are they important for the 0:17:01.800 --> 0:17:05.680 Titans to establish those? Even if they aren't as sexy 0:17:05.760 --> 0:17:08.960 as trading the first round pick and picking Jack Conklin 0:17:09.000 --> 0:17:12.000 and things like that, But you were trying to lay 0:17:12.040 --> 0:17:14.919 down some things from the business side that would improve 0:17:15.040 --> 0:17:19.719 things strategically and for the fan base. Yes, every executive, 0:17:19.800 --> 0:17:24.080 whether you're with the NFL or xon Mobile or the 0:17:24.119 --> 0:17:27.119 flower shop down the street, needs to have a set 0:17:27.280 --> 0:17:32.200 of super priorities that relate to the future of the business. 0:17:32.640 --> 0:17:34.680 What do we need to look at or work on 0:17:35.560 --> 0:17:39.000 to be successful, not just now, but five years from now, 0:17:39.040 --> 0:17:43.560 ten years from now. What we do now and what 0:17:44.240 --> 0:17:48.600 current problems we're facing those matter, of course, but what 0:17:48.800 --> 0:17:52.080 we want our business to look like a couple of 0:17:52.160 --> 0:17:56.040 years from now, ten years from now. Those are things 0:17:56.080 --> 0:17:58.720 that need to be set out and everyone needs to 0:17:58.760 --> 0:18:01.600 get on board about it. So one of the things 0:18:01.680 --> 0:18:05.359 that any leader, a business leader needs to do is 0:18:05.440 --> 0:18:09.160 make sure that his team understands what is most important 0:18:09.560 --> 0:18:11.920 to him and in this case, to our owner, because 0:18:11.960 --> 0:18:15.240 we review those with aiming as well. If you have 0:18:15.400 --> 0:18:19.080 your senior staff on board and people thinking about and 0:18:19.119 --> 0:18:23.399 working on and working toward those objectives, you're likely to 0:18:23.400 --> 0:18:27.159 have a decent chance to meet the need when it 0:18:27.200 --> 0:18:31.760 finally comes. So our strategic objectives were established fairly on 0:18:31.880 --> 0:18:37.720 and they included our local revenue growth. We're in a 0:18:37.800 --> 0:18:42.560 small market. There are teams that have multiples of our 0:18:42.640 --> 0:18:47.159 local revenue. We have to compete with them both on 0:18:47.200 --> 0:18:50.080 the stadium side of the football side. There are a 0:18:50.080 --> 0:18:55.119 lot of competitive circuit breakers that the league uses to 0:18:55.160 --> 0:18:59.439 try and ensure equal competition on the field, but you 0:18:59.480 --> 0:19:01.679 still have to pay everyone. You still have to have 0:19:01.840 --> 0:19:06.280 money to do that. Another objective that we have worked 0:19:06.320 --> 0:19:10.680 on very hard is stadium security. I realized from time 0:19:10.720 --> 0:19:13.760 to time we've irritated some fans about the links we 0:19:13.880 --> 0:19:16.600 go to to try and make sure there are no 0:19:16.640 --> 0:19:20.520 weapons in the stadium. But stadium security has been a 0:19:20.560 --> 0:19:25.679 long time strategic objective of ours, and when I have 0:19:25.760 --> 0:19:30.560 been asked about it in other settings, yeah, we do 0:19:30.880 --> 0:19:33.359 go through a lot of effort about screening, and I 0:19:33.520 --> 0:19:37.720 realize nobody thinks anything is very likely to happen. There 0:19:37.720 --> 0:19:40.960 are also very few people who thought that terrorists were 0:19:40.960 --> 0:19:44.560 going to fly airplanes into skyscrapers. You know, we want 0:19:44.600 --> 0:19:48.480 to be able to say about our stadium security. We 0:19:48.640 --> 0:19:52.520 did everything we knew to do and everything the experts 0:19:52.640 --> 0:19:55.920 told us to try and keep everybody safe. And if 0:19:55.920 --> 0:19:59.600 there's never an issue, great, you won't find anyone happier 0:19:59.600 --> 0:20:02.240 about it than I am. But if there is an issue, 0:20:02.359 --> 0:20:05.119 I want us to be able to say, hey, we 0:20:05.560 --> 0:20:09.120 were given a list of things to do, protocols to follow, 0:20:09.640 --> 0:20:12.840 objectives to achieve, and we did everything that we could 0:20:12.840 --> 0:20:16.480 within reason to get that done. Capital spending at Nissan 0:20:16.600 --> 0:20:20.959 Stadium is another strategic objective of ours, not only because 0:20:21.040 --> 0:20:23.760 we're spending so much money to try and make the 0:20:23.840 --> 0:20:28.960 stadium better and more fan friendly, but also because we 0:20:29.040 --> 0:20:31.760 have a metropolitan government and sports authority to think about. 0:20:32.200 --> 0:20:34.359 And of course we have many things waiting in the 0:20:34.440 --> 0:20:38.639 queue to get done, and they fit into a number 0:20:38.640 --> 0:20:42.679 of categories, but it suffices to say they are something 0:20:42.720 --> 0:20:47.120 that we have to look at strategically because we care 0:20:47.240 --> 0:20:49.159 what the stadium is going to look like and be 0:20:49.440 --> 0:20:51.960 like in terms of the fan experienced five and ten 0:20:52.040 --> 0:20:56.399 years from now. The physical growth of our facilities is 0:20:56.440 --> 0:21:00.480 another strategic objective of ours. As you know, we have 0:21:00.600 --> 0:21:04.880 added a net of eighty incremental people since I came 0:21:04.920 --> 0:21:07.679 back to work five years ago. All those people need 0:21:07.720 --> 0:21:10.000 a place to work. I mean they're all working from 0:21:10.000 --> 0:21:13.439 home at the moment, or most of them are, but 0:21:13.600 --> 0:21:16.280 they do have to have a place to be in 0:21:16.359 --> 0:21:19.600 a workspace. I think that's something that is important to 0:21:19.640 --> 0:21:24.119 every employee and every staff person. Well, we had to 0:21:24.160 --> 0:21:25.800 get a new building, and it's going to be a 0:21:25.800 --> 0:21:28.920 forty thousand square foot building, and it's going to take 0:21:28.960 --> 0:21:30.960 a lot of planning, a lot of effort, and a 0:21:31.040 --> 0:21:33.560 lot of money to get it built and get it 0:21:33.640 --> 0:21:38.359 furnished and occupied. Those are some of the things that 0:21:38.400 --> 0:21:42.520 we've worked on. The twenty nineteen NFL Draft and Nashville 0:21:42.560 --> 0:21:46.600 that we hosted was another strategic objective of ours. It's 0:21:46.680 --> 0:21:49.919 off the list now, but there'll always be something to 0:21:49.920 --> 0:21:52.600 try and take its place, because you need four or 0:21:52.600 --> 0:21:56.160 five or six things that everyone is dialed into and 0:21:56.200 --> 0:21:59.680 working on pretty much all the time at every NFL club. 0:22:00.040 --> 0:22:04.000 We're not a static enterprise, and we have to continue improve. 0:22:04.359 --> 0:22:07.840 When Phil Brettison wanted to bring pro sports to Nashville, 0:22:07.920 --> 0:22:11.800 one of the reasons was the infrastructure that it would 0:22:11.800 --> 0:22:14.919 help to bring to finish off his downtown plan. The 0:22:14.960 --> 0:22:19.400 arena and the stadium as part of that infrastructure. Obviously, 0:22:19.480 --> 0:22:23.800 the arena is used for many different dates. People may 0:22:23.840 --> 0:22:29.560 not realize the stadium Nissan Stadium last year was used 0:22:29.600 --> 0:22:34.040 for over four hundred different dates. And that's something that 0:22:34.119 --> 0:22:37.000 has been expanded greatly in the last five years. Is 0:22:37.280 --> 0:22:41.920 the nine football use of stadium on a regular basis, 0:22:42.240 --> 0:22:46.160 and that relates to our strategic objective about local revenue. 0:22:46.240 --> 0:22:50.520 The stadium has been underutilized, in my opinion or much 0:22:50.520 --> 0:22:53.159 of its existence. We have two beautiful clubs, one of 0:22:53.200 --> 0:22:57.800 which overlooks downtown and the other overlooks the confluence of 0:22:57.920 --> 0:23:01.760 three interstate highways. Maybe not quite as appealing as the 0:23:01.880 --> 0:23:06.439 river and downtown, but still something people enjoy being part of. 0:23:06.800 --> 0:23:09.280 And then we have a bunch of other discrete spaces 0:23:09.320 --> 0:23:12.880 inside the building where you can have smaller meetings. But 0:23:12.960 --> 0:23:17.880 we also have the parking lots and so many places. 0:23:18.080 --> 0:23:20.800 You know, people love to go down to the sidelines 0:23:20.920 --> 0:23:23.840 and stand on the field kind of do the tour. 0:23:23.920 --> 0:23:26.800 We're also have a growing tour business. All of it's 0:23:26.840 --> 0:23:30.480 been sidelined at the moment because of COVID nineteen, but 0:23:30.600 --> 0:23:33.600 I think all that'll be back, and the venue business 0:23:33.600 --> 0:23:38.119 in Nashville generally is growing, mostly because Nashville is such 0:23:38.160 --> 0:23:40.879 a great town. There's so many things to do there 0:23:40.920 --> 0:23:45.480 on the entertainment side, so many world class restaurants, attractions, 0:23:46.359 --> 0:23:51.160 things to do downtown, all of which got super viewed 0:23:51.320 --> 0:23:56.480 during the twenty nineteen NFL draft, and the events. But 0:23:56.560 --> 0:23:59.880 the events business is yet another reason why we need 0:24:00.080 --> 0:24:03.680 to continue looking for ways to grow our businesses at 0:24:03.680 --> 0:24:07.680 the stadium and utilize what is one of Nashville's greatest 0:24:07.720 --> 0:24:11.879 public works. This is the OTP presented by Farm Bureau 0:24:11.960 --> 0:24:15.240 Health Plans. Don't get sacked by the high cost of healthcare. 0:24:15.680 --> 0:24:18.320 Make Farm Bureau Health Plans your first line of protection. 0:24:18.359 --> 0:24:22.560 They've been protecting Tennessee and since nineteen forty seven. Okay, 0:24:22.600 --> 0:24:26.840 Steve Underwood, some questions to conclude, what are you most 0:24:26.880 --> 0:24:29.880 proud of that the organization has accomplished in the last 0:24:29.960 --> 0:24:33.640 five years. You know, there are lots of accomplishments mine, 0:24:34.240 --> 0:24:37.600 but I almost always go back to this. We're a 0:24:37.640 --> 0:24:43.160 football organization first, so winning playoff games on the road 0:24:43.640 --> 0:24:48.879 when you are a huge underdog, that is an enormous accomplishment, 0:24:49.000 --> 0:24:52.320 particularly when you haven't done well for so long. This 0:24:52.400 --> 0:24:56.840 past season is the greatest season that we've enjoyed competitively 0:24:57.080 --> 0:25:00.879 in fifteen years or so ever. Anybody who should have 0:25:00.920 --> 0:25:03.720 their hats off to our head coach, our coaching staff, 0:25:03.800 --> 0:25:07.920 our general manager and his staff about what that means 0:25:08.440 --> 0:25:13.120 in terms of the phrase you use accomplishment, And because 0:25:13.200 --> 0:25:15.960 we are a football organization, I'm not sure you can 0:25:16.000 --> 0:25:19.919 have anything bigger than going deep into the playoffs if 0:25:19.960 --> 0:25:23.280 you're an NFL team. But there have been some other 0:25:23.760 --> 0:25:28.080 accomplishments that I think are worth mentioning. One of those 0:25:28.240 --> 0:25:30.800 is four winning seasons in a row. Very few teams 0:25:30.840 --> 0:25:35.360 accomplished that over and over again, and I think it 0:25:35.400 --> 0:25:37.639 needs to be viewed in the light of where we 0:25:37.720 --> 0:25:40.919 came from. What were the four eight twelve seasons like 0:25:41.040 --> 0:25:43.720 that before? I think we did have one nine and 0:25:43.840 --> 0:25:48.119 seven season during Mike Munchack's ten years head coached, but 0:25:48.160 --> 0:25:53.720 it was not a playoff season. Another great accomplishment is 0:25:53.760 --> 0:25:57.720