WEBVTT - The OTP | A History Lesson 0:00:15.520 --> 0:00:18.599 This is the OTP presented by Farm Bureau Health Plans. 0:00:18.880 --> 0:00:22.040 Farm Bureau Health Plans is celebrating seventy seven years of 0:00:22.079 --> 0:00:26.360 providing Tennesseeans with high quality health coverage at an affordable price. 0:00:26.800 --> 0:00:30.560 Visit FBHP dot com today to learn more about their 0:00:30.640 --> 0:00:33.760 history in Tennessee and to get a quote that is 0:00:33.960 --> 0:00:39.040 FBHP dot com. Welcome to the OTP. I'm Amy Wells, 0:00:39.159 --> 0:00:42.360 this is Mike Keith, and we are standing outside of 0:00:42.400 --> 0:00:45.800 the team auditorium here at Ascension Saint Thomas Sports Park 0:00:46.240 --> 0:00:50.000 for a very special reason. Mike Keith, you have been 0:00:50.040 --> 0:00:51.000 given a little job. 0:00:51.240 --> 0:00:55.720 Yeah. I have Chick Egse, our director of player Engagement 0:00:55.800 --> 0:00:59.560 for the Tennessee Titans, and one of the really important 0:00:59.560 --> 0:01:02.320 guys in the organization that maybe people on the outside 0:01:02.320 --> 0:01:05.720 don't know very well, has invited me to address the 0:01:05.840 --> 0:01:10.200 rookie class about the history of our entire franchise. And 0:01:10.480 --> 0:01:13.600 we have a deep, rich history. Obviously, it goes back 0:01:13.959 --> 0:01:16.600 six and a half decades. We're very proud of that history. 0:01:16.640 --> 0:01:20.440 It was incredibly important to Bud Adams, it's incredibly important 0:01:20.480 --> 0:01:23.800 to our new ownership team led by Amy Adams, Trunk 0:01:23.800 --> 0:01:27.280 and Kenneth and Barkley Adams, and so I've got an 0:01:27.319 --> 0:01:31.200 opportunity to pass some of that history along, and I'm 0:01:31.200 --> 0:01:32.120 pretty excited about it. 0:01:32.160 --> 0:01:33.479 Mike, do you know how to do this? 0:01:33.560 --> 0:01:35.880 I know you know the Titans history, but this is 0:01:35.959 --> 0:01:37.920 I mean, this isn't an audience here. 0:01:38.480 --> 0:01:41.320 Well yeah, it's all the draft picks and the undrafted. 0:01:41.520 --> 0:01:42.720 It's an important audience. 0:01:42.840 --> 0:01:48.080 I've never done it, so I'm nervous. I've prepared and 0:01:48.120 --> 0:01:51.200 we'll see if that kind of holds up. We'll see 0:01:51.240 --> 0:01:55.120 if I fall apart. I hope not, but I'm interested 0:01:55.120 --> 0:01:58.840 to do it because and the reason I'm so pleased 0:01:58.880 --> 0:02:02.280 that Chick has asked is that our history is important. 0:02:02.560 --> 0:02:06.480 And just like these guys come from colleges and take 0:02:06.560 --> 0:02:09.360 pride in the history and tradition of their colleges, we 0:02:09.440 --> 0:02:11.560 take a lot of pride in who we are, where 0:02:11.600 --> 0:02:14.960 we came from, what we're about, and there are a 0:02:14.960 --> 0:02:18.680 lot of important bits and pieces outside of just wins 0:02:18.680 --> 0:02:21.959 and losses that I think it will benefit the guys 0:02:22.040 --> 0:02:27.799 to completely understand, for example, our history with Jacksonville. Why 0:02:27.840 --> 0:02:31.280 the Jacksonville game is a big thing for us, and 0:02:31.320 --> 0:02:33.400 it really stems back to the fact that we beat 0:02:33.440 --> 0:02:36.720 them three times in nineteen ninety nine, the only three 0:02:36.760 --> 0:02:39.120 losses of the season. We kept them from going to 0:02:39.160 --> 0:02:42.960 the super Bowl, and for that reason, they really like 0:02:43.040 --> 0:02:46.440 to beat us. So hopefully I can help add a 0:02:46.440 --> 0:02:50.000 little bit of context to things like that example and 0:02:50.080 --> 0:02:51.280 can sort of add something. 0:02:51.360 --> 0:02:53.800 You know, this really is a great idea that Chick had, 0:02:53.880 --> 0:02:56.560 because when you come into a new team, you're looking 0:02:56.600 --> 0:02:59.120 for a reason to you know, grab on beyond just 0:02:59.520 --> 0:03:00.600 you know, our job. 0:03:00.919 --> 0:03:03.079 There's so much more. There's so much. 0:03:02.960 --> 0:03:08.120 Of the pageantry and the excitement and the rivalries that 0:03:08.160 --> 0:03:10.680 you get in college, but you've got to learn about 0:03:10.680 --> 0:03:13.239 in the NFL too, because there's a lot of good 0:03:13.240 --> 0:03:13.760 stuff here. 0:03:13.880 --> 0:03:17.280 There's a lot of good stuff, and it's important on 0:03:17.320 --> 0:03:20.560 a day to day basis because while this is a job, 0:03:21.480 --> 0:03:25.440 this game and the passion and emotion of it, and 0:03:25.560 --> 0:03:28.280 as you're walking through the building doing your job, all 0:03:28.360 --> 0:03:31.480 of those things combined in to make it a bigger 0:03:31.560 --> 0:03:36.040 deal to understand the why and the specialness why this 0:03:36.200 --> 0:03:39.400 one of the thirty two franchises in the NFL is 0:03:39.440 --> 0:03:41.080 so special. So I'm going to try to pass that 0:03:41.160 --> 0:03:44.480 along and hopefully not be boring the thing that you 0:03:44.520 --> 0:03:46.600 always fear is somebody falling asleep. 0:03:47.000 --> 0:03:49.840 Well, Mike, you are not boring. 0:03:50.080 --> 0:03:52.040 Well, thank you, all right, I gotta go if you 0:03:52.040 --> 0:03:53.520 don't want to get whacked by the door. All right, 0:03:53.680 --> 0:03:57.800 out here we go. I want to tell you that 0:03:58.320 --> 0:04:02.720 first and foremost can grcts on being part of the 0:04:03.000 --> 0:04:07.200 sixty fifth team in our franchise's history. It's a long 0:04:07.240 --> 0:04:11.120 time and it certainly spans well back beyond the Titans. 0:04:12.000 --> 0:04:16.440 You go back to our birth as the Houston Oilers. 0:04:17.000 --> 0:04:22.120 And it really started for us in winter of nineteen 0:04:22.200 --> 0:04:25.799 fifty nine when the man who had become our owner, 0:04:25.839 --> 0:04:30.320 Bud Adams, took a meeting with Lamar Hunt, the man 0:04:30.360 --> 0:04:33.760 who would become the owner of the Kansas City Chiefs 0:04:33.960 --> 0:04:37.880 and the AFC Championship Trophy is now named for him. 0:04:37.920 --> 0:04:41.920 At this point, there were two very young men and 0:04:42.400 --> 0:04:45.360 mister Hunt had an idea to start a football league 0:04:45.839 --> 0:04:49.960 to compete with the NFL. The NFL was not the 0:04:50.000 --> 0:04:54.040 big deal in the day. College football was a much 0:04:54.080 --> 0:04:57.280 bigger deal than pro football at that moment, so there 0:04:57.360 --> 0:05:00.960 was a feeling that another league, particular clearly of cities 0:05:00.960 --> 0:05:04.400 that didn't have NFL teams, would have a chance to 0:05:04.440 --> 0:05:07.719 make a dent. Mister Adams took the meeting and he 0:05:07.800 --> 0:05:12.480 said I'm in, and those two men moved it forward 0:05:12.640 --> 0:05:17.200 and eventually started the American Football League later that year. 0:05:18.120 --> 0:05:23.800 The original American Football League teams the Boston Patriots, the 0:05:23.839 --> 0:05:28.960 Buffalo Bills, the Dallas Texans who became the Kansas City Chiefs, 0:05:29.880 --> 0:05:33.960 the Denver Broncos obviously, the Houston Oilers who became the 0:05:33.960 --> 0:05:40.040 Tennessee Titans, the Los Angeles Chargers, the Oakland Raiders, and 0:05:40.120 --> 0:05:44.080 the New York Titans. And the New York Titans became 0:05:44.160 --> 0:05:48.279 the New York Jets, and in the late nineteen nineties 0:05:48.360 --> 0:05:53.000 they actually gave us the name Titans when we moved 0:05:53.040 --> 0:05:55.719 to Tennessee. So they're in a strange way part of 0:05:55.760 --> 0:05:59.800 our history. But the most important thing that happened in 0:05:59.800 --> 0:06:04.240 the early stage of the development of the American Football 0:06:04.320 --> 0:06:09.600 League was largely done by Bud Adams, our founder, because 0:06:10.240 --> 0:06:14.560 the biggest football star in the country at that moment 0:06:14.600 --> 0:06:17.720 in time in nineteen fifty nine was a running back 0:06:17.760 --> 0:06:21.560 from LSU by the name of Billy Cannon. Billy Cannon 0:06:21.760 --> 0:06:25.520 led LSU to the nineteen fifty eight National Championship. He 0:06:25.640 --> 0:06:29.960 was the nineteen fifty nine Heisman Trophy winner, and the 0:06:30.080 --> 0:06:34.480 NFL illegally signed him to a contract. In November of 0:06:34.520 --> 0:06:38.000 his senior year, the Los Angeles Rams put him under 0:06:38.000 --> 0:06:41.400 contract at that point. The contract was then going to 0:06:41.440 --> 0:06:48.520 be dated January twod nineteen sixty, after Billy Cannon had 0:06:48.520 --> 0:06:52.719 played in the Sugar Bowl. Well, mister Adams, who was 0:06:53.040 --> 0:06:58.400 pro football's original outlaw, said that doesn't work. So he 0:06:58.520 --> 0:07:01.840 offered Billy Cannon and his family more money to sign 0:07:01.920 --> 0:07:06.720 with the Houston Oilers. And what he did is he 0:07:06.760 --> 0:07:10.560 had a man by the name of Adrian Burke under 0:07:10.640 --> 0:07:14.000 the goal post on January first, nineteen sixty at the 0:07:14.040 --> 0:07:17.880 Sugar Bowl, and they signed Billy Cannon to a contract 0:07:17.920 --> 0:07:22.880 with our organization the minute he stopped playing college football. 0:07:23.720 --> 0:07:27.280 It went to court and the Houston Oilers won. Billy 0:07:27.320 --> 0:07:30.840 Cannon started off as a Houston Oiler. That struck the 0:07:30.880 --> 0:07:36.320 blow for the AFL because suddenly they were going to 0:07:36.400 --> 0:07:39.360 take on the NFL head to head. We had great 0:07:39.400 --> 0:07:42.360 success in the early years of the AFL, the first 0:07:42.400 --> 0:07:45.960 two AFL championships won by the Houston Oilers. The Oilers 0:07:46.000 --> 0:07:48.960 also played in the title game in the third year 0:07:49.040 --> 0:07:51.440 of the league. There was a lot of back and 0:07:51.520 --> 0:07:55.080 forth between the NFL and the AFL over players. It 0:07:55.280 --> 0:07:58.240 escalated to the point that it was way too expensive 0:07:58.240 --> 0:08:01.920 for both of them, and so after nineteen sixty six, 0:08:02.680 --> 0:08:06.920 a merger was put together and so the AFL teams 0:08:07.000 --> 0:08:09.560 would become part of the NFL and it would expand. 0:08:10.320 --> 0:08:13.440 For the four years during the time between the agreement 0:08:13.480 --> 0:08:17.320 and the merger, the AFL champion would play the NFL 0:08:17.520 --> 0:08:21.200 champion in what we now know as the Super Bowl. 0:08:21.560 --> 0:08:25.040 That's how the Super Bowl got started. The AFL won two, 0:08:25.800 --> 0:08:28.720 the NFL won two, and then in nineteen seventy it 0:08:28.760 --> 0:08:33.240 was all put together, and so the AFL helped to 0:08:33.360 --> 0:08:37.240 form the AFC as we now know it. Those AFL teams, 0:08:37.600 --> 0:08:39.880 and of course there's the NFC on the other side, 0:08:39.920 --> 0:08:43.080 and now the NFC and the AFC champions play for 0:08:43.120 --> 0:08:46.040 the Super Bowl. So that's a little bit of the backstory. 0:08:46.160 --> 0:08:51.240 After the merger happened, the Oilers had some success until 0:08:51.280 --> 0:08:54.760 they drafted a running back from Texas who had won 0:08:54.760 --> 0:08:58.800 the Heisman Trophy by the name of Earl Campbell, and 0:08:59.240 --> 0:09:02.560 for the next two seasons, for seventy eight and seventy nine, 0:09:04.160 --> 0:09:07.839 the Houston Oilers played in the AFC Championship game, had 0:09:07.920 --> 0:09:11.720 great success and there was a wave among the fan 0:09:11.840 --> 0:09:14.800 base that became known as Love You Blue, and it 0:09:14.880 --> 0:09:17.679 was one of the glory times of the Oilers. Unfortunately, 0:09:17.800 --> 0:09:22.200 didn't last very long. The team sank back to despair 0:09:23.120 --> 0:09:25.680 and mister Adams decided to do something really bold. In 0:09:25.800 --> 0:09:30.959 nineteen eighty four, he went out and spent boukoos of 0:09:31.040 --> 0:09:34.040 money at the time forty years ago to sign a 0:09:34.080 --> 0:09:38.160 quarterback from Canada who had played at the University of Washington, 0:09:38.679 --> 0:09:42.200 but who had to go to Canada after his college career, 0:09:42.640 --> 0:09:45.720 and he had been so successful with the edmundton Escobos 0:09:46.120 --> 0:09:51.680 that at that point he was a big, big commodity. 0:09:52.000 --> 0:09:56.079 Mister Adams landed him his name, Warren Moon, a quarterback. 0:09:57.480 --> 0:10:00.240 The significance was not just that they paid a lot 0:10:00.240 --> 0:10:04.680 of money and that they went out and got the 0:10:04.720 --> 0:10:08.000 guy from Canada. The significance was it was the first 0:10:08.040 --> 0:10:12.720 time in NFL history that an owner had gone out 0:10:13.120 --> 0:10:16.560 and had signed a black quarterback to be the face 0:10:16.640 --> 0:10:20.120 of the franchise. He said, you are a guy, You're 0:10:20.160 --> 0:10:23.040 gonna lead us, and it was a historic move. It's 0:10:23.080 --> 0:10:26.280 won to this day that Warren Moon still talks about 0:10:26.320 --> 0:10:29.040 anytime he's asked about it. What it meant to the 0:10:29.200 --> 0:10:33.760 entire league. It was also a very good move. Eventually, 0:10:33.920 --> 0:10:37.040 after a couple of years of transition, the team went 0:10:37.040 --> 0:10:40.880 to the playoffs seven straight years, and Warren Moon was 0:10:40.920 --> 0:10:43.559 a pro bowler for virtually every one of them. It 0:10:43.679 --> 0:10:45.640 turned out to be one of the greats of his era. 0:10:46.880 --> 0:10:50.640 Nineteen ninety four, thirty years ago, something changed, though the 0:10:50.760 --> 0:10:54.720 salary cap came into be. The original salary cap in 0:10:54.800 --> 0:10:59.280 nineteen ninety four was thirty five million dollars. There were 0:10:59.280 --> 0:11:02.600 players last next year in this league whose salary cap 0:11:02.720 --> 0:11:06.520 cost was higher than that, but in those days, thirty 0:11:06.520 --> 0:11:10.400 five million dollars was where it started. The Oilers were 0:11:10.440 --> 0:11:14.600 not in position to keep the team together, so they 0:11:14.600 --> 0:11:17.160 had to break it all up and do another reset. 0:11:18.320 --> 0:11:20.800 In the midst of the reset in nineteen ninety five, 0:11:21.440 --> 0:11:25.440 the organization did something else historic. With the third pick 0:11:25.480 --> 0:11:29.080 in the nineteen ninety five draft, the Houston Oilers selected 0:11:29.120 --> 0:11:35.880 Steve McNair, quarterback all corn State. They decided that Steve 0:11:35.960 --> 0:11:40.680 McNair would be our future going forward, and a lot 0:11:40.679 --> 0:11:45.480 of people were surprised that they would take a quarterback 0:11:46.160 --> 0:11:48.920 from all corn at say you're going to be the guy. 0:11:49.720 --> 0:11:52.440 The other significant thing that happened during that period of 0:11:52.480 --> 0:11:56.160 time is Houston would not build mister Adams a new stadium. 0:11:56.960 --> 0:12:00.920 We had always been renters. With the advent of the 0:12:00.960 --> 0:12:06.120 salary cap, the big issue for us was you needed 0:12:06.640 --> 0:12:09.960 a different business model where you controlled things in your 0:12:09.960 --> 0:12:12.600 own stadium because as we knew, the salary cap was 0:12:12.640 --> 0:12:17.080 only going to go up. And so mister Adams asked 0:12:17.120 --> 0:12:20.240 Houston to build the new stadium. They wouldn't build it. 0:12:21.240 --> 0:12:25.719 He realized from a business standpoint, he had no options. 0:12:27.440 --> 0:12:31.040 So he asked his chief lieutenants with the Oilers organization, 0:12:31.720 --> 0:12:36.640 find me candidates where we can move the franchise. There 0:12:36.679 --> 0:12:42.680 were several mister Adams settled on Nashville, and he did 0:12:42.720 --> 0:12:47.640 that for a very strange reason. Mister Adams, obviously a wild, 0:12:47.920 --> 0:12:54.080 wildly successful businessman, sat on several boards of companies. One 0:12:54.120 --> 0:13:00.000 of those boards was Couson Plastics, a toy company in Franklin. 0:13:01.360 --> 0:13:06.760 So mister Adams would come to Nashville periodically for different 0:13:06.760 --> 0:13:12.640 board meetings with Couson Plastics, and he liked Nashville. He 0:13:12.720 --> 0:13:17.000 saw things grow, He saw things happening. He liked the people, 0:13:17.720 --> 0:13:21.440 and so he told his team with the Oilers, I 0:13:21.520 --> 0:13:24.880 want to move to Nashville, Tennessee. There's no pro football 0:13:24.920 --> 0:13:27.280 in the Mid South. All we had here was the SEC, 0:13:27.480 --> 0:13:30.480 and of course the SEC, as we still know to 0:13:30.520 --> 0:13:35.800 this day, is king. And he wondered, why can't we 0:13:35.880 --> 0:13:39.560 make pro football as exciting in this region as the 0:13:39.600 --> 0:13:43.240 Southeastern Conference to football fans. He knew there would be 0:13:43.280 --> 0:13:45.640 no problem finding football fans here, but he had to 0:13:45.640 --> 0:13:49.440 get a stadium. So he picked up the phone and 0:13:49.480 --> 0:13:54.800 he called Nashville Mayor Phil Bredison and he said, Mayor Bretison, 0:13:56.080 --> 0:13:59.760 b Adams with the Houston Oilers, if you'll build me 0:13:59.760 --> 0:14:03.760 as stadium, I'll move my football team there. And Brettison 0:14:03.880 --> 0:14:07.880 hung up the phone. He thought it was a prank call. 0:14:07.960 --> 0:14:12.000 So a few minutes later they realized it wasn't a 0:14:12.000 --> 0:14:15.520 prank call, they called him back. Everyone had a good laugh, 0:14:15.920 --> 0:14:18.800 and in nineteen ninety six the process of moving the 0:14:18.840 --> 0:14:23.480 team here started. But Nashville had no stadium of its own, 0:14:24.840 --> 0:14:27.960 so in nineteen ninety seven we played in Memphis. We 0:14:27.960 --> 0:14:30.320 were supposed to play in Memphis for two years. That 0:14:30.360 --> 0:14:33.880 didn't work out great so in nineteen ninety eight they 0:14:33.920 --> 0:14:37.160 convinced Vanderbilt to let us play there while what we 0:14:37.240 --> 0:14:41.840 now know is Nissan Stadium, originally a Delphia Colisseum, was 0:14:41.920 --> 0:14:46.920 being built. Nineteen ninety nine was the year the franchise 0:14:47.000 --> 0:14:52.080 had gone eight and eight for three straight years. The 0:14:52.160 --> 0:14:57.600 coaches and everybody with the organization knew that mister Adams 0:14:57.640 --> 0:15:01.960 expected to go to the playoffs inside our building. This building, 0:15:01.960 --> 0:15:06.280 which had opened in August of ninety nine, August twenty fifth, 0:15:06.320 --> 0:15:11.040 to the exact, they called it playoffs or pink slips. 0:15:12.120 --> 0:15:15.840 Everybody was getting the acts if it didn't work. So 0:15:15.880 --> 0:15:18.960 we had three goals as an organization. Number one, make 0:15:19.000 --> 0:15:22.240 the playoffs, Number two sell out every game at what 0:15:22.360 --> 0:15:25.880 was then known as Adelphia Coliseum, and number three host 0:15:25.920 --> 0:15:30.720 a playoff game. And what happened. We went thirteen and three, 0:15:30.840 --> 0:15:33.040 but we didn't win our division. Our division at that 0:15:33.080 --> 0:15:39.280 time was the AFC Central. Jacksonville won the AFC Central 0:15:39.320 --> 0:15:42.360 that year. They were fourteen and two. We were thirteen 0:15:42.400 --> 0:15:48.160 and three. Jacksonville's only two losses to us we beat 0:15:48.240 --> 0:15:51.800 them down there in a driving rainstorm in September, and 0:15:51.840 --> 0:15:54.560 then we beat them up here on the day after Christmas. 0:15:55.160 --> 0:15:57.400 But they were the division champs, they had the best 0:15:57.440 --> 0:16:01.360 record in ball and so they would be the number 0:16:01.400 --> 0:16:04.880 one seed in the playoffs. We did get a home 0:16:04.920 --> 0:16:09.400 game though, We got to host the Buffalo Bills January eighth, 0:16:09.480 --> 0:16:13.600 two thousand, back and forth affair. Buffalo kicked a field 0:16:13.600 --> 0:16:17.240 goal with sixteen seconds to go. We're down sixteen to 0:16:17.280 --> 0:16:23.560 fifteen Titans at that point. On the sidelines, Jeff Fisher 0:16:24.880 --> 0:16:27.320 and his Special teams coach Alan Lowry said, we have 0:16:27.360 --> 0:16:31.800 to pull out something we practiced every Saturday called home 0:16:31.920 --> 0:16:34.840 Run Throwback. That was the name of the play home 0:16:34.960 --> 0:16:39.240 Run Throwback. But we have all kinds of problems, all 0:16:39.320 --> 0:16:45.320 kinds of problems. First of all, our return mayn Derek Mason, 0:16:45.440 --> 0:16:47.560 who went on to become a great receiver for us 0:16:47.600 --> 0:16:50.960 and for the Baltimore Ravens. Derek Mason has a concussion. 0:16:51.720 --> 0:16:54.720 They had to hide his helmet in a trunk because 0:16:54.720 --> 0:16:58.280 he wanted to go back in the game. He can't go, 0:16:59.080 --> 0:17:04.680 Anthony Dorr said, is his backup. Anthony Dorsett has leg cramps, 0:17:05.400 --> 0:17:11.040 can't play. So we go out on the field to 0:17:11.160 --> 0:17:13.960 run home run throwback with sixteen seconds to go in 0:17:14.000 --> 0:17:20.280 this playoff game, and they pull out Kevin Dyson, a 0:17:20.359 --> 0:17:24.800 second year receiver from Utah, and they say, listen, you 0:17:24.920 --> 0:17:28.280 just need to go in and just you're basically the 0:17:28.359 --> 0:17:33.200 eleventh guy. That's it. You're just going in. As they 0:17:33.200 --> 0:17:35.240 go into the field, the guy who is supposed to 0:17:35.400 --> 0:17:41.040 catch the lateral pass, Isaac Byrd, tells Kevin Dyson, whatever 0:17:41.080 --> 0:17:44.679 you do, stay behind me just in case I have 0:17:44.720 --> 0:17:52.000 to throw a second lateral to you. So Steve Christie's 0:17:52.040 --> 0:17:54.200 the kicker for Buffalo. He kicks it up in the air. 0:17:54.280 --> 0:17:57.679 That's a huge problem. We had never practiced it with 0:17:57.760 --> 0:18:00.439 a kick up in the air. We'd always practiced it 0:18:00.480 --> 0:18:05.960 with a squibkick. Our fullback Lorenzo O'Neill, who was basically 0:18:06.000 --> 0:18:09.720 a guard with a low number camps out under it, 0:18:10.640 --> 0:18:14.760 were terrified. First of all, he basically has, as Frank 0:18:14.800 --> 0:18:20.360 Whitcheck would say, spoons for hands, and everybody thought he's 0:18:20.400 --> 0:18:22.119 either gonna drop it or he's gonna fair catch it. 0:18:23.280 --> 0:18:25.800 Why is he doing this? Well, when he went onto 0:18:25.840 --> 0:18:27.919 the field, he told Frank, if they kick it short, 0:18:28.040 --> 0:18:30.919 I'll get it and hand it back to you. And 0:18:30.960 --> 0:18:33.639 so that's what he did. He caught the kick off 0:18:34.119 --> 0:18:37.120 and turned and handed it back to Frank Whitecheck. Whitcheck 0:18:37.240 --> 0:18:41.000 was a tight end pro bowler, one of the best 0:18:41.040 --> 0:18:46.400 athletes on our football team period. He ran to his right, 0:18:47.240 --> 0:18:51.320 turned and threw the ball back down the twenty five 0:18:51.440 --> 0:18:56.080 yard line thirty yards. Now, he was wearing tight end 0:18:56.160 --> 0:19:01.600 pads and he made this incredibly act, curate throw. He 0:19:01.720 --> 0:19:04.119 thought he was going to be throwing it to Isaac Burr. 0:19:05.800 --> 0:19:08.480 The problem was when the ball went up in the air. Initially, 0:19:08.920 --> 0:19:11.760 Ike started forward and fell down. He took himself out 0:19:11.800 --> 0:19:15.000 of the play. So what should have happened is Frank 0:19:15.040 --> 0:19:18.640 Whitcheck's pass right down the twenty five yard line should 0:19:18.680 --> 0:19:23.440 have gone out of bounds. But remember what Ike told 0:19:23.520 --> 0:19:28.880 Kevin Dyson stayed behind me, just in case Kevin Dyson 0:19:28.960 --> 0:19:35.600 goes back, catches the ball, and Buffalo is totally out 0:19:35.600 --> 0:19:38.879 of position. They had been fooled by everything, and all 0:19:38.920 --> 0:19:43.159 of a sudden, Kevin Dyson heads down a path on 0:19:43.240 --> 0:19:46.240 the west sideline toward the north end zone and there's 0:19:46.240 --> 0:19:52.080 nobody there. Seventy five yard touchdown, the Music City Miracle, 0:19:53.440 --> 0:19:57.439 one of the most famous plays in NFL history. So 0:19:57.640 --> 0:20:02.920 it was neil to Whycheck Dyson should have never worked, 0:20:03.640 --> 0:20:08.360 but it worked because the other eight guys executed their 0:20:08.480 --> 0:20:15.280 spots perfectly. They executed the fake they threw off Buffalo, 0:20:15.680 --> 0:20:18.440 and then they formed the corridor up the sidelines and 0:20:18.600 --> 0:20:22.280 took Kevin Dyson home. Didn't get a penalty, and just 0:20:22.320 --> 0:20:25.199 make sure and do their jobs. It's important to know 0:20:25.280 --> 0:20:27.119 the other eight guys who were on the field for 0:20:27.160 --> 0:20:31.600 the Music City miracle number twenty, Rodney Thomas, number thirty five, 0:20:31.800 --> 0:20:35.920 Perry Phoenix number fifty, Terry Killings number fifty one, Greg 0:20:35.960 --> 0:20:39.680 Favors number fifty nine, Doug Coleman number eighty three, Isaac 0:20:39.720 --> 0:20:43.440 Byrd number eighty four, Larry Brown number eighty eight, Jackie Harris. 0:20:44.240 --> 0:20:49.560 Because you know, to this day, all of those players 0:20:51.800 --> 0:20:54.960 claimed that as their highest moment in the league. A 0:20:55.040 --> 0:20:59.199 couple of those guys work in administration in athletics, and 0:20:59.240 --> 0:21:02.639 it's in their box. He was part of the famous 0:21:02.720 --> 0:21:09.680 Music City miracle. It was unbelievable. Place erupted, and suddenly 0:21:10.080 --> 0:21:18.760 Nashville became a massive, overwhelming, incredible NFL town in one day. 0:21:21.200 --> 0:21:24.160 Next week we went to Indianapolis. They were a heavy 0:21:24.200 --> 0:21:28.440 favorite to beat us. Peyton Manning's first playoff game, we 0:21:28.520 --> 0:21:32.479 somehow won that game came home, ten thousand people were 0:21:32.520 --> 0:21:35.440 in the Nashville airport waiting for us. It was crazy. 0:21:37.080 --> 0:21:41.520 The next week we go to Jacksonville AFC championship game. 0:21:41.560 --> 0:21:46.320 They're great revenge. They had beaten Miami the week before 0:21:46.359 --> 0:21:50.639 in Dan Marino's last career game sixty two to seven. 0:21:52.040 --> 0:21:57.600 Damn is right, and boy, they were laying for us. 0:21:59.440 --> 0:22:02.000 And we walked in there and smacked him right in 0:22:02.040 --> 0:22:06.040 the mouth, beat him thirty three to fourteen on their 0:22:06.119 --> 0:22:10.600 field in front of their fans at what was to 0:22:10.640 --> 0:22:17.440 be their coronation moment. And we went to the super Bowl. Now, 0:22:17.760 --> 0:22:20.320 if you don't understand from what I just said, why 0:22:20.400 --> 0:22:25.040 Jacksonville has heat for us to this day. That's the reason. 0:22:25.280 --> 0:22:28.280 So we went to the super Bowl, Super Bowl thirty four. 0:22:28.920 --> 0:22:31.399 Kevin Dyson was tackled on the one yard line as 0:22:31.480 --> 0:22:35.480 time ran out. One of the greatest Super Bowls ever. 0:22:37.240 --> 0:22:42.360 Nashville was so enthralled by everything. They had a parade 0:22:42.440 --> 0:22:45.760 for us. After we lost the Super Bowl. More people 0:22:45.840 --> 0:22:51.679 went to our parade down Broadway, then went to the 0:22:51.680 --> 0:22:56.040 parade in Saint Louis for the Rams. It's crazy. The 0:22:56.160 --> 0:22:59.840 five year period we had, those first five years starting 0:22:59.880 --> 0:23:05.160 in ninety nine, sixty one wins, four playoff appearances, two 0:23:05.200 --> 0:23:09.840 AFC Championship games, that Super Bowl. One of the most 0:23:09.920 --> 0:23:12.600 significant things that happened during that period of time was 0:23:13.119 --> 0:23:15.399 Steve McNair. In two thousand and three, was named the 0:23:15.560 --> 0:23:19.359 MVP of the NFL, first black quarterback to ever be 0:23:19.560 --> 0:23:24.920 named the league's MVP. The most courageous player I've ever seen, 0:23:25.520 --> 0:23:29.280 the toughest player I've ever seen, my favorite player that 0:23:29.359 --> 0:23:32.680 I've ever seen. If I had to walk out these 0:23:32.800 --> 0:23:35.520 doors and put it all on the line to save 0:23:35.640 --> 0:23:38.719 my family, the one Titans player I would ask to 0:23:38.720 --> 0:23:42.960 go with me to this day is Steve McNair. You 0:23:43.000 --> 0:23:47.840 will never find anybody that was associated with organization who 0:23:47.880 --> 0:23:50.280 wouldn't say the same thing. Eddie George would say the 0:23:50.320 --> 0:23:54.760 same thing. Jovon Kurst would say the same thing. That's 0:23:54.800 --> 0:23:58.200 what he was to all of us, and when he 0:23:58.280 --> 0:24:03.480 won that MVP, that felt like we all wanted and 0:24:03.560 --> 0:24:07.640 Steve understood the significance. He understood what Warren Moon had 0:24:07.680 --> 0:24:10.200 meant to him, what Randall Cunningham had meant to him, 0:24:10.480 --> 0:24:13.119 and that what he meant to quarterbacks that would follow 0:24:13.840 --> 0:24:18.480 it was special and it made us all proud. We 0:24:19.160 --> 0:24:22.320 went through another little downturn because of the salary cap. 0:24:23.800 --> 0:24:25.639 Came back in two thousand and seven, went to the 0:24:25.640 --> 0:24:28.679 playoffs two thousand and eight, ten and oh to start 0:24:28.720 --> 0:24:33.600 the season, thirteen and three. Great year. Two thousand and nine. 0:24:34.600 --> 0:24:39.520 Chris Johnson rushes for two thousand yards CJ two K. 0:24:41.240 --> 0:24:44.600 It was phenomenal to watch. He set the NFL record 0:24:45.040 --> 0:24:49.600 for yards from scrimmage over twenty five hundred yards from scrimmage. 0:24:49.640 --> 0:24:57.800 That still stands. It was fun. It was fun, got rocky, 0:24:58.320 --> 0:25:02.359 as it sometimes does, had some starts and stops with coaches, 0:25:02.760 --> 0:25:06.080 had some starts and stops with quarterbacks, and we were 0:25:06.080 --> 0:25:08.920 out in the wilderness for seven years, I mean really 0:25:08.920 --> 0:25:13.880 out in the wilderness. But twenty sixteen we got things 0:25:13.960 --> 0:25:17.280 back on track and that started a run of six 0:25:17.400 --> 0:25:24.160 straight winning seasons. It was fun again. Twenty nineteen through 0:25:24.160 --> 0:25:29.320 twenty twenty one was really fun. Nineteen we go to 0:25:29.359 --> 0:25:33.440 the playoffs, first round. We draw the New England Patriots 0:25:34.880 --> 0:25:44.560 in Foxborough. Tom Brady, Bill Belichick, all those guys. Rumor 0:25:44.720 --> 0:25:53.320 is if and when they lose, Brady's gone, he wants out. 0:25:54.560 --> 0:25:59.280 We walk in that place and Derrick Henry went crazy 0:25:59.359 --> 0:26:04.400 that night. Our defense did something incredibly special that night 0:26:05.080 --> 0:26:08.399 and we beat them, and that was Tom Brady's last 0:26:08.400 --> 0:26:11.640 game with the New England Patriots. The Tennessee Titans, your 0:26:11.680 --> 0:26:15.480 team did that. The next week, we go into Baltimore. 0:26:15.480 --> 0:26:19.879 They're the number one seed. Lamar Jackson's the MVP. We 0:26:19.960 --> 0:26:24.200 got no chance. We beat him, and out of nowhere, 0:26:24.200 --> 0:26:27.600 a nine to seven team goes to the AFC Championship 0:26:27.680 --> 0:26:30.600 game and we're ahead of the Kansas City Chiefs, and 0:26:30.640 --> 0:26:35.080 then well didn't work out the way we wanted. Twenty twenty, 0:26:35.119 --> 0:26:38.520 we come back, We win the AFC South for the 0:26:38.560 --> 0:26:43.040 first time in twelve years. Twenty twenty one, we win 0:26:43.080 --> 0:26:45.760 the AFC South again. We have the best record in football. 0:26:47.800 --> 0:26:51.639 It was a good, good run. And then there are resets, 0:26:53.280 --> 0:26:57.320 and we're coming off of another reset at this point. 0:26:58.800 --> 0:27:02.960 You know what stands out that may surprise you is 0:27:03.000 --> 0:27:06.440 it is possible that on your team, the twenty twenty 0:27:06.480 --> 0:27:13.400 four Tennessee Titans, we will only start three players who 0:27:13.520 --> 0:27:16.080 started for US two years ago in twenty twenty two. 0:27:18.359 --> 0:27:23.760 Think about that, out of twenty four spots, it's conceivable 0:27:23.840 --> 0:27:27.240 that only three of them will be manned by guys 0:27:27.240 --> 0:27:31.359 who were here two years ago. That's the NFL. There 0:27:31.400 --> 0:27:36.479