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A place to call their own Titans thrilled to finally have home base in Nashville
Posted: Sunday February 06, 2000 06:19 PM
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (CNNSI.com) -- It's not unusual for NFL teams to change cities, but it's safe to say that no one has ever, or will ever again, go through what the Tennessee Titans have to reach the championship game. Four different stadiums in four years. Hated in one city, ignored in another. Nomads with more questions than fans. That's why the former Houston Oilers believe that nothing can bother or distract them now as they shoot for the first Super Bowl appearance in the franchise's 40-year history. "It's like we've been battle-toughened," offensive guard Bruce Matthews said. "We've been through the wars, and that isn't just football. That's the circumstances that we played under and just all the things that we've gone through." Imagine not knowing if you're playing home games in Nashville or Houston in 1997 until a month before training camp. Or being a national joke with the NFL's worst attendance in Memphis' Liberty Bowl, a commute that left families driving 400 miles round-trip for home games. Then came 1998 and tiny locker rooms at Vanderbilt's stadium, the NFL's smallest with 41,000-seats. And they filled that up only three times. "You couldn't give Tennessee Oilers tickets away," running back Eddie George said. The head of the players' union in 1997 criticized their temporary practice facility, a collection of trailers and areas tacked to the back of a medical office building. Rain forced players to run plays in the parking lot. But the worst came before the Oilers ever left Houston. "The uncertainty and the newness of leaving really didn't pose as much a disappointment as actually seeing no one come out and see us," left tackle Brad Hopkins said. "You'd go around town and hear people talking mess about us, like, 'Why don't we just leave now?'" Seeing busloads of Cleveland Browns fans fight to keep their team when Art Modell announced plans to move it to Baltimore only made it worse as crowds dwindled in the Astrodome. "We realized that we were all alone," running back Rodney Thomas said. Once the move came in July 1997, coach Jeff Fisher tried to keep his players focused on football despite the problems. Hopkins said the fact they went 8-8 three straight seasons was great. "It would be easy for us to have below-500 seasons, and we never did. So is that to say had this been in place three years ago would we have gone to the Super Bowl three years ago? You have to pose that question," he said. "This" includes an 80,000-square foot, state-of-the-art practice facility with three outdoor fields and an indoor field and the 67,000-seat Adelphia Coliseum. "Right now I'm living my daydreams," George said. "I used to daydream about being in this position around a classy place like this sports complex. It's a great feeling." Tennesseans finally have connected with the original AFL franchise thanks to the new nickname, logo and uniforms. Their playoff run has merchandise flying off the shelves, ranking the Titans behind only St. Louis and Indianapolis in NFL sales by Pro Player Inc. At least 7,000 fans followed the Titans on the road last week, and up to 10,000 greeted them on their arrival home, something none of them had ever seen before. The Titans are 9-0 playing on a true home field for the first time since owner Bud Adams announced in August 1995 that he wanted to move his team to Nashville. Overall, they are a franchise-best 15-3 going into Sunday's AFC championship against the Jacksonville Jaguars. The Titans said that proves what they can do with fan support and no distractions. "We've got one focus on our mind and one goal on our mind," quarterback Steve McNair said. "That's to get to the Super Bowl."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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