I moved to Tennessee in the fall of 2000. For most of the next 26 years, I tried really, really hard to like the Titans.
I went to games. I followed the team. I wanted the connection to happen. But it never quite did.
It wasn’t because the football was always bad. It was the whole presentation. The flaming logo on the helmet. The uniforms. T-Rac. The game-day experience. To me, it all felt a little too minor league and schmaltzy. I’m from Chicago. I grew up with franchises that had history and mystique, where less was more and the aura could sell itself. Going to a Titans game sometimes felt like going to a minor league football game with major league players.
I know plenty of people loved those things. I didn’t. Nashville became home, but the Titans never felt like my team.
Until now.
And yes, I realize the timing is ridiculous. The Titans just lost 12–7 to the Giants. They’re 0–3. Cam Ward threw an interception in the end zone with a chance to win the game. I’m not going to tell you that was secretly a great performance. The Titans managed one first down and 54 yards in the first half. That certainly is less than desirable. Ward needs to be better, and this offense needs to start games before the fourth quarter. Read the Titans official team recap
But I watched that game and came away thinking something that would have surprised me a few years ago: I care. I am frustrated because I’m invested. And I believe Robert Saleh and Mike Borgonzi, given time to build this properly, can turn this into something Nashville has been waiting for.
The franchise finally looks the part
Brand matters to me. You can laugh about that if you want. I work in media; I know the difference between a product people tolerate and one people feel compelled to be part of.
The Titans’ new look speaks to me. The team unveiled its new logo and uniforms in March, pulling together the franchise’s Oilers history and its Tennessee identity. I am obsessed with the uniforms. So obsessed that this traditional Bears fan bought a Jeffery Simmons jersey and a new hat. That is not something I would have predicted even a year ago. See the team’s uniform reveal-How can you not love these?
Then there is the new Nissan Stadium. I cannot wait to walk into that building when it opens in 2027. The current stadium has never done much for me. It’s a concrete pile with very little soul, and even as a concert venue, those open ends let sound drift away.
The new building feels like it could change the whole experience of being a Titans fan: a place you want to enter, bring people to and remember. Nashville has already been awarded the 2030 Super Bowl there. That is a pretty enormous statement about where this city and this franchise are headed. It’s cool that I have seen this transformation up close, since moving here in the fall of 2000. Nashville feels like an essential part of the American experience now, and I love it! Explore the stadium project. Read the NFL’s Super Bowl announcement.
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A conversation that made it click
Last Friday, I moderated a Content Economy Nashville panel at the Nashville Entrepreneur Center with Kate Guerra of the Titans and Nancy Van Reece of the Nashville Vibe. They were both terrific. I plan to spend some time on the Vibe here at Show Pony Sports Media; what Nancy is building deserves attention. More on that soon.
My conversation with Kate, the Titans’ vice president of communications and corporate affairs, made something click. I heard how deliberately the organization is trying to welcome transplants with their own NFL roots. People like me. People who already have a childhood team and can’t be ordered to replace it, but might come to care about the team in the city they now call home. Hearing the Titans understand and embrace their differences from other markets was refreshing and quite frankly, exciting!
You don’t win those people over with a billboard that says Titan Up. You earn their attention by building something they want to be around. The more Kate talked about the thought behind the new identity and the stadium, the more I felt that the franchise understood the assignment.
For the first time, the team feels to me like the Nashville I know: ambitious, creative, growing and confident about where it belongs. I spent 26 years trying to feel a connection. Then I stopped trying, and the connection found me.
Don’t erase the history—or the mess
I should correct something I used to tell myself: the Titans have never been some hopeless organization. Steve McNair and Eddie George (my buddy, shout out to my boy!) took this franchise to a Super Bowl and gave it some of its defining years. The Titans reached the AFC Championship Game again after the 2019 season, beating New England and top-seeded Baltimore on the road to get there.
They won back-to-back AFC South titles in 2020 and 2021. That’s real football history, whether or not I personally connected with the presentation around it. The Titans’ account of the McNair-George era and their 2019 playoff results is a reminder. Honestly, go read the history; as a Bears fan, I am quite envious of what the Titans have accomplished in Nashville since 1997.
The recent slide is real, too. To me, the A.J. Brown trade marked the point where a contender began to lose its way. An unforgiveable sin the team is still paying for. You can debate how much of today’s mess traces to that single decision, but you cannot pretend the roster problems built overnight or expect Borgonzi and Saleh to fix them in three Sundays.
That’s where my optimism lives. I believe in the people charged with building the next version. I believe there is a culture forming, even if you can’t put culture on a scoreboard. Last week, Tennessee pushed Philadelphia until the final seconds in a 24–20 loss. This week, the defense gave up four field goals and kept the Giants out of the end zone. Those are pieces of a team that can compete. The offense still has a long way to go, and I’m not declaring this a playoff roster today. I am saying I don’t think the distance is as great as 0–3 makes it look.
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Give Cam Ward room to become Cam Ward
I know the interception is what people will remember from today. Ward will remember it, too. It was a bad throw, and he said it himself after the game. I also saw a quarterback lead a 91-yard touchdown drive, get the ball back, and take his team 64 more yards to the doorstep of a win. Last week against Philadelphia, he averaged 9.2 yards per pass attempt and ran for two scores. The talent is there. So are the rough edges.
Bryce Young is a reminder of how quickly people can decide they know everything about a young quarterback. Young struggled, was benched, returned and improved. I’m not saying Ward and Young are the same kind of player or that Ward is guaranteed the same arc. I’m saying development isn’t a straight line, especially when a young quarterback enters a team that needs rebuilding around him.
Support doesn’t mean pretending every throw is good. It means allowing a kid to learn from a bad one without deciding his career is over on a rainy Sunday in September. The team has to give him coaching, protection, weapons and time. The city can give him the chance to grow.
So here I am: a Bears fan from Chicago who has lived in Tennessee since 2000, wearing a Jeffery Simmons jersey and caring way too much about an 0–3 team.
I believe in Saleh. I believe in Borgonzi. I believe Ward can learn. I believe this organization is becoming something Nashville will be proud to call its own. Maybe I’m early. Fine. I’d rather say it now than wait for a winning streak and claim I saw it all along.
And starting now, Show Pony Sports Media will cover the Tennessee Titans alongside the college football coverage you’ve come here for. Expect an honest, distinctly Nashville perspective from a transplant who finally fell for the home team. I’ll celebrate what deserves celebrating and say when the offense has one first down in a half, but with an eye toward the big picture.
The Titans got me. I’m along for the ride.
I think the dawn is coming.
I have to say that I love the Titans because they are the only team in the NFL that the Giants can beat with Winston at QB, and I didn't want to go winless this season. That said, I do believe that Robert Saleh can lead them back to league respectability and I look forward to that. He's had some tough teams and bad luck, but that man can coach. Thanks again for the gift today! 😄
Pony, is that Sabrina Carpenter you are with cosplaying as a High School cheerleader?