……..Oh My, Oh My!!

I remember watching the first Titans preseason game against the Saints back in August, thinking oh my! This team is going to be bad, I mean not just bad, but baaaad. I was doing the sideline reports for TV and just thought, this team just doesn’t have it and winning 4 or 5 games would be good. I even did a radio station interview that night for a sports talk station out of Seattle and said the same thing to them. I just didn’t think they had it.

Oh My!

Fast Forward 4 months and after today’s game against the Buffalo Bills, I had to say, Oh My, once again. Oh my, because this team has defied a ton of odds. Messy QB situation, PacMan and all of his antics, then the pressure to start Vince, etc. There was every reason in the world for this team to pack it in and say, see you in 2007.

Oh My!

I am not the biggest Titans fan in the world, I love the Saints but I admire tenacity, and a never say die attitude and ‘us-against the world’ attitude and no one, no one, does it better than Jeff Fisher. He is good leading this team on and off the field.

Really, this team should be happy with 4 wins and look at them, 8 and 7. Winning 6 straight, on the road in Houston, Philadelphia and Buffalo. And doing with an attitude that lays it all on the field, not in the papers, or not on paper.

Oh My!

And add this to the fact. With Vince Young sports fans, we are looking at the next Michael Jordan, talent wise, for football. With MJ, you stopped to watch him. With VY, you stop to watch him just to see what he is going to do next.

Only time will tell.

Oh My!

….A Fun Week Ahead…

If you are the slightest bit of a sports fan, this week in Nashville is for you. We have professional hockey, college football and professional football, plus some college basketball thrown in there.

Tuesday the teams for the music city bowl arrive. Clemson and Kentucky and their fans, 70 thousand of them, will come to Nashville. The bowl game is sold out and downtown should be absolutely nuts. The Predators play at home Tuesday night against the St. Louis Blues.

Then Friday, the Music City Bowl takes place at high noon. Clemson and Kentucky and look for a big UK upset, but you never know.

Then Saturday night, the Preds take the ice again, taking on the Boston Bruins, one of the legendary teams of the NHL. Then Sunday, another Boston team arrives, the New England Patriots and depending on what the Titans and Pats do on Sunday, this game could be huge and might even be switched to a national night game.

Not bad for a team just two months ago, was ranked as the worst team in the league.

Good times all around!

………….36 years of pain and healing…

Sometimes sports and life go hand and hand and one a lot of times, impacts the other.

Friday, a movie opened up that some are calling the next ‘Hoosiers.” A movie that has tested higher for Warner Brothers studios than any other movie according to some reports.

The movie, ‘We are Marshall.” Detailing the tragic death of the Marshall football team and their rise from the ashes, for what a lot of people said would never happened.

And as always, there is a Nashville connection.

Marti-Carelli Gilbert’s husband, Al Carelli, was the offensive line coach for Marshall. Sadly, Al died in the plane crash, leaving Marti and her two small sons, one 3, the other 3 months. Her oldest son, Vince and I, played college football together and I always knew about his father and now, 36 years later the story is being told.

Marti lives in Auburntown, right outside of Mufreesboro. She has started a camp for grandparents and grandkids where they come together and spend quality time in the outdoors with no cell phones, no pagers, no texting, no tv, just simple quality time together.

Her website is www.grandmascampusa.com. Go there and see what she has done to make something remarkable out of something so tragic. There is still a long way to go for Marti’s dream, but this dream is slowly becoming a reality.

PLAYOFF TALK……ASK THE COACH

The Titans and Bills in a playoff elimination game Sunday in Buffalo. One thing sports reporters haven’t been able to get this week is the Titans talking about the playoffs. They just won’t go there. But tonight on the Jeff Fisher show tapnig I asked the coach if I gave him a lie detector test and asked him if he’s looked at playoff scenarios, what would he say.

The coach said “of course I have, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to talk about them with you or my team”. Classic!

You can see the entire Titans on 2 with Jeff Fisher Friday night at 7pm on Channel 2.

Merry Christmas everybody,

Chris

Titans Winning Streak Keeps All Happy…

It’s October 8, 2006, and the Titans have just lost their fifth straight game to start the season. It was Vince Young’s second start of his NFL career in Indianapolis, and the game showed a glimpse of hope for this squad, especially after they got beat up by the Cowboys a week earlier. What nobody knew was that the potential they showed against the Colts would turn into victories so soon. Just one week later, the Titans went into a hostile Washington, DC environment, and led by Travis Henry and Young, came out victorious. Never did 1-5 look so good in the record books, not just for the players, coaches, or the fans, but also for us in the media.

Dating back to when I started my career in this business about five years ago, I found out quickly that the enterprise is much easier on a day to day business when the teams you are covering are actually doing well on the playing field. The viewers don’t want to listen to negative publicity about their favorite teams, and trust me, we in the media don’t want to have to talk about it either. Now two months and a .500 record later, my job, Chris Stout’s job, Joe Dubin’s job, and Brandon Fisher’s job is made a bit easier due to the simple fact that the Titans are winning.

When you have a bad day at work, would you want somebody coming into your office and asking you what went wrong and how you’re going to fix it? Well for over a month, that’s what we in the media had to do over at the Titans practice facility and in the locker room after those first five games. That’s why that one win in DC on October 8 was such a relief. Chris Stout and I was able to go into the locker room, talk to the players and Coach Fisher, and it be a much more relaxed and enjoyable atmosphere. Now imagine how much fun it is to talk to these guys after they’ve won their last five, and seven of their last nine.

Back in DC after that win over the Redskins, did I imagine I would be covering a 7-7 squad that is still eligible for the playoffs? That’s a definative no; for me, for you, and for anybody else. But now, expectations for 2007 are so much higher than they were even two months ago, and if the Titans don’t make the playoffs next year, well…my job, Chris Stout’s job, Joe Dubin’s job, and Brandon Fisher’s job, isn’t quite so simple anymore.

Nathan Brooks
Sports Producer/Photographer
nbrooks@wkrn.com

PRO BOWL SHUTOUT…CHANGE THE VOTING!

Alright, I know the Pro Bowl is the dog of pro sports all-star games. But the current voting format has got to change. Making the votes final in the 2nd week of December is just wrong. Why can’t the NFL wait until the final week of the season? So many things happen in December and it really hurt the Titans chances this season. The biggest travesty is Chris Hope being left off the AFC squad. Hope leads NFL safeties with 112 tackles and he’s got 4 interceptions. All this guy does is show up and produce. If the voting deadline was the final week of the season Hope would be a shoe in. His INT for a TD against the Jags was all over national TV. Throw in the Titans 5 game winning streak and the votes would pour in.

There is still a chance a Titan could be named to the AFC roster. Hope, Pacman Jones, Kevin Mawae, and Vince Young are all listed as one of 4 alternates in their respective positions. Jones is listed as a returner.

VOLS BASKETBALL IMPRESSIVE….

I spent Monday night at the GEC watching Tennessee play Oklahoma State. The Cowboys came into the game unbeaten at 11-0. This is a team that could go deep in the NCAA tournament. But I’m not here to talk about the Cowboys. The Tennessee basketball team worked as hard if not harder than any team I have seen in person for many years. Just to clarify, I spent the last five seasons covering Duke, North Carolina, NC State, and Wake Forest. I can honestly say that nobody worked as hard as Tennessee did Monday night. Bruce Pearl has this program going in the right direction with nothing other than hard work. In college basketball it is about out-working your opponent. You don’t need 5 blue chippers to have a great season. Yes, you need good talent. Bruce Pearl is taking good talent and turning it into a cohesive unit that works their butt off. UT fans have a lot to look forward to in the years to come.

FOR THE TITANS TO MAKE THE PLAYOFFS..

Alright folks here is a breakdown of what needs to happen for the Titans to make the playoffs. First and foremost they must win their final two games at Buffalo and at home against the Patriots. Then they need some help. The Titans need the Bengals to run the table or at least beat the Broncos and Steelers. Then the Titans need the Broncos and Jets to lose their final two games. It doesn’t stop there. The Titans need the Steelers and Jaguars to lose at least one of their final two games. If that happens the Titans are in as the last wild card team and would be seeded 6th in the AFC Playoffs.

Is it possible, yes. Is it likely? You tell me. How can you say it won’t happen after what has happened the last 5 weeks. Anything is possible with Titans crew.

5 IN A ROW! ASK THE COACH…..

If someone would have said to me October 8th “I’ll bet you the farm the Titans will win 7 games this season”. I would have said “YOU’RE ON”. The Titans won their 5th straight game Sunday beating the Jags 24-17 and improving to 7-7. I am out of superlatives to describe this teams turnaround. I asked Jeff Fisher after the game if he had ever been a part of a game were his defense was on the field for what seemed like all day and still win. He said “no”.

But 3 defensive touchdowns more than enough to win and keep your playoff hopes alive. Tonight on Sports Extra we go 1-on-1 with Jeff Fisher and Keith Bulluck. And David Thorton joins us live. Maybe he can loan me a new superlative. I’ve already used up remarkable, incredible, fantastic, unimaginable and many others.

Hope to see you tonight on Sports Extra. Let me know if you’ve got a superlative to describe the Titans 5 game winning streak.

………A complete 180…

Just watched Adam Jones return an interception for a touchdown against the Jags. Could hear the crowd cheering for about 5 miles away.

I think Adam and I might be speaking prematurely, has finally found his niche. He knows that this town wants to love him, wants him to do well and by doing good on the field and off the field, he will have all of that.

This guys has unreal talent, so quick, such cat like quickness and just knows how to make plays. He is only 23, already has 9 million in the bank and will get only better. If I was 23 and had that much money, I would have probably lost my mind. Now what he has done off the field isn’t great and he should be called to the carpet for that and he has been.

Hopefully by realizing that this town wants him to succeed and wants him to do well, on and off the field, he will.

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