Nashville, TN

A lackluster showing didn’t bit the Tennessee Titans last week, but it sure did bite them this week.

The fact that they coughed up the ball multiple times on their side of the field when they were in range for at least a field-goal really hurts. There was some sloppy play in this game and if you allow a team to hang around, they might just beat you.

As we found out yesterday.

Oh and Vince Young got hurt….no word on if he’ll miss Sunday’s game against the Texans. Which the real loser here is the city of Houston, who can only seem to sell out a Texans game when Vince comes to town. Kind of sad that more people like Vince than like the local team, but then again, it is the Texans…

The Nashville Kats are no more.

Owner Bud Adams has closed up shop on the Arena Football League team, three years after bringing them back. Attendance was low at games and Adams said that keeping the team going wasn’t viable in our market.

This is bad news for a lot of people. It’s bad news for those working for the team who are out of jobs today. I hope they land on their feet quickly.

It’s bad news for downtown businesses who saw patronize from Kats fans on game nights.

It’s sad news for the Nashville sports community. I went to a Kats game last year and it was pretty empty in the stands. But I still hoped the team would make it. It was an affordable, fun way to take in some football. And it helped with Titans and college football withdrawal in the off-season.

And let me just ask the painful question–is this team’s failure here an indictment on the Nashville Sports Council?

I guess he just can’t stand having his name in the news…..

The Titans early season successes have generated a lot of positive stories and buzz for the team. Even a poor offensive and special-teams showing yesterday (but still a win, mind you) was highlighted by one of the best defensive efforts I’ve seen in a long time around here.

And I guess all that good news and talk that wasn’t about him upset the Pac-Man. Word is that Pac-Man thinks he’s done enough that he should be reinstated for the last half of the season.

Note to Coach Jeff Fisher: Even if the league should allow Jones to return, do NOT allow him anywhere near this team. The team has a great chemistry right now that would be totally destroyed by allowing Pac-Man back into the locker room. If he must come back early, trade him away and don’t destroy the hard work everyone on this team has done to rebuild the team–not only on the field, but off it.

Yesterday 106.7 the Fan hosted an all-day radio telethon, raising money for some very worthwhile charity that I can’t recall that much about.

This whole telethon on the radio thing is nothing new. Other stations do it and I can understand that the hosts of various talk shows in the local and national markets have charities that are near and dear to the hearts. And they are perfectly within their rights to use their platform to increase awareness of whatever charity they deem fit.

That said, I just can’t listen to these stations when they do a telethon like this. I hate to sound heartless, but hearing the various station personalities on the air, asking for my donation like it was a PBS pledge drive just makes me want to flip over and see what the other guys are talking about. And as I do, I feel totally heartless for doing so…but dammit, these telethons aren’t why I tune into the station.

Go ahead, call me a heartless, uncaring jerk and we can all move on…

It’s looking like the investor group that wants to purchase the Preds may not be able to finalize the deal…and that honestly doesn’t sound like good news for the hockey franchise staying in town.

Meanwhile, the investment group that has a minority ownership in the Sounds is buying the team in Jacksonville.

You know, if I were a conspiracy theorist, I’d find both of these stories worthy of concern.

I have to admit I’m still not over the fact that ten years ago, ABC stopped covering UT’s national championship game so we could hear everyone who’d ever worked with Keith Jackson’s opinining over how great he was and how much they’d miss him. And I’m really not ever going to forgive Brent Musburger being able to figure out how to pronounce the last name “Clausen” correctly in the nationally televised UT win over Miami a few years ago.

So, just add one more reason for me to dislike the family of networks that is ESPN…and shockingly this has nothing to do with Lee Corso.

I guess ESPN wasn’t thrilled with the fact that the Titans were on Monday Night Football the other night. I’m guessing they’d rather be covering Dallas or Chicago or some other city’s team. Why do I say this?

Becauce Mike Terrico couldn’t even bother to get the names of the Titans players right during the broadcast. Which this smacks of unprofessionalism, but it’s really no more than I’ve come to expect from ESPN. They look down their nose at Tennessee for some reason I’ve never understood. We’re not all rednecks here Terrico, not that you’d be bothered to look into that or care…cause you’re too busy not getting the players names right on the Titans.

So, next time Monday Night Football features our beloved Titans, I’ll be doing what I should have done–turning your useless banter off and turning on the voice of the Titans, Mike Keith. Yes, Keith is a homer, but he could show you a thing or two Terrico…cause Keith doesn’t get the names of the opposing team’s players wrong.

I guess that’s because he’s a professional…

So what does that say about you?

Well, the Titans made a triumphant return last night to Monday Night Football, keeping the Saints winless with a 31-14 victory.

I love it!

Great defensive play and some good strides on offense. And we’ve got wide-receivers for Vince to throw the ball to…who knew?!?

Savor it folks. This team is on the rise….we may not be going to the Super Bowl this year, but in the next five years, definitely.

It’s been a couple of years since the Titans graced Monday Night Football. So you can imagine I’m pretty excited to see Tennessee’s team showcased for one of two nationally televised games this season this evening.

The Titans head to New Orleans to play the struggling Saints. The Saints were picked by many to go to the Super Bowl. The Titans are looking to head into their bye-week with a 2-1 record. It should be a good game, but I’d be happy if Vince and the boys blew out the Saints like everyone else has the past two weeks.

Let the Aints start rolling next week…tonight, let’s hope the Titans take care of business in a big way.

There’s a new study out that says that commuters spend a week a year in traffic.

There are times when I’m driving up I-24 to work that it feels more like a month….

The growing legend of Vince Young could have written a new chapter yesterday…if one of our receivers had held onto the ball. He holds onto the ball and we could be talking about a whole different outcome to the Titans vs Colts game.

All that said, how electric was it with two minutes to go, seeing Vince come in with a chance to lead the team downfield to a win? You could just feel the electricity around middle Tennessee and hold your breath.

The Titans have a good team and next week we can hopefully show the nation what we’ve got on national TV on Monday Night Football. But I will admit–part of me is worried. The Saints are a wounded animal and playing at home for the first time after being destroyed the last six quarters….this could be a huge trap for the Titans.

Hitting newsstands today is the “Girls of (insert college football conference)” issue of Playboy Magazine. And this year, it appears the ladies of the SEC will be gracing the pages of the photo spread, including Vanderbilt’s Ally Ramirez
.

“It’s just one of those things where not a lot of people can say they came out in Playboy. I just thought it would be a super cool thing to do,” said Ramirez, who is studying economics.

Ramirez said she doesn’t plan on doing anything else for the magazine. She wants to focus on school.

All 12 teams from the SEC are featured in the pictorial in this month’s issue.

When I was in school at UT, the SEC came up for featuring in an issue and I seem to recall a great opinion column by The Knoxville News-Sentinel’s Sam Venable on who would win the SEC based on the variety of photos, how much skin was shown per school and how many women from each school made the pictorial. I wonder, based on this system (which I can’t recall enough of it to be of any real use to anyone), who is projected to win the SEC this year.

Anyway, if you’re of legal age and want to see a sample of the photos, you can do so here. I don’t have to tell you that this link is definitely NOT SAFE FOR WORK!

Vandy hosts Ole Miss Sunday at 6 p.m. If you buy a ticket, some of the proceeds go to help Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital.

The Titans open the 2007 home season with division rival, the Colts. Both teams are undefeated and looking to take a big step toward the division lead.

The last game at LP Field was the memorable Rob Beronas 60 yard field-goal to win it last December.

About the middle of August, I was beginning to wonder if we’d ever have cool weather. And by cool weather, I mean, where I could step outside and not immediately break out in a sweat.

Which is why the weather yesterday and this morning…..beyond awesome.

Comfortable, cool and last evening a light breeze blowing. I loved it.

I know this being Tennessee we’ll have a few more hot days in there somewhere, but for now, I am loving the weather.

We’ve not had a sustained rain in so long, that I think it threw people for a loop yesterday. I had to stop into my local Kroger store to pick up one item and you’d think it was getting ready to snow.

People, it’s going to precipiate, but it’s still warm for the frozen stuff!

And seriously, I think there should be some kind of test you have to pass to use the self-check out registers. If you can’t listen and/or read and follow the basic instructions, you should sent directly to the slowest line in the store. I also think you should have your self-check out priviledges revoked if you go through with more items than it says on the sign….seriously, if you’ve got a cart brimming with stuff, go to a regular line!

Can you sense my annoyance?

If not, read that again and imagine as much sarcasm as possible.

Of course, it’s not as if the Kroger people were the most helpful. I understand it’s busy and stressful. And I’m standing there, trying to put in some change because…well, I am trying to get rid of the mountain of change in my pocket (with the rain coming, I’m fearful of tripping, falling into a puddle and drowning….nuerotic, me? Why do you ask?). Anyway, it won’t take my dime…so I try another one. Rejected. Try another one…rejected. Finally, the clerk yells at me “Just give me the money already!”

Yeah, I’m pretty sure yelling at the customers wasn’t covered in the basic customer service training Kroger gave you.

I thought of telling the manager on the way out, but it was such a zoo I just let it go. Well, at least until I could blog about it. Why whine and moan to just whine person when you can whine and moan to at least dozens of people on-line?

Anyway, the rains came and I appreciate them….even enough to almost overlook that none of us can drive worth a darn in the rain.

Well, it wasn’t pretty, but I’ll take an ugly win over a pretty loss any day of the week.

The Tennessee Titans went to Jacksonville and re-took “home field advantage” at All-Tell Stadium (or whatever corporate sponsor they have these days) yesterday.

If you had Chris Brown as a fantasy football player, you probably had a big day. If you had Vince Young, probably not so much, though he did score the Titans only touchdown of the day (should’ve had two really…but I wouldn’t woulda, shoulda, coulda the game to death.)

The running game was in fine form with Chris Brown and LenDale White tearing up the Jacksonville vaunted run defense.

And the game was a very typical Jeff Fisher type of game–establish the run, pass when you have to and play strong defense while letting special teams do their thing. It wasn’t pretty, it wasn’t one you’ll see again on ESPN classic, but it was a win. And it’s a good start to the season and let’s face it–the defense did well against the run. Now, against the pass…well, not so much.

But for now, let’s savor the win and get ready for the world champions to come in for the home season-opener for the Titans. Last year’s two games were close with the Titans pulling off that miracle win in December that was one of the most memorable of the year. If the Titans can keep it close, they’ve got a chance…