Remember These Titans: A Look Back at the Road that Galvanized a Team

It was the summer of 1996, and thousands of homes in the Tennessee state capital were littered with yellow signs that read “TENNFL.” You could find the same acronym on bumper stickers, coffee mugs, and beer coozies everywhere.

The city of Nashville was working hard to gather support for a plan to bring the NFL to Tennessee. They were swimming in uncharted waters, and staring down the barrel of failed sports entities in the past.

Despite losing it’s NASCAR Cup race and its LPGA Tour stop over the years, interest for the NFL was growing in the mid-state area. Enough interest was brewing that it became more and more likely the Oilers would leave their ranch-worn cowboy boots and hats of Houston for the country-ballad cowboy boots and hats of Music City, USA.

During the NFL season of 1996, after word of Oilers owner Bud Adams intentions to move the team to Tennessee turned from rumors to fact, fans literally stopped coming to the Astrodome.

Crowds were so sparse that fans in the stands were able to hear conversations between players on the field during the game. This prompted the league to approve the move to be allowed to happen a year earlier than scheduled.

The Oilers would finish their last year in the Astrodome in 1996 with an 8-8 record, and would head to Tennessee with a team of young talented players built from the awarded draft picks from two previous losing seasons in which they won a total of nine games.

Included on that team were three people that would become the nucleus of a group whose resolve would be tested over the next three years.

Jeff Fisher became the head coach in 1994 after the Oilers failed to make the Super Bowl the previous year despite a 12-4 record. Steve McNair was drafted in 1995 following a 2-14 season, and Eddie George the next year following a 7-9 season.

While fans in Nashville were certainly ready to welcome their new team, they would have to wait. The stadium would not be ready until 1999, which meant the Oilers would have to find a place to play for the two years until then.

As if making a bathroom break on a long road trip, the Oilers, now known as the Tennessee Oilers, stopped just the other side of the Mississippi landing in Memphis and played in the Liberty Bowl.

Memphis had previously had a professional football team in the Memphis Showboats of the defunct USFL, and there were those who believed that this pit stop was a way to show the NFL that they were ready to support another team and should be considered for future franchises.

But the city of Memphis has always had a long standing unofficial rivalry with Nashville and attendance showed that Memphis was none too fond of being a stop-gap for a team that would eventually land in Nashville.

In addition, the feeling was that fans living in Nashville didn’t want to travel four hours to watch their team play.

Support that had built up so much steam for the relocating franchise after selling over 45,000 PSLs (Personal Seat License) seemed to be questioned after the Oilers once again played in front of dismal crowds in route to another 8-8 record.

Another year, another new stadium, as the Oilers made their way closer to their final destination, now playing in the college stadium of Vanderbilt University.

Located just miles from their eventual home, support was better, but was still mysteriously questionable as only four of the eight home games were sold out, in a stadium that barely held more than 42,000.

Nevertheless, the show had to go on, and even though Steve “Air” McNair was starting full time and Eddie George was becoming known around the league as a bruising back, the team finished the 1998 season with another 8-8 record, and again in front of less than impressive crowds.

With a third straight 8-8 season finish and questions rising of whether Nashville was the right choice or not, Bud Adams issued a warning to the young coach that had managed to keep his team together through the murky waters. After three straight mediocre years, rumor had it that another 8-8 record or worse would be unacceptable.

Consider the warning heeded.

Sparked by a brand new stadium, new team colors, and a new team logo, the Nashville fan base wasn’t just energized, they went ballistic.

They finally had a team they could truly call their own. In 1999, the Tennessee Titans were born and stepped on the field of the Adelphia Coliseum, shaking the derrick from their logo, and the apathy from their record.

Jeff Fisher, Steve McNair, and Eddie George, along with a cast of young up-and-comers like DE Jevon Kearse, and older battle tested veterans like OT/OG Bruce Matthews, took to the task at hand. They rode a wave of energy from their new home in that new stadium that is still going strong 10 years later.

They finished the season 13-3, undefeated at home, and in the Super Bowl. Following one regular season game, in which the deafening crowd noise caused multiple false starts, the opposing coach would complain to the league that he felt noise had been piped in to the stadium.

Not bad for a team that had barely played in front of hundreds just a few years before.

They would lose one of the most exciting Super Bowls in history by little over a yard, but they can hang their hats on a magical season that included a “miracle” in the Music City.

They sold out every game that year and to this date haven’t missed a sellout. Every bit of trouble they endured over the previous three years playing in three different stadiums and in front of minuscule crowds had been exorcised from this team.

They were the Titans. They were AFC Champions, and they were finally home.