Crash Of The Titans: Woe Is Tennessee

Trust me, I’m not very proud of my pun-styled headline, but when it comes to the Tennessee Titans these days, even the coach is making attempts at bad jokes.

Maybe Jeff Fisher was hoping nobody would notice the mustache and he could get a commercial pretending to be Peyton Manning. Maybe Fisher was longing to have Manning return back to the state of Tennessee. Most likely, Jeff Fisher is trying to change the karma of the Titans, because right now sports karma is breathing fire all over Tennessee.

Last weekend, the Tennessee Titans were down at 45-0 at halftime, and Tom Brady actually came out for the first series in the second half. The Patriots were running up the score against the Titans, yet after the game there was no outrage like the Pats felt two years earlier when they showed up the Redskins.

The lack of outrage may be because the Patriots are a lot more vulnerable this year, but appears to be more of a reaction of fans recognizing that the wrath of the Sports Gods the Titans are feeling is self-inflicted.

Last year, the Titans were 13-2 and celebrating a victory against their rival Pittsburgh Steelers. Lendale White, in the middle of a 15-TD season, pulled out a Steelers terrible towel and stomped all over it on the sidelines.

Since that moment, Lendale White has one TD in eight games, the Pittsburgh Steelers went on to win the Super Bowl, and the Titans are 0-8.

Most of the players are the same for Tennessee, yet the team has fallen in the tank since the towel-stomping. They lost a meaningless game to the Colts last year, then made three turnovers against the Ravens in their playoff game and lost in the last minute in a close 13-10 game. This year has become much worse for the Titans, with zero wins and one event that added a cloud to the franchise.

The schedule-maker did no favors to the Titans by having them start the season in Pittsburgh. Tennessee had chances to win the game, including the reliable Rod Bironas missing two field goals.

Then Tennessee went home and blew a 14-point lead against the Texans, even though Chris Johnson scored three TDs over 50 yards. The Titans then went on the road and struggled against the Jets and were blown out in Jacksonville, according to the few witnesses at the game.

The season officially unraveled at that moment, as the next games against the Colts and Patriots produced a combined score of 90-9. Luckily for the Titans, they don’t play this week—although I can’t imagine watching two weeks of game film from a 59 point loss is inspiring. The Lendale White towel-stomping may have been the beginning of the franchise’s downfall. The catalyst of the karma turn took place when the face of the franchise hit his downfall.

Steve McNair was the most recognizable player since the Oilers moved to Tennessee. He was the one who led that amazing drive to get in range to tie the game against the Rams. McNair was a likeable, tough guy who was very popular in Nashville, even when he went to play with the Ravens.

His death on the 4th of July was shock to Nashville and Titans fans, especially when the news came out he was murdered. The Titans are wearing a patch commemorating No. 9 on their helmets this year. 

How could someone who stayed out of trouble his entire career have this happen to him? The sad truth is, he played with fire and got burned.

McNair was married and had four kids, two with his wife at the time. In the public eye, his marriage appeared to be going well. In reality, McNair had a bachelor pad apartment in the city and had a steady side-girlfriend he met at Dave & Busters. Sahel Kazami got pulled over in McNair’s car two days before the murder, and her stability was spiraling out of control.

McNair didn’t help the situation when he decided being a four-timer was more fun than two-timing. He had another side piece from Sahel, and she was around for awhile before the July murder. McNair was with a girl who was having money issues, just went to jail, is dating a big name local celebrity who is cheating on her, and other seedy stuff that CBS News has just begun to uncover. The more layers of this story that are peeled away, the more the situation smells—making McNair look worse.

The Titans understandably held a memorial for McNair a few days after the death, before a lot of the details were released, in addition to the number on their helmets.

I hope the Titans fans see the problem with that. The Titans have a constant reminder of the star of the franchise falling apart and having his life ended by his own indulgences. This is a black cloud on the Titans. They are losing games 59-0 because sports karma is fully against a team where Steve McNair represents the franchise.

The Titans will win a few games this year, but in order to get the team back to where they get lucky instances like the Music City Miracle in their favor, they need to do two things. First, remove the No. 9 from the helmet.

Eventually, if they want to retire the number in the stadium, that’s fine. Just don’t put his name on the wall. It does no good to have the name lurking over the franchise, and kids asking what happened to him and having to explain the mess that ended his life.

Second, either bench or cut Lendale White. He’s not doing much this year, and that stupid towel-stomping started the winds of change for the negative. Definitely trade him during the offseason, since the Titans are basically done from playoff hopes this season. These ideas might appear a bit harsh, but trust me, I’m well aware of how negative karma works. I was on the opposite side of the Music City Miracle.

If Titans fans are interested in learning about karma, look to Knoxville and the University of Tennessee and their struggles. The Volunteers, producers of NFL stars including Shaun Ellis, Dwayne Goodrich, Travis Henry, Jamal Lewis, Leonard Little, Onterrio Smith and Donte Stallworth. That list helps explain the Volunteers' struggles the last decade, and should show that the Titans have bigger issues than if the coach is wearing a Peyton Manning jersey.