Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Are You Ready for Some Football?


When Bud Adams moved from Houston to Nashville in the mid-90s, there was a lot of controversy in Nashville about bringing them here. City and state leaders had wooed the Houston Oilers and promised to kick in funds to build the stadium. Opponents in Nashville, however, were able to get enough signatures to force a vote on the city package. As you can guess, the majority of the voters wanted to bring Nashville to the "big leagues."

Although the now-Tennessee Oilers moved to Nashville in 1997, their new stadium was not ready, and wouldn't be until 1999. They played their first season in Memphis and their second back in Nashville at Vanderbilt University. Toward the end of the 1998 season, the team announced it was changing its name to connect more with the fans and city of Nashville and the state of Tennessee. An advisory panel chose "Tennessee Titans" to reflect not only power, strength, leadership and heroism, but also to refer to Nashville's nickname as "Athens of the South."

I took this photo during the Titans/Hawks game last weekend. We were sitting in the south endzone, and the team was at about mid-field. QB Vince Young (#10) had just released the ball (which you can see just above his head). Unfortunately, the receiver didn't catch the ball. Young's next pass did connect. . . .with a Falcon defender. Thanks to the defense, the Titans won the game.

6 comments:

Janet said...

You got a good shot from a ways away.

Lan said...

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Steve Cuddihy said...

Best of luck this week with Kerry "the statue" Collins as your QB in place of Vince Young. It will be fun to watch Vince get better with age.

I'm still confused with that hockey team you have there. I haven't been keeping up since the season started, any thing new lately?

quintarantino said...

Good shot. Well done, Chris.

Lesson number 2 - A sua fotografia não aparece no UNITEDPHOTOS.

Denton said...

This reminds me that I have never posted a football photo. I'll have to rectify that oversight ... An interesting story and I agree the name change was a positive one ... Our (2 year old) minor league baseball team had a name controversy. We, the fans, voted and came up with The Greenville Joes after a Shoeless Joe Jackson who was a Greenville native. The baseball commissioner overrule us and the name had to be changed. Unofficially they will always be known as the Joes.

NorthBayPhoto said...

Great action shot.