I've gotten to watch some of the all-time greats wind down their careers (Jerry Rice, Emmitt Smith), I've watched some beautiful Super Bowls (XLIV) and some horrible ones (XLI) and I've suffered through all of the heartbreak and tribulations that come with rebuilding.
Over the last nine years, my Titans have gone 77-67, and made the playoffs four times. In those nine short years, every player who made me a Titan fan is gone. Let's think about that for a moment: about all the franchises, and how many players they've retained. Most of them would have at least one holdover for the last nine years, but the Titans? Nope.
The closest is long snapper Ken Amato, acquired in the 2003 season, and then Eugene Amano, from 2004. Clearly if we want longevity we need to sign more Ama*o fellas.
Anyhow, I thought I would reflect on my favourite Titans of the last nine years. Really, it's going to be a fairly predictable list of only two franchise generations worth of players (devoid of a Moon or a Campbell from longtime Oilers enthusiasts), but as time goes on, some of these guys will dip off the list and be forgotten forevermore, so let's pay tribute to them here!
#3 Kerry Collins
2006-present
Titans Career
613-1081 for 6,804 yards, 33 TDs, 29 Ints, 74.6 rating
49 rushes for 62 yards, 1 TD, 14 fumbles, 1.3 Avg
All-Time Career
3439-6163 for 40,441 yards, 206 TDs, 195 Ints, 73.9 rating
372 rushes for 687 yards, 10 TDs, 135 fumbles, 1.8 Avg
If you listen to Titans fans for long enough, you'll notice that there's a lot of Haterade being sprayed in Collins' direction. The reason's obvious: the man has been a prime example of inconsistency throughout his career. He was a first round pick by the Panthers, but put up season QB ratings as low as 55.7. He took the Giants to a Super Bowl, but looked absolutely miserable in that game, throwing four interceptions in a disastrous 34-7 loss.
And how has Collins looked so far for the Titans? Of course: inconsistent. When he's bad, oh you better believe he's real bad. Try 6 picks to 1 TD in his Titans premiere season. So obviously, there's a clear reason for the animosity towards him.
When I was thinking about QB #3 on this list, Billy Volek was the first name that sprang to mind. He threw like a man possessed in 2004, and would have been the guy to usher in the Vince Young era, had Collins not gotten the nod at the last minute.
But Billy Volek's great Titans season was a 5-11 season. Kerry Collins' best Titans season? 13-3 and, until the very end, oh so sweet.
I'll always be thankful to Kerry Collins for 2008, plus occasional key performances when VY couldn't go, and though I like many don't want to see him as a starter anymore, he is a dependable backup who I'd like to see stick around.
#2 Vince Young
2006-present
All-Time Career
689-1190 for 8,098 yards, 42 TDs, 42 Ints, 75.7 rating
264 rushes for 1,380 yards, 12 TDs, 38 fumbles, 5.2 Avg
Though the end of his Titans tenure is all but certain, I was proud to have Vince Young as my quarterback. That 2006 draft was, at a glance, the most amazing one in the world for me.
What was the theory behind the 2006 Rose Bowl? That, had Texas not won, Vince would have gone back for his senior year? I wanted Vince Young to be a Titan so bad. We held the lofty third overall pick, and, had he come out a year later, there was no assurance we would be in a position to take him.
As such, that Rose Bowl was the single most important college football game I've ever had as a fan. To me, it was the VY Bowl. If Texas won, he was as good as ours. And famously, not only did he win, but he did it practically all by himself. 41-38 Longhorns, Vince Young declares himself for the draft.
Come draft time, amidst speculation that Tennessee would opt for USC's Matt Leinart, those of us in the Vince Young camp waited on with baited breath and white knuckles to see if we could secure one of college's all-time greats.
The Titans drafted Vince Young with their first pick, and the future had begun.
It was a future I envisaged as being much different than it turned out. To match the thrill of the first round, the second round yielded an unexpected surprise: LenDale White had taken a tumble down the draft boards, and we stole him at 45.
To me, it was like we had recreated my beloved duo of McNair/George: a mobile QB with a strong arm coupled with a bruising, punishing running back. How could it fail?
...Well, it did. And now we're eying QBs in the draft, a little more than two weeks away. Alas.
Vince was a guy who I really wanted to succeed. And frankly, I still want him to succeed. It's always painful to watch former players triumph elsewhere (Mason, Blount), but unless they were a jerk, you wanted the best for them. And Vince, for all his maturity issues, is a stand-up guy.
He was a fiery leader (if not polarizing), and week 14 in Houston, 2006... man, you thought you were watching history in the making: the beginnings of a hall of fame career.
But now, we enter the next stage of quarterbacks in Tennessee.
Like I said, Vince was a guy who I wanted to win the Super Bowl for us. He wasn't just a Titans QB, he was our QB. At least I can take comfort in the knowledge of the kind of person he was off the field: with the effort he took to help raise money for the flooding in Nashville, and the way he has stepped up to look after the McNair boys, he's shown that he is a man with a good set of morals.
#1 Steve McNair
1995-2005
Titans Career
2305-3871 for 27,141 yards, 156 TDs, 103 Ints, 83.3 rating
614 rushes for 3,439 yards, 36 TDs, 84 fumbles, 5.6 Avg
All-Time Career
2733-4544 for 31,304 yards, 174 TDs, 119 Ints, 82.8 rating
669 rushes for 3,590 yards, 37 TDs, 99 fumbles, 5.4 Avg
No matter what the competition is, McNair is my #1 guy. Favourite QB? Favourite Titan? Favourite football player of all time? The winner is always McNair.
In the same way that seeing Warren Sapp dominate en route to the Super Bowl in '02 made me a football fan, watching Steve McNair play made me a Titans fan. In the early days I had leaned towards the Raiders or the Bears, but Mac9 ushered me into Tennessee fandom, and every quarterback who has come since or is yet to come will always have to live up not only to McNair's performance, but to his qualities.
Whether he had a chunk of flesh hanging from his thumb, or defenders draped over him on every snap, McNair would play on. He was a true throwback to QBs of old; men of true grit and bravery who would put their bodies on the line to claim a victory. I don't doubt that, had football still been a two-way game, McNair would have been more than happy to line up on defence or kick field goals as well.
He was a man of quiet confidence, and it was beautiful: a good old country boy who worked his ass off to get to where he was, and never lost the things that made him who he was. He was a genuine man, the kind who you'd want to win for, but who would more often than not end up winning for you.
Someday I hope to track down all of the McNair seasons that I missed. There's seven years of gametime that I wasn't privy to, and of the few games I've seen from those days, it's clear to me: I want to see more. I have to see more.
He never won a Super Bowl. His statistics are robust, but not stellar. As time goes by, his intangibles: the way he put the team on his shoulders, fought for everything through any injury, and snatched victory from the jaws of defeat... Will they be remembered? Or will he become merely a memory of his stats: 3x Pro Bowler, 1x All-Pro, 1x Co-MVP?
Though these are good things, these are not the things that made up Steve McNair. The way he would shed tacklers to complete a first down pass, how he would shrug off a seemingly devastating injury to return to action, and how he would let his actions speak louder than his words... These were the things that made Steve McNair the football player that he was.
I can't really fault you with this, given the short period of time that you're working with. I find it interesting that you were almost a member of the Raider nation. You had your chance and now you have to live with your HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE mistake.
ReplyDeleteNine (now twelve) years of middling disappointment vs. nine (twelve) years of consistent failure? I think I'm feeling okay with that choice so far!
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