Jim Mashek

It all seemed to make sense.

After returning from New Orleans from last week’s R&L Carriers New Orleans Bowl, in the mammoth Caesars Superdome, I had a chance to catch an NFL game in Nashville’s  Nissan Stadium, a mere 64.5 miles from the hacienda.

A game pitting two teams that I’ve become intimately familiar with over the years, the homestanding Tennessee Titans and the interlopers from the Crescent City, the New Orleans Saints.

Had to do it.

Had to be there to witness the classic Misery Loves Company matchup.

After pulling out my frayed address book and scanning my social media, I started sending out some feelers. Started looking for a sports enthusiast or two to make the roadie to Music City, USA.

Home of the Ernest Tubb Record Shop, the Country Music Hall of Fame, Bridgestone Arena (the annual home of the SEC men’s basketball tournament) and more honky tonks per capita than just about anywhere else in North America.

No takers.

Some of ’em were out of town. Others, not interested. I even called my neighbor’s bookie, and he told me he was holdin’ down the fort, waiting for Tom Homan and El Presidente’s ICE thugs to show up, because his housekeeper was born South of the Border…

Not happenin’.

Undaunted, I decided I’d take the solo sojourn down to the Oasis of Opportunity, particularly if you follow the MAGA lead and embrace international con man Elon Musk’s tunnel that’s supposed to connect the Nashville International Airport and Broadway.

Never mind government oversight, of course. These grifters do what they want, when they want to do it, so just get out of their way or pay the consequences.

I had to be there.

The Tennessee Titans used to be the Tennessee Oilers. They used to play at Vanderbilt University, and before that Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium in Memphis while they waited on the construction of Nissan Stadium, which was completed in 1999.

The 69,000-seat structure on the banks of the Cumberland River has also been known as Adelphia Coliseum (1999-2002), The Coliseum (2002-2006) and LP Field (2006-2015).

I get dizzy just thinking about all the changes.

It’s a historical building, however, and they’re gonna be razing that sucker to make way for the plush, picturesque ‘New’ Nissan Stadium, a 60,000-seat domed stadium right next door to the existing structure, making downtown traffic nothing short of an unmitigated disaster.

Never mind downtown. The whole city is paying the price.

The Titans are an unmitigated disaster in their own right, an NFL franchise known for holding cities hostage. In my impressionable childhood, before Mom and Dad told me that a move to Metro Washington, D.C., was on the horizon, I used to watch them in the ’60s.

They were known as the Houston Oilers, born in 1960 as an AFL franchise that played in two area college stadiums (University of Houston and Rice) before moving to the Astrodome.

Don’t get me wrong. The Oilers and Titans have had their moments.

The Oilers had characters such as head coach O.A. “Bum” Phillips and Hall of Fame running back Earl Campbell. They had wide receiver Billy “White Shoes” Johnson, one of the early fathers of TD celebrations.

There was also Warren Moon and the wide-open Run ‘N Shoot offense.  And the collapse in the 1992-93 NFL playoffs, when the Oilers failed to protect a 35-3 lead, blowing it in a 41-38 defeat to the Buffalo Bills in Orchard Park, New York. They never got to the Super Bowl in Houston, of course, but club owner Bud Adams, a gruff Texas oil tycoon, said it was the stadium that was holding them back. So he shopped his team around …

First to Jacksonville, and then to Nashville.

In their first season in Nissan Stadium, the Titans used the Music City Miracle, a gimmick play, for a game-winning kickoff return vs. Buffalo in the playoffs.

A few weeks later came their Super Bowl appearance in January 2000, when the late, great Steve McNair and the Titans came up a yard short in a memorable 23-16 loss to the St. Louis Rams. The Rams moved back to Los Angeles themselves in 2016.


Pro football is in a constant state of evolution, if you wanna call it that, and the college game is following suit. Current NFL commissioner Roger Goodell is the owners’ lackey, not the overlord of the world’s most popular sport, like his immediate predecessor, the late Paul Tagliabue, or before that, the iron-fisted Pete Rozelle, who’s probably having a toddy, right now, with longtime Dallas Cowboys GM Tex Schramm in the depths of …

(Never mind.)

No, Goodell wants showplaces. The Mercedes-Benz Stadium in downtown Atlanta. SoFi Stadium, which now plays host to TWO NFL franchises, the Los Angeles Rams and the Team Formerly Known as the San Diego Chargers. And yes, Prince’s hometown has palatial digs, too, as the Minnesota Vikings now play in glimmering U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis.

I’m getting dizzy just thinking about it.

See, the Titans will be playing in the ‘New’ Nissan Stadium in 2027, and while the Almighty Dollar reigns supreme, that doesn’t translate to Nashville’s football team.

This team is bad.

Real bad.

Now, New Orleans Saints fans understand. They once wore bags over their heads, at home games, in the Louisiana Superdome, taking a cue from the ‘Unknown Comic,’ from the surrealistic Gong Show of the 1970s. This happened after bombastic New Orleans sportscaster Buddy Diliberto started doing his reports on the team with a supermarket bag over his grill, while on the air.

The Saints seemed to be ready to make a move themselves after Hurricane Katrina. I was toiling at the Biloxi-Gulfport newspaper in those days, when Saints owner Tom Benson was ready to close up shop and move the entire operation to San Antonio, the corporate home of his automobile dealership empire.

Paul Tagliabue told Benson to forget it. Former Saints executive Arnie Fielkow had the same thoughts, and Benson showed him the door. In time, to his credit, Benson realized the Saints belonged to
New Orleans, and they restored the Louisiana Superdome in time for the 2006 NFL season, when the Saints reached the NFC championship game before losing to the Chicago Bears at frigid Soldier Field.

Three years later, the Saints won the Super Bowl.

Benson and GM Mickey Loomis hired Sean Payton, an offensive-minded coach from the Dallas Cowboys, and Payton convinced injured quarterback Drew Brees to cast his lot with New Orleans.

Together, they transformed a franchise.

Payton is doing his thing these days in Denver. And the Broncos are already a Super Bowl contender in his third season in the Mile High City.

So after my trip to New Orleans, last week, I decided to go to Sunday’s NFL game, played in October-like weather conditions, between the Titans (3-12) and the Saints (5-10). The Saints had won three straight, however, and they were a slight favorite over the Titans, with interim coach Mike McCoy and first-year quarterback Cam Ward, the No. 1 pick in April’s NFL Draft.

The game proved to be a microcosm of both teams, at least in recent years.

The Titans started fast. They quickly fell behind, 13-0, and trailed 13-6 at halftime. And then …

Saints’ rookie quarterback Tyler Shough, a 25-year-old gunslinger from the University of Louisville, started hitting his stride. The depleted Titans’ secondary proved to be easy pickings. Saints running back Audric Estime started punching out big gains. And the Saints’ veteran NFL defenders, players such as Cam Jordan, Demario Davis and Chase Young started taking over.

The Saints would win, 34-26.

It was the Saints’ fourth consecutive victory.

Ultimately, it all starts at the top.

Ownership.

That’s where the Titans fall short.

Embarrassingly so.

And that new stadium won’t make the difference.

Bud Adams’ daughter, Amy Adams Strunk, needs to sell the team.

Until then. . .