Larry Stone: 'Nashville's Team' Misses The Boat

A column in this week's Tennessean missed it....badly.

The column focused on the relative lack of interest in Memphis and Knoxville aboutt the Titans, even during the team's run through the playoffs. Longtime Memphis broadcaster George Lapides of our radio partner WHBQ and outstanding Knoxville journalist Jimmy Hyams of our Knoxville sister station WNOX reflected on Titans' interest in each of their cities.

Their comments were expected. Lapides reported lingering ill feelings about the 1997 season have dimmed interest in the Titans. Hyams said UT remains king in Knoxville. Their comments led the columnist to conclude the Titans are simply a Nashville phenomena and do not generate much interest beyond the Davidson County borders.

This is simply wrong.

Several flaws exist in the argument. First, the state of Tennessee goes much beyond Nashville, Memphis, and Knoxville. To say the views of these three large metropolitan areas represent those of all Tennessee residents is to argue with the same 'big-city' short-sightedness that gets politicians in trouble. Ask someone in Camden or Bolivar or Shelbyville or Crossville or Morristown and they will tell you the views of their big-city brothers often doesn't jive with their own. We can't poll three cities and know what the state feels.

Second, to draw a broad-based conclusion based on Knoxville and Memphis does not take into account two sets of special circumstances. If you're reading this column, you obviously love the Titans. But do you really expect the Titans to ever overtake the University of Tennessee in popularity IN KNOXVILLE??? Jeff Fisher could lead this team to six straight Super Bowls and that wouldn't happen. One would expect, as Hyams pointed out, interest in the Titans to increase when UT's football season ended. But, no one expected talk about the Titans/Browns matchup to supplant Gators/Vols talk last September...or any September for that matter.

The discord in Memphis didn't begin overnight and it will not end overnight. The feelings of many residents date back years to past NFL efforts that failed. When the Oilers called Memphis home in 1997, residents resented the fact they were being used as a temporary home. A Music City miracle or a 13-3 season won't wipe that slate away. In fact, for some these feelings run so deep that many people will never like the Titans. But, I will tell you that some of the most vocal emails I get are from Titans fans in Memphis.

Finally, from hitting the roads across Tennessee and the mid south the last three years, I can tell you there are Titans fans throughout the Volunteer State. When a thousand people showed up in Camden last April to see Steve McNair, they were there to see Tennessee's starting quarterback. When fans flocked to the Johnson City Mall last March to see Jeff Fisher, they wanted to meet Tennessee's head coach. When I rode in the Union City Christmas Parade this December, people yelled how proud they were of Tennessee's team.

To call the Titans a 'Nashville Team' leaves out hundreds of thousands of fans. The Titans will continue to reach out to Knoxville, but they don't want to supplant the Vols. The Titans will continue to reach out to Memphis to heal the wounds, but that healing won't happen overnight. The Titans are Tennessee's team.

To say anything else, misses the boat.