I hate the titans Becuase of bud Because the INTENTIONALLY TANKED [Trading Moon, The fuller Rush man and Shawn Jones - ALL one off season after a pretty good season .. .was tanking] Then they did not play McNair UNTil they were well on their way out The put Cody f*cking Carlson on the field go 2-14 and EXPECT SUPPORT? Esp after you say you leaving? Rocket River never a Tennessee Traitors Fan.
Actually, Commander Cody was injured in the 2-14 year, so we had Bucky Richardson and Billy Joe Tolliver as QBs for almost all of that year (seems like Cody may have played a game or two at the beginning of the season, but maybe not. I'm pretty sure he was injured and not benched, though).
Meanwhile, I think the Titans are puttin the noose on Samari Rolle. It seems to me that he came into camp on good faith. He assumed that a deal woudd be done while he practiced. It wasn't. The Titans were playing games with him. Then, the minute he gets fed up and walks out the Titans cut off negotiations and say he shouldn't have started something he couldn't finish. In 5 days they eliminate him from playing any part of the season. I mean, that's not good faith, that's some serious hardball. This is getting nasty. Let's see what Rolle does, but if he doesn't come back, I don't blame him knowing what I know.
I don't know how often Randalls did or did not buy out the remaining tickets, but trust me, to your average every day fan, which as a mid-teen (13-16) I was back then, it felt like every week there was a possibility the game wouldn't be on tv. All it takes is once or twice a season, and then every week, the second after the Sunday game is over, you have to start worrying whether or not you'll actually get to see the game or have to turn on your radio and listen too it the old fashion way. It sucked.
The Freak -- I wrote a paper on the whole Oilers' proposal to get a new stadium. The Oilers sent me the report prepared by Dunn & Bradstreet to validate their position. They claimed 110% sellout for 8 years. You are quite right that by Thursday, most games weren't sold out...so Randall's would step up and guarantee that any seats not sold to make it a playoff game, would in fact be bought by them. That guaranteed TV coverage. However, the report detailed walk-ups on the day of the game. The games weren't always sold out...but they averaged 110% capacity over that period. I can tell you, as a regular at those games, that people were always standing in the catwalks and the seats were full in the House of Pain. That was one of the loudest (if not the loudest) NFL venue. Bud's entire position was that his team was selling out so much that he needed a bigger stadium so he could sell seats instead of standing-room-only tickets. Then, when he realized he wouldn't get what he wanted, he tried to paint Houston as a city that never supported him. That's laughable. To whomever criticized Drayton McLane -- comparing baseball economics and football economics is impossible. One has amazing revenue sharing, the other does not. Drayton McLane has paid players like no other baseball owner here ever has. He's managed to keep the Bagwells and Biggios...those are guys who would have been free agents quicker than you can say Dallas in years past. He's been willing to pull the trigger on big mid-season trades..something we've NEVER seen here. Did he trade Mike Hampton...of course he did...Mike Hampton didn't want to be here. And how did that turn out?? We obtained Roger Cedeno -- who we promptly shipped to Detroit for Ausmus....and Octavio Dotel...arguably the best setup man in the game today. How's Hampton doing in Colorado?? Answer: HE SUCKS!!! So don't write off McLane's entire tenure as owner because of the Hampton trade. Mike was a nice little pitcher...but while he languishes in Colorado, this Astros team is on pace to win 100 games and finish with the best record in the NL and the second best record in all of baseball. Not too freaking shabby. How many division titles did Bud Adams have his Oilers win in their history...oh, that's right...ONE!!! One freaking division titles in a 4 team division. Comparing these two owners is pathetic. Adams is a jackass who couldn't curry one bit of support in a town he called home for 30 some odd years...McLane had the business community bend over backwards to support him with Enron Field.
further, when adams had the dome expanded in 1989 (check me on the year, it might have been '88), the post-baseball seating capacity was 60,500. to accomodate demand, they created 1,939 extra spots that were basically obstructed views and/or SOR sections. the team routinely sold upwards of 61,000 every home game. if it wasn't a "sell-out" by freak's loose and despearte definition, that was because the majority of the unsold tickets were the 1,939 the team added. between 1968 (when they moved into the dome) and 1994, the oilers had only four seasons in which they drew less than 40,000. when you consider they won five or fewer games eleven times during that 27-year stretch and never won an afc championship... to claim anything less than maximum support under the circumstances is silly.
Maybe people were having a hard time following his posts because he writes them just like his songs (which can be very unintelligible)!! Elvis: just kidding--please don't go off. You have to learn to laugh at yourself here and not take things so dadgum personal. I have to admit though, your back and forth exchanges with mr. paige and rocketman were pretty funny. It reminded me of myself with other people on other threads.
I think someone earlier on this thread stated that the Titans have already crested. I do not think that to be the case at all. They have the majority of their star players locked in to long term contracts (i.e Steve McNair, Eddie George, Derreck Mason, Kevin Carter). They are in the process of locking up Samari Rolle and that leaves Jevon Kerse and he still has two years left on his current contract. Floyd Reese has always done a good job with the salary cap and he realizes that it is essential to draft solid picks. He has always made smart picks in the draft and that is the reason why the Titans will have a solid future. In this day and age of the NFL salary cap I would say that for a team to stay on top is to continue drafting good picks and than be fortunate to sign most of your own star players. Of course you also have to have some luck thrown in there as well as not having key players getting injured.
i did indeed say that. keeping your star players intact comes at a price -- just ask the cowboys. for years, they held on to aikman, smith, irvin and sanders while lesser known, but nonethless valuable support players walked -- that's where you get killed with the salary cap. if you want to keep a core of players together, it's going to come at the expense of others, such as marcus robertson, al del greco... when that happens, you lose depth, and then, when a mcnair goes down, suddenly, you're no longer able to afford neil o'donnell to step in. reese is a very good GM, but the nfl is structured in such a way that whatever goes up, must come down. there are no dynasties, no long-term success stories. look at the 1996 playoffs for proof. you can time the cycle like clockwork: you climb to the top and then it's time to pay the players who got you there. as a consequence, many of the valuable support players are cast aside. on top of that, you're drafting later and later with each growing year of success, so as those support players disappear, you're not as capapble of finding competent rookie replacements because you're picking so late in the first round. and so it goes. before you know it, you're 8-8, 6-10, 4-12, 2-14... and it starts all over. right now, tennessee is as good as it's ever going to be. they have nowhere else to go but down. i don't know a lot about joe nedney (isn't he their new kicker?), but fisher's offense is built around the kicker, and you saw last year what happens if you don't have a reliable one. unfortunately, they can't go out and get a reliable one because they don't have the cash. nedney can't be any better than del greco. i think it's going to come back and bite them.
I can't think of the last time I read such a sanctimonious pile of drivel like the analysis of my "anger problem" in my recent exchanges here on the BBS. Are you all such mealy mouthed sensitive souls that you take any of what I have written as evidence of some kind of serious problem with anger? Did I stumble across the Lilith Fair Houston Rockets BBS? Mr. Paige, you may have been trying to help me out, or come to the valiant defense of the poor, innocent new poster who I evidentally "went off on," but it was still unnecessary and condescending. You may have had the best intentions, but so did missionaries, so do Baptists and so does PETA...they mean well, but no one likes their unasked for advice. Folks, if my initial post confused you, or caused you to check and see if Scott Elarton was still on the Astros it is not evidence of a lack of clarity, or anything else... it is evidence that you missed some part of elementary school, or were dropped on your head as a baby. My initial post was not flippin' Finnegan's Wake, for Christ's sake! And you know what? I hardly went off on the the Mensa member who felt he needed to inform that Scott Elarton was no longer on the Astros. I was no more sarcastic than the average 3rd grader. Now, Mr. Paige, I concede I was wrong about your cherished "you'd" word choice. Here's your money back, or whatever. Perhaps, I'd write better if I'd adopt your'd gentle concern for the behavior and clarity of the BBS, as well. I'd better think it over... Anyway, even though I am evidentally consumed with anger (by the way..look at the world around for five seconds and tell me how enraged my piss-ant BBS takes are...please..) I will somehow be able to survive this great controversy. -Elvis, who in between taking himself seriously here, is in conference with Drayton McClane pleading with him to keep Scott Elarton
Elvis -- what did you mean in your <I>post before the last one</I> when you said, "I will stop responding to this issue here on the Clutch BBS." ? I guess it was just a little unclear.
september 12, actually -- a wednesday. and cc.net's very own jeff balke will be covering the event for us, which has us really stoked. well, stoked might be pushing it -- i mean, it's a uniform unveiling, fer chrissakes. but we are excited to have jeff on hand to help bring us all the pagentry and spectacle of this truly magical event, when the world of professional football will once again focus its attention on the city of houston. (ps, that last line must be read in the same voice jim nantz uses for any dramatic sports moment, "and it all comes down to this -- all the pagentry and spectacle, resting on the shoulders of duke's shane battier, who battled mono as a teenager, only to fight back and land here, at the brink of his first national championship. i'm now going to rub billy packer's thighs...")
Rooting for the Titans is like rooting for your wife after she left you for a wealthier (well then anyway) man who could offer her more. I stopped rooting for them when they left. I root against them now. Yikes !!! I just got a visual as Bud Adams as my wife........
Ric you stated the following: First off you are correct that the Titans this past off season had to release several players (i.e. Marcus Robertson and Lorenzo Neil). The one player that you mentioned in your post that the Titans WILL NOT miss is Al Del Greco. Mr. Del Greco to this date is un-employed as an NFL kicker. The reason the Titans got Joe Nedney is not because they could not sign anyone else (it is because all the other prime fieldgoal kickers were resigned by their respective teams (Olindo Mare resigned with the Dolphins and Ryan Longwell resigned with the Packers this offseason). So Floyd Reese did the right thing and signed the best kicker on the market in Joe Nedney. I think Nedney will be big plus over Al Del Greco (he is younger and has a much stronger leg which will be a plus on kickoffs). In this day of Free agency you have to have a great front office and GM who is going to be able to draft well. Floyd Reese has done that. I think it is also important to sign your own homegrown/drafted players like the Titans have done with Derrick Mason, Eddie George, Steve McNair (to smart cap friendly contracts). Than you use the remaining money to be creative and bring in a needed player. To compare the Titans to the Cowboys and 49ers teams of the past is crazy. Both those teams would always bring in other teams free agents and sign them to some apsurd high $ contract. Top that off with not drafting well or having to give up top draft picks to get those free agents and you have a recipe for disaster. I was reading Titanscentral.net this morning and came across the following. (I am quoting the following from one of the moderators at Titanscentral.net) "Well now that the Rolle deal is 99% complete (a deal should be finalized by midweek) and there is less than a week for the season to start we can give a final grade to the Titans offseason. I have to give Reese and the Titans an A+. The Titans probably have the most talented and deepest team in the NFL. That in itself is pretty impressive but when you add in the fact they have this with 9.8 mill of dead money and its amazing. If I'm not mistaken the Titans are at least in the top 5 in terms of dead money counting against their cap. Much like the Jags and Cowboys the Titans had to drop a lot of players early in the offseason to get below the cap. The difference is Reese's drafts have been so great they could absorb the hits and still have a SB contender. In the process the Titans added a franchise DE and freed enough money to fit Josh Evans under the cap. Reese also has done a great job the last few years letting players leave in free agency that can be replaced. Ruyon was grossly overpaid in a free agency era, Denard Walker is a #2 CB and Kenny Holmes was never worth the money he was paid. Because of the teams success it would have been easy to overpay to keep players like that in place. Reese also kept many of the franshise players long term this offseason. McNair, Hopkins, Olson and Rolle will all play many more years and the keep the window open as a SB contender. Reese does not get nearly the press he deserves. A SB win would probably put him on the map as one of the best GM's in the NFL. I have thought for 2-3 years he was the best GM in the NFL. Now I know it." I agree 100%... Now bring on the Dolphins!!!
