A Preseason Ode to Postseason Woes: A Season with the Tennessee Titans

The other day my wife asked me how my day was.  It was a question I was not fully prepared for. I jolted awake from a hypnosis-like state that I had been in for the last 9 hours.  I had to think hard: was it a good day?  No, not “Good” per se.  I had a decent cup of coffee in the morning, I got most of my work done, and I didn’t die so that’s nice.  Was it a bad day?  No, not “Bad” either.  I have a job, I laughed at some point, although I could not remember why, and I was home. Not a bad day at all.  Still it alarmed me that I had been in a state of neither good nor bad for the last 9 hours, some sort of lifeless hypnosis akin to a walking coma.

That state of being is precisely what it means to be a Tennessee Titans fan.

This year marks another year of questions.  Will Corey Davis take the jump to be the franchise receiver we drafted him to be?  Will Derick Henry continue the trajectory of becoming one of the top running backs in the league?  Will Mariota throw the ball to anyone but Adam Humphries in the preseason?  All unknowable things.

So, Titan fans, let’s get ready for the NFL season.  A time where we collectively watch as we lose to the Bills then beat the Patriots. A time where we watch our quarterback throw a touchdown pass to himself.  A time where we hope beyond hope in Blaine bleeping Gabbert.

We have mediocre highs and mediocre lows. Memories like Derick Henry’s run for a 99 yard touchdown, throwing people off him like a repressed middle-aged man with unfulfilled dreams playing football against his 8 year old nephews at a family barbeque, then we don’t give him the ball consistently for 3 games.  Our team celebrating on the Dallas Cowboys star, then wondering why Mariota is in full pads but too hurt to play.  We remember old times like the Music City Miracle, the greatest forward pass in the history of football.  But deep, deep down we always know that we will inevitably fall one yard short.

Why do we love this Franchise so much?  Why do we keep coming back to it over and over again?  Are they bad?  No.  Are they good? No.  But do we love them? Yes.

So, let us celebrate together another season of lifeless hypnosis.  Let us all walk in our collective coma.  And at the end of the year when we are 8-8, we will have to really think about the season to judge whether it was good or bad.  We won’t really know. We will never know. We will just get ready for next year with a bunch of players that we like but don’t love.  Players we hope take the next step, but always seem to be one step away.  Players who on any other team would be superstars, coaches who on any other coaching staff would be winning.  Here is to the Tennessee Titans, and to us, the fans who stick by and watch life go by, 8-8 at a time.

*Editor’s Note: “Time is a flat circle. Everything we have done or will do we will do over and over and over again- forever.”

-Rustin Cohle, True Detective Season 1