K.S. “Bud” Adams Jr., last original member of the American Football League to get his team to a Super Bowl, couldn’t get there with the Houston Oilers until he moved to Nashville and changed the name to the Tennessee Titans.
When Adams gave up on chances for a new stadium in Houston, he called Nashville Mayor Phil Bredeson.
“I said, `I’m Bud Adams, owner of the Houston Oilers. I’ll move my team if you’ll build a stadium,'” Adams said Thursday. “He said, `This isn’t Bud Adams. I’d appreciate it if you wouldn’t pull any more pranks on me.’ And he hung up on me.”
The Titans and St. Louis Rams are both beneficiaries of increased revenue from new stadiums after moves in the last five years. The Titans moved away from Houston’s No. 10 market and the Rams moved from Los Angeles, the No. 2 market. But Adams sees no trend.
“All the movement for NFL teams is done for a while, in my opinion,” he said. “It was an unusual situation for Baltimore to move and for us to move. I do know the NFL is very interested in the markets they’re in.”
An expansion franchise will begin play in Houston in 2002.
“We still have good support in Houston,” Adams said. “I’m not afraid to walk around anywhere in town. I’m glad they got a franchise.”
Adams said he wants to sign coach Jeff Fisher to a contract extension before he enters the final year next season. Fisher’s price will skyrocket if the Titans win Sunday.
Adams reminisced about winning the first two AFL titles in 1960-61 with ex-Bear George Blanda at quarterback. He hasn’t won since.
“Our version of the draft was to take Street&Smith’s magazine and cut out all the halfbacks, all the fullbacks, and draw them from a hat,” Adams said. “We got Blanda because Mr. [George] Halas had him working for a trucking company and paying him not to play football.”
Getting warmer: Tennessee players had to bundle up Wednesday to attend their interview session, held in a tent warmed by blowers that couldn’t get the temperature above 40 degrees. The situation was reversed Thursday. The heat was turned up to approximately 80 degrees and the players were shedding clothing.
Bad memory: Tennessee offensive coordinator Les Steckel is participating in his second Super Bowl. He was a New England assistant when the Bears beat the Patriots 46-10 in Super Bowl XX.
“If they let us have 12 men on the field I’m not sure we would have won,” Steckel said.
No TV: The brother of Tennessee Titans defensive end Jevon Kearse won’t get to watch Sunday’s Super Bowl and might not even learn the outcome of the game until six days later. Joseph Kearse, who is serving 7 1/2 years for armed robbery, is under disciplinary confinement for a Jan. 1 fight at DeSoto Correctional Institution in Arcadia, Fla. Kearse was stripped of privileges for fighting with another inmate. Warden Linda Williams said officials will not make an exception.
“That’s not fair to the other inmates, just because he’s got a brother in the Super Bowl,” Williams said. “We can’t say, ‘We’ll let you watch,’ and not let someone else watch because they don’t have a brother in the Super Bowl.”
Officials named: Bob McElwee, who refereed the regular-season game between the Rams and Titans in Nashville on Oct. 31, was named Super Bowl referee Thursday.
Rams coach Dick Vermeil said McElwee’s crew missed an obvious fumble by Titans quarterback Steve McNair on the opening drive of Tennessee’s 24-21 victory. McElwee will be working with an all-star crew in the Super Bowl rather than his usual crew because assignments are based on a grading system, according to the NFL.
That means umpire Ron Botchan, head linesman Earnie Frantz, line judge Byron Boston, field judge Al Jury, side judge Tom Fincken and back judge Bill Leavy will be working their first game as a team Sunday. Frantz is the official who gave the Jets’ Vinny Testaverde a phantom touchdown to beat Seattle in 1998, an errant call that helped persuade owners to reinstitute instant replay for this season.
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McElwee also refereed Super Bowls at the end of the 1987 and 1993 seasons.
Hot time: The Rams have complained about the frigid climes of Super Bowl week for their practices. Vermeil, who headed the complaint department Wednesday, took a different tack Thursday, switching to The Macomb Gambit. The Rams have training camp in Macomb, Ill., during July and August. Vermeil’s ploy consisted simply of reminding his players of that experience. Suddenly practice was proceeding without the six sideline heat blowers the Rams used Wednesday and Atlanta didn’t seem so bad.
“Macomb was worse,” receiver Isaac Bruce said. “It was hot; I didn’t want to be there, had nothing to do, living in a dorm room, my back’s on fire because of these iron things sticking out of the bed.”
It helped a little that the Rams traveled to Platteville for three days of work with the Bears in 1996, which spoke to how bad the Rams found Macomb.
“I was happy to see the Bears,” Bruce said. “I don’t know if Platteville is that much larger than Macomb, but I was happy to leave and go somewhere.”
Star: St. Louis guard Adam Timmerman was added to the NFC Pro Bowl team Thursday, replacing Dallas guard Larry Allen.
Perspective I: Tennessee tight end Frank Wycheck credited Fisher with keeping the team focused “in those lean years” in the mid-1990s. Wycheck’s idea of lean years: a 7-9 season and three 8-8 seasons, Tennessee’s records before this season for the years Wycheck played for Fisher.
Perspective II: Tennessee defensive end Kenny Holmes lines up against Pro Bowl left tackle Orlando Pace Sunday. Really, Holmes says, it isn’t that big a deal.
“He’s a Pro Bowler but I face [Baltimore’s Jonathan] Ogden and [Jacksonville’s Tony] Boselli four times a year,” Holmes pointed out. “I’m used to bringing my `A’ game.”
Perspective III: Tennessee linebacker Barron Wortham isn’t only reading his playbook, he’s reading the calendar. “Hey, I can say I’m playing in the biggest game of the century,” Wortham said. “We can say, `This is the biggest game of the century.'”
A leader: Heading into this season, Fisher felt his team was missing leadership. “I wanted somebody to stick his head above the clouds and take charge,” he said.
That someone turned out to be Pro Bowl running back Eddie George.
“Eddie has done this by his approach to practice and preparation,” Fisher said. “He has done it orally on the practice field and in the locker room before games. He has had a significant impact on this football team.”
George just evolved into it.
“If what I have to do to get us to the next level is say something, then I will,” he said. “Basically I will just speak from the heart.”
Young players cite George’s leadership by example.