Nashville, The Sports Town

While I was getting married, the 13-3 and top seeded Tennessee Titans were choking away their divisional round playoff game to the Baltimore Ravens. Obviously, I didn't see the game, but from what I have gathered, it was a game the Titans could have and should have won.
As one can imagine, the talk radio shows were all about these Titan fans calling in, blaming coaches, players, and fans for the loss. Since then, the national scene has started to get a hold of Nashville's ranking as a sports town, much of which has taken fans here off guard and made them, well, very upset.
But I sit there in my car and listen to these people banter, and it really makes me think...is Nashville a good sports town?
The answer is simple. No. No it's not. It's not even close. It's very average at best.
So why would I say this, especially coming from someone who lives here? Well, as you know I don't really have any true allegiance to the teams here, so I can kind of play a bi-partisan role in the judging, but using other past experiences will in fact be helpful in proving my point.
Let's get this out of the way first. People in the south, in general, don't get hockey. Hockey is a great sport, but unfortunately, kids don't want to play it like they want to play basketball and football. Therefore, without the need to get their kids in the seats because they won't shut up otherwise, parents, in general, aren't going to the games. It's hard to sell hockey in Nashville, and it's not going well. Sorry, but it's the truth.
But let's get to football, the sport that defines this town as a sports town and how it does that. The Titans moved here from Houston. They have no history. The majority of Titans fans are first generation Titans fans. Now, this is by default of course, other than the folks here that were once in Houston and transferred here for various reasons and love talking about Earl Campbell, Billy White Shoes Johnson, and Haywood Jefferies. But in general there isn't much of a blood line. There isn't the bond that I have with my uncle who taught me to be a Packer fan, the memories we have shared from my childhood, his childhood, and talking about almost 90 years of Packer football.
Sure, Nashville can't help that...but maybe that means they don't qualify as a great sports town, and they can't do anything about it. Have you seen the movie "Invincible?" There aren't fans in Nashville like Marky-Mark's fans at the bar in Philly. There just aren't. There aren't people who give their lives, everything they have to get to the football games. I mean, I'm sure there are but not in the same way. And it goes back to the tradition, and family tradition, that I talked about earlier. The Titans are a team, they aren't a way of life like the Cubs, or Vikings, or the Jets, or the Red Sox. They are a team that has a lot of good fans and sells out their stadium every week. They also are a team that exists in a great destination city for travellers which in turn brings a large following of the opposite colors each weekend. This is also fine. Mind you, there are people with Titans tickets ready and willing to sell...
But, what is the underlying factor of all this? I've talked about it before...and that's this simple fact. By and by, the Nashville sports teams aren't most Nashville sports fans' priorities. Nashville, sits 3 hours from Knoxville, 5 hours from Tuscaloosa and Auburn, 6-7 or so from Oxford, 3 from Louisville, and 4 from Lexington. People's passion, especially in the south, is at their college of choice, not in the NFL. Mostly I'm sure because the tradition goes back a lot further with the college team where family ties are stronger and more meaningful. And let's face it Nashville, Vanderbilt doesn't matter.
There are lots of great fans here in Nashville, that's for certain. I hang out with a lot of them. But there's a lot more to a sports town than great fans. There's tradition and passion that simply can't exist here. So don't take it personally Titan fan, you just don't have what other places have. You don't have the tradition, the stories, the legends. The ring of honor at LP Field has names like McNair, George, and Wycheck. Go to Green Bay and you'll see names like Starr, Lombardi and Canadeo, and in Chicago names like, Halas, Payton and Sayres. Don't take it personally there aren't many great sports towns and Nashville could be one someday. But it's at least two generations of stories and history removed.