Tag Archives: Tennessee Titans

NFL

Cecil, Chuck

Card: Topps Stadium Club 1992
Acquired: In Person, Houston Oilers Training Camp 1995

Hard hitting Cecil came from the Cardinals to replace former defensive back Bo Orlando in 1995, and played for the Oilers for one season. He retired due to numerous concussions. After a few years away from the NFL as a color commentator at the college level, Cecil returned to the league as an assistant with the Tennessee Titans for Jeff Fisher.

In 2009, he took over for popular defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz,  while Chuck had to deal with man-mountain Albert Haynesworth jumping ship to Washington. The had a difficult year defensively as the Titans suffered a 59-0 shellacking to the New England Patriots.  Cecil later was fined $40k for being caught on camera giving the middle finger to the referees during a contested game against the Denver Broncos in 2010.

In his career, Cecil made one ProBowl while with the Packers and was a favorite of the All Madden Team. He was also recognizable for his oversized ‘Gazoo’ helmet he wore to protect against further concussions. Despite his reputation as a hard hitting free safety, Chuck did more damage to himself, sustaining bloody noses and concussions on a regular basis, all for forcing 1 fumble in 445 tackles. A 2009 College Football Hall of Fame inductee, Chuck’s 100 yard interception return was voted the greatest Wildcat play of all time.

G/Gs  95/61    Tac 445  Sac  0  FF  1
Int 16  Yds 235   Td  1  Lg 33

Arena, NFL

Del Greco, Al

Cards: Topps Traded 1989, Upper Deck 1992
Acquired: In Person, Houston Oilers Training Camp 1992, CGA Youth Golf Tournament 1993.

The Oilers were searching for the replacement to Tony Zendejas whom they lost in Plan B to the Los Angeles Rams. Passing by established names such as Mike Lansford and Raul Allegre, the Oilers brought Teddy Garcia into camp. Unimpressed, the Oilers sent out an APB for a replacement, and found the feel good story of the year in Ian Howfield who won the job with an impressive preseason, but after 9 games it was obvious that he was not the answer, missing 4 extra points and quite a few field goals.  The Oilers called up Al Del Greco, who had lost the kicking job in Phoenix earlier that year. He had a decent enough resume and was the starting kicker for Green Bay (after Jan Stenerud) from 1984-1987 and Phoenix from 1987-1990. (He was also ironically replaced by another Zendejas in Green Bay.)

Del Greco would win the job outright in Houston, (and at that time I wasn’t really impressed,)  providing the Oilers with the consistency and clutch kicking that the team direly needed. He played for the Oilers the next 6 seasons, two for the Tennessee Oilers and then his final two seasons with the Titans- retiring after 2000 and 17 seasons. Del Greco currently stands at number 14 on the all time scoring list with 1592 points (as of 2010).

Al has since been inducted into the Alabama sports Hall of Fame. He briefly got into coaching and was a kicking coach in the AFL for the Birmingham Steeldogs as well, and does some radio and motivational speaking on the side. Del Greco is quite the golfer I hear, and was the winner of the CGA tournament that I went to way back in 1993.

G 248    XPA  543       XPM  551       FGA 449      FGM 347    PCT 77.3%

NFL

Brown, Chris

chris brown

Card: Press Pass Old School 2003
Acquired: Texans Blitz 2009

Chris Brown has been a highly touted runningback at every level he’s played. In college for Colorado he broke many of the school’s rushing records and had a shot at the Heisman that year, but injury derailed his attempts and he decided to declare for the NFL draft as a Junior in 2003.

Brown surprisingly lasted till the third round that year, where the Tennessee Titans looking for help at that position drafted him. Brown’s running style has always been a source of controversy and concern, as he has a ‘straight up’ slasher running style (like that of Eric Dickerson).  Scouts felt that he would be prone to fumbling and also injury- and for the most part, they were right as Brown never played a whole 16 game slate over his career, sitting out all of 2008.

Brown was cut by the Titans in 2008 and signed with the Texans that year,  who were looking to add depth to their running backs and needing a ‘big back’ to compliment young scatback Steve Slaton. After fumbling the ball away in a 2009 game, he got what I call ‘Sammie Smith-itis’ and seemed to lose confidence holding onto the football. At 6-3, 219 he never really got comfortable in the role as a goal line short yardage back for the team, and the Texans decided to go in another direction in 2010, electing not to resign him.

I have always been a fan of Chris- and felt that he had gotten a bad rap at his stops in Tennessee and Houston as a fumbler. (14 fumbles over his career.) He has had his shares of extreme ups and downs, and during the 2004 season he single-handedly crushed the Green Bay Packers in primetime, helping me win in fantasy football, (as I got lucky starting  him that week,) rushing for 148 yards and 2 touchdowns. He wasn’t a bad receiver out of the backfield either grabbing 90 catches over 6 seasons and  Brown had 1900 rushing yards over 26 a game period.  I got Chris’ autograph as part of the ‘Texans Blitz’ through my friend’s brother who plays for the team.

games 68    Att  722        yds 3024      avg 4.2           td 19         lg 52
rec  90     yds 741     avg 8.2         td  2            lg  57