Tag Archives: Tennessee Titans

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

NFL

McNair, Steve (1973-2009)

Card: Classic 1995
Acquired: In Person, Houston Oiler Training Camp, 1995

I got Steve’s autograph at Trinity University in San Antonio where the Oilers held training camp during his rookie season. He signed every card that day,(- which numbered into the hundreds) after an extremely hot summer practice where he was drenched in sweat.  I then created a Steve McNair player in Tecmo Super Bowl Final Edition on Super Nintendo. He became the best player in the game, where he was unstoppable both on the ground and in the air scoring 90s in nearly every attribute. McNair would also start at quarterback for my Fantasy Football teams in 2003 and 2005.

The Houston Oilers became a quarterback carousel after Warren Moon was jettisoned by Bud Adams after the 1993 season. In hopes of alleviating the problem, the Oilers signed Chris Chandler in 1995 and then drafted Steve McNair from Alcorn St with the 3rd pick of that draft. McNair has an interesting history that has strange parallels to Moon’s as he was asked to play defensive back by a major college instead the position of quarterback where he was most comfortable in high school. Instead of signing on with the University of Florida, McNair opted to play for tiny Alcorn State.  Steve would go on to set multiple All-American records in college and in his senior season would run and pass for over 6,000 yards including 16283 career yards.

After being drafted by the Oilers, McNair would ride the bench for primarily the next two seasons behind perennial tutor and quarterback of the moment Chandler. In 1997, the Oilers moved to Tennessee and coach Jeff Fisher handed Steve the reins of the team. McNair over his career would be seen as a tenacious blue chip warrior with an insatiable appetite to win.  McNair would suffer from a malaise of injuries throughout his 13 season career including back problems and a bruised sternum.  He’d lead the Titans to SuperBowl XXXIV (SuperBowl of the Traitorous Teams) and be named NFL Player of the Year in 2003, All-Pro in 2003, and to the Pro Bowl in 2000, 2003, and 2005 playing for the Oilers and Titans. In 2006 he’d find himself run out of town (much like Bud Adams did to Moon in 1993,) where Steve signed with the Ravens, whom he’d play the last two seasons for before injury forced him to retire in 2008.  Post NFL McNair ran a restaurant called GridIron9 and mentored quarterback Vince Young,  but struggle with an extramarital affair, in which on July 4th, 2009 that mistress would take his life.  McNair is survived by his widow and four children.

Games   161       Att   4544      Comp     2733     %  60.1       Yds  31, 304        TD  174          Int  119            Rat  82.8
Rushes  669      Yds   3590       Avg  5.4          Td 37