Titans Fans Continue Their Sad Support Of The Bully Cortland Finnegan

Nashville, I have a very important question for you: Why the hell do we put up with this shit?! Why do we tolerate—even praise—Cortland Finnegan’s thug behavior? Hell, we gave him a weekly call-in radio show for Pete’s sake!

When Cortland made the Pro Bowl, you all cheered. And I was there in the back, quietly pointing out that he’s a hot-head who plays dirty. When the Broncos called him out earlier this season (along with the rest of the Titans roster) for being dirty, you defended him as one of your own. But there I was behind you again, sheepishly suggesting that the evidence shows the Broncos were clearly right.

And when he orchestrated and instigated a fight with Andre Johnson on Sunday, and then smiled and taunted the Houston crowd on his way out of the stadium, I said to myself, “Finally, the city of Nashville is going to see this bully for what he is.”

But I was wrong. Because many of you are still defending his cheap-shot ass. Many of you called his radio show yesterday to praise him for his toughness. And Jeff Fisher petitioned the league to not suspend Finnegan on the grounds that he never threw a punch.

Let’s get one thing straight here, geniuses: Finnegan threw a punch. He just didn’t have closed fists. Watch the video… watch him slam Johnson in the face right at the start of the play. Here it is:

Now… I know defensive backs shove receivers at the line all the time. I’m not an idiot. But that’s a more-than-typical violent shove there… directly to the facemask with two hands. Saying he didn’t throw a punch is a weak-ass technicality. There are even reports he turned to the Texans sideline just before the play and said, “Watch this.”

Finnegan is a teenager. He is petulant… he is violent… he is angry. It’s trendy for Titans fans to use semantics to excuse away the bad behavior. “He’s just chippy.” Or, “He just plays with emotion.” Or my favorite: “He’s an instigator.” Bullshit. He has openly admitted he wants to be known as the dirtiest player in the league. And you idiots are lapping it up.

He’s a thug. He takes cheap shots after the whistle constantly. He’s been flagged and fined for unsportsmanlike behavior numerous times in his short career—at least $40,000 in fines this year alone. One GM in the league called him an “absolute scumbag.” All for 13 interceptions and 5 sacks in five years. That’s… average. It might be easier to accept his misbehavior if he was producing like a super star, but he’s not. Plenty of cornerbacks can amass 13 interceptions in five years--hell, his own teammate Michael Griffin has 15 interceptions in four years, with nowhere near the penalty yardage, fines, and negative press that Finnegan brings.

And now he’s suggesting his fighting partner’s punishment should have been stronger. Give me a break. Compare and contrast with Andre Johnson’s remarks about the fight:

“I want to apologize to the organization, our owner and my teammates. What happened out there today wasn’t me. I just lost my cool. I wish I could take back what happened. I can’t. It’s over and done with now. I’m pretty sure I’ll be disciplined. I’ll have to deal with it.”

Now that’s a man who’s not making excuses. That’s a man who knows he went too far. Finnegan? He probably wishes he went further than he did. Don’t forget that when Denver’s Kyle Orton said Finnegan was dirty, Finnegan’s response was to challenge him to a fight.

Andre Johnson also called the commissioner of the league to apologize personally, and says he will not appeal the fine because he knows he did something wrong. Finnegan? He’s appealing the fine.

The most annoying thing is that Finnegan did all this on Sunday when his team was getting shut out 20-0, late in the game. He melted down like a whiny baby and lashed out physically against an opponent he couldn’t beat any other way. Freaking child.

Nashville, I wondered if the city was losing perspective when so many of you defended Albert’s head stomp several years ago. Or when you stood and cheered the uber-thug PacMan Jones’ great kick returns in spite of his many arrests. I worried about your sanity when you continued to side with Vince Young despite his continued attempts to prove how selfish and childish he is.

But now… now, I’ve just given up. If you see the “look at me” dance that Finnegan performed on Sunday, taunting and mocking a crowd whose team had truly destroyed the Titans, and you think that’s a guy we should get behind… well, then I don’t think I want to know you anymore. I think you can take your Titans and your bitch-ass quitting QB and your street-gang-mentality cornerback with Tiny-Man’s Syndrome… and you can sail off together to the Sea of Never Making the Playoffs. Have a nice trip. You all deserve each other.

Honestly… I thought we were better than this. I thought there was a decency and politeness engrained in our culture in Nashville that would make it impossible for an attitude problem like Finnegan to stick around on the roster—let alone be a hero. But I was wrong. I’ll take my ball and go home now, I guess.

Look at the last five years, people. Vince’s meltdowns and tantrums. Albert’s stomp. Pacman’s multitude of legal issues. Owner Bud Adams flips a double bird to the entire Buffalo fan base and organization. Vince’s fight in the strip club this off-season. Pick up Randy Moss, one of the most notorious bad-attitude players in the league. And now Finnegan’s continued antics of thuggery and violence.

Don’t look now, Nashville, but you’re the new Oakland. You’re the new Cincinatti. You’re the new punch line in the NFL when it comes to bad behavior and character issues.

And what’s worse? I’m starting to think you like it that way.

The Titans Are 5-2, So Why I Am I Not Excited?

Yesterday, the Titans beat the Eagles 37-19. On paper, that looks like a dominating performance. Of course it wasn't. The score is skewed by an interception return with no time on the clock. Still, the Titans came back from 19-10 and gained control of the game with a performance from Kerry Collins to Kenny Britt that could not be stopped.

I'm still not excited. I can't figure out why. One thing is, once Vince Young gets back, are we going to see the Vince Young/Chris Johnson/Kenny Britt show? Was this the game in which Kenny Britt became an elite receiver, and now defenses are going to have to worry about what he's doing and not throw everything at Chris Johnson like they've been doing? I mean, that whole Kenny Britt thing yesterday seemed like a fluke, right?

And yet, in the five wins this year, the Titans have scored 30 points or more every game (OK, so they only scored 29 against the Giants). They have scored more points than any team in the league by a pretty wide margin. The two teams closest to them are Oakland, by virtue of their 59 point performance yesterday (and with a bit of reason, that means it doesn't count), and New England. And this is without Chris Johnson putting up any of the kind of numbers he was putting up last year. Johnson has 662 yards and 7 TD through 7 games, whereas he had 824 yards and 5 TD last year.

Stats can be skewed, though. A lot of the Titans' points have been in garbage time. That interception return yesterday, the CJ touchdown last week, and all those Cowboys miscues that led to scores the week before that. As surely as they will be the first team to cross 200 points for the season, this team isn't nearly a dominating offensive team, right? Are my eyes deceiving me?

It really makes me wonder about perception versus reality. We think about the teams with dominating offenses like the Saints and the Colts having great quarterbacks who make names out of their receivers. You see quarterbacks who confidently throw on almost every down, and even when the pass is incomplete, it scares the hell out of you. There's always a "well we didn't get it this time, but we'll probably get it next time" sort of feel to those teams. Whenever you see the Titans throw incomplete passes, your mind is immediately focused on what kind of punt yardage the team is going to get on the inevitable 4th down. And despite having a lackluster pass offense (29th in the league), and not the usual Chris Johnson show, they're scoring points.

And this defense is doing sort of what it did in 1999 when it went to the Super Bowl. It allows tons of yards (23rd in the league in allowing passing yards, 10th against the rush), but it really grinds teams in the red zone. And it also gives all of us heart attacks. I just wonder how long an offense and a defense can play this way over a full season. You would think this would eventually become tiring.

And next week, the Titans play the San Diego Chargers, who are inexplicably 2-5. It would not shock me to see the Chargers find a way to put 40 points on the Titans this upcoming weekend, and then we'll start hearing about how the Chargers always do this. Start slow, and then start coming around. It would make sense that just when the Titans are at their highest and are building confidence in the fan base, they would fall to a Chargers team in which people have begun to lose confidence. Oh, and the Titans/Oilers franchise hasn't beaten the Chargers since 1991. I wouldn't be surprised if we saw a weird point spread where a team with a much worse record is still a 3 point favorite (In fact, looking it up, San Diego is a 3 1/2 point favorite right now). That just goes to show, the 5-2 record right now still seems suspect.

Sound Observations - 2009 Style

Hi everybody! It's been a while, and I know people are clamoring for more myopic insights into relatively meaningless activities, including professional sports. Well, look no further! I've been watching this strange, sad and surreal version of the NFL season for the past 6 weeks, and there's certainly a lot to discuss. Sit down for a while, sip some cocoa, and join me, won't you?

NFL Weeks 1-6

1. Well, the first thing I want to get out of the way is my outright and unstoppable hatred of the quarterback of the Minnesota Vikings. This is one of the most mindblowing events in sports history, and I don't know quite how to react. Has there ever been anything like this in professional sports? Ever? Didn't think so. So now, to Packers fans (like me; full disclosure) have this mentality:

We had the greatest dad in the world. He did cool things like hunt and fish and cuss and fart and he used to get reeeeeally messed up on booze and drugs, but even that's ok, since he's clean now. Last year, he wanted to separate from Mom. We love Mom more than anything and will support her over anyone else, but we kind of understood. Dad needed something more. He doesn't like to sit at home and watch TV every night. He'd rather be out playing poker with the guys or hanging out at his steakhouse. He really should be looking for a hotter piece of ass. Even though we love Mom.

Well, after the hot-ass New Yorker was done, we figured Dad would move back into the neighborhood. Maybe even patch things up with Mom. If not, at least he'd be around, not chasing poontang all over the Big Apple. But... what? He's getting re-married? To Mom's worst enemy? The slut in school that always tried to steal Mom's boyfriends, but could never land a serious relationship (i.e. go all the way)? How could he? And now they're opening a business together, and it's super successful, and... oh god, now they're kissing and fondling in public, right in front of Mom... oh god...

Yeah, so now you know how depressed the entire state of Wisconsin and various other patches of America are. Good times.

2. Moving on to happier items, let's look at the Tennessee Titans, who most recently got whacked in the balls 59 times in one single game. This is a complete systematic anomaly. The team is essentially the same one that won a whole shitcan full of games last season, and now they look like the Washington Generals. I've gone from feeling despondent to actively rooting for them to be as crappy as possible... to make the '08 Lions look like they were competent. If they really try, they can suck on a monumental level. There's no saving this season; you might as well try to be great at something. In this case, getting repeatedly whacked in the balls.

3. As of Week 6, the division leaders are Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Denver, New England, San Fransico, Minnesota, New Jersey Giants and New Orleans. So... whatever that means. I have this feeling that, by Week 8-9, the sports pundits will be acting like they were picking the Saints and the Broncos all along, and this is not anything to be surprised about. It's the old Detroit Tigers of '06 syndome again!

4. Peyton Manning can kiss my ass. Is there any use for him in those Sony commercials? Anything? Is his mere presence supposed to make Justin Timberlake funnier? Well, I tell you this, Mr. Manning. Justin Timberlake is PLENTY funny enough on his own. I said good day, sir!

5. Hmmm, 6 weeks in and I still miss Madden. I miss the eyebrows, and the witticisms, and the vodka smell you could almost get through the TV. Maybe he could get back together with Pat Summerall next season, and we could have them do a good ole fashioned drink off to see whose liver explodes first. I've got Summerall after 10 shots.

6. Speaking of drinking, if you took the collective blood alcohol level of the cities of Cleveland, Buffalo, and Kansas City on a random Sunday this season, which would be the drunkest? Is Dallas in the mix? Oakland? Discuss.

NBA

7. LeBron James and Shaquille O'Neal might give people a reason to watch the NBA this season. With the new-look Cavs going against the returning champion Lakers, and the Celtics trying to bounce back from a rough post-season last year, and the Bulls trying to establish themselves as a force in the Eastern Conference, and... hey! Is anyone listening? Hey! Ok, nobody cares. Moving on...

MLB

8. So, is it gonna be Yankees/Phillies or Yankees/Dodgers? It seems like this is going to be one of those years that the Yankees win the Series. These years used to happen frequently, and people just became immune to it. Now A-Rod can try to redeem himself for post-season failures and steroid-humping, and Jeter can jump into "Greatest of all time" discussions that will splatter all over ESPN like A-Rod on his first date with Kate Hudson. Meanwhile, the Dodgers can win and Manny will continue to look like he has no idea where he is. Either way, it'll be interesting.

TV

9. Well, I think it's high time I got into Gossip Girl. Don't know why, and don't know why it's taken me this long, but I figure it's worth a shot. Rich, bitchy white kids living in uptown Manhattan that consistently engage in high-risk behavior, whilst spouting lingo that's so cool you've never even heard words like it: Count me in! Also, this helped.

Miscellaneous

10. I asked some friends about this, but I wanted to open it up to anyone who reads this blog. Is there anything worse than sitting on a warm toilet seat in a public bathroom? Yes, if it's wet it makes it worse, but if you look at the seat, it looks clean, no liquids scattered about, you go to sit down, and it feels like someone JUST got up about 3 seconds before... ugh.

Steve McNair

We would be remiss, I suppose, for not commenting on Steve McNair considering we are a Nashville-based blog.

I did some research: The L & N Line has referred to Steve McNair 53 times (including this one) since our "birth" back in February 2003. There are a few random mentions, to be sure, within those posts, but I'm rather proud to see that we painted a fairly accurate picture of the man who is being so heavily discussed after his murder July 4.

Within these posts we mention his toughness, his leadership, and lament some of his deficiencies at QB, including this gem from Mike:

Also, McNair has a few games with low passing each year, and it usually doesn't matter. This is why he can play on my team any time, but never on my fantasy team.

McNair's ability at quarterback was never one to be filled with eye-popping stats, but he still won.

By the way, Mike: You happen to mention two athletes who would later die in one post. Cory Lidle and McNair get mentioned (as does Neil O'Donnell), and a particular phrase seems to stand out in it: "bloody excited." All out of context, but chilling nonetheless. I'll also note that I was living in the towns both people died in at the time of their deaths.

Also, we had our justifiable questions about McNair from KW with this post. The subject was Pacman Jones, but the subject of "hero worship" is well-discussed, briefly touching on the DUI arrest and how this town gave Steve McNair a huge pass on it. I kind of wish this blog extended back to the nineties, when McNair was heavily booed back in the day. Remember when McNair got the same treatment as Vince Young (even though I don't think there's a chance in hell Young will ever be McNair), and the Titans faithful wanted Neil O'Donnell all the time? The man made huge strides in this town to go from that to being forgiven for stuff like DUIs.

Plus, we discussed an embarassing moment in the McNair/Titans history, when he went unsigned due to that amazing $50 million bonus he was promised after all the times McNair renegotiated his contract to stay in Nashville. The worst of it was when he was barred from going into the weight room. A "didn't know any better" gem comes from Jonathan in the aftermath of this (bold letters are my emphasis):

So, Chris Mortensen has the inside scoop on the Steve McNair story. McNair is supposedly claiming that he will not help mentor a young QB if that's the route the Titans take with their number three pick. Whether he said this or not, how is this even news? When has McNair ever claimed to be a mentor to a young QB? Wouldn't that mostly take place in practice which McNair rarely participates in? The funniest part about the supposed big breaking story was how it alludes to Brian Billick's comment about there being a great over thirty QB out there, and he said he wasn't talking about Kerry Collins. Could he be talking about Steve-O? Maybe, maybe not. But somehow Mortensen takes this to mean that McNair would love to play for Baltimore. You want to attest to the truthfulness of Mortensen's reporting, fine. But he is the one that had that breaking story a couple months ago where Jeff Fisher was going to end up as the coach of the Rams. Good scoop, Chris. That came to be true.

Not two weeks ago I heard the story of McNair helping people out after the tornado that hit downtown Nashville in 1998. Jeff Fisher was talking about how worried he was his franchise QB was going out with a chainsaw (I suppose to cut down broken trees or loose tree limbs) in the aftermath of that storm. And of course, he helped out his home state of Mississippi after Hurrican Katrina. McNair has begun to take on a Paul Bunyan-esque legend for his various good deeds, and we may never know all of them. One caller on a national show over the weekend mentioned how he met McNair, became friends with him over the years, and how the caller's daughter went to school claiming her dad knew McNair and how the classmates made fun of her for lying. And then, catching wind of this, McNair came to their school and gave all the kids signed jerseys, basically as an "I told you so" Show and Tell.

Another man came on a national show and talked about how without any inquiry on his part, McNair "caught wind" that a youth football league didn't have enough money to buy equipment and registration fees, then went out and bought those things for this group of kids.

We still don't know everything about the reasons or circumstances for Steve McNair's murder, nor the woman Sahel Kazemi with whom he was found. We know he was a flawed hero, which I feel is the best kind, because it means that despite weaknesses we may have, we still have the ability to do lots of good. This is not to say that if we find out he was cheating on his wife it makes everything OK; it just means that a great guy has human flaws like all of us.

Here's one of my favorite plays from McNair, the penultimate play of Super Bowl XXXIV, in Spanish!