The late Bud Adams made no secret of the fact that he wanted Peyton Manning to sign with the Titans when Manning was a free agent in 2012 and the failure to land him reportedly contributed to the franchise’s founder and owner’s decision to fire General Manager Mike Reinfeldt after that season came to a close.
Manning wound up signing with the Broncos, of course, and went to two Super Bowls with Denver before retiring in the wake of their Super Bowl win earlier this year. The Titans haven’t had anything close to that kind of success in the last four years, which will likely have some of their fans wondering what might have been after Manning revisited that pursuit at the Middle Tennessee Sports Awards in Nashville on Thursday night.
“I was pretty close,” Manning said of joining the Titans, via the Tennessean.
That decision would have led to a lot of other what ifs around the league including what things would look like for the Titans, Broncos, Texans, Marcus Mariota and others had Manning made a different decision. Those what ifs don’t make for much other than conversation topics to while away an afternoon, but long holiday weekends usually offer an opportunity to do just that.