Work at the site of the new Tennessee Titans stadium has stopped after a noose was found at the site of the construction.
Via Turron Davenport of ESPN.com, the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department is investigating the incident.
“This week, a racist and hateful symbol was discovered on our site,” the Tennessee Builders Alliance said in a statement issued to Davenport. “There is no place for hate or racism in our workplace. We reported the incident to law enforcement, suspended work, and launched an investigation.”
Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell also issued a statement.
“Obviously, this is an environment where we want to try as hard as we can to prevent scenarios that might be fear or hate-based,” O’Connell said. “We’ve taken some steps, both with local policies, state policy, and partnership with them to try, again, to keep temperatures low and prevent hate incidents like this. It is very concerning, there is an open investigation. I know the Titans are cooperating with Metro Nashville Police and we’ll see what that investigation turns up.”
It’s unclear how long the construction will remain halted. The stadium is expected to open in 2027.
The Titans have made a pair of moves at running back on Thursday.
Tennessee announced the club has signed Jordan Mims and waived running back Tyrion Davis-Price.
Mims, 26, appeared in 11 games for New Orleans last season. He recorded 70 yards on 20 carries and caught 12 passes for 71 yards. He was on the field for 105 offensive snaps and 49 special teams snaps.
Davis-Price, 24, had joined Tennessee in June. He has appeared in eight games for the 49ers and Eagles since entering the league as a third-round pick with San Francisco in 2022. He’s rushed for 127 yards on 43 carries in his career.
Tennessee’s rookies and veterans are set to report to training camp on July 22.
Cam Ward was the first overall pick in this year’s draft, but the new Titans quarterback drew less attention over the three-day event than Shedeur Sanders’s slide to the Browns in the fifth round.
Ward’s teammate Jeffery Simmons took issue with that during an appearance on NFL Network Thursday. The defensive lineman said he thinks that signals a lack of respect that extends to the team as a whole.
“First off, I think that our team — the Tennessee Titans — never gets the respect and attention we need,” Simmons said. “I’ve never seen the No. 1 pick overall never get the respect and, quite frankly, the attention that he deserves.”
The Titans were in position to take Ward because they had the worst record in the league last year and they are 16-35 over the last three seasons, so it’s not surprising that no one is lining up to sing their praises. First overall picks tend to be more celebrated, but Simmons thinks the initial response to Ward might wind up benefitting the rookie as a motivational tool.
“I think where we’re at right now with him not getting enough praise, who is not known as a No. 1 pick overall or don’t get the attention and the praise that he deserve,” Simmons said. “But I think that’s a chip on his shoulder. You could tell by the way he goes about his business — his swagger, his demeanor — this gonna be one of the ones that I’m excited to see. I’m excited to get back to camp next week to be more around him and learn a little more about him.”
If Ward is as good as Simmons thinks, the Titans should start winning often enough to generate the kind of reaction from outside sources that Simmons believes they deserve.
Nick Saban’s Alabama tenure came to an end last offseason when the seven-time National Champion head coach elected to retire.
But one of Saban’s former assistants thinks the 73-year-old Saban will make his way back to a sideline at some point.
Speaking to reporters at SEC Media Days on Monday, current Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin was asked if he would hire Saban if his former boss wanted back in the game.
“He’s not going to need me to hire him,” Kiffin said, via Sam Hutchens of the Mississippi Clarion Ledger. “I don’t think he’s done. I think he’ll be back. Whether that’s college or NFL, I think he’ll be back.”
Kiffin worked under Saban at Alabama from 2014-2016 as the program’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. The two won a National Championship together to cap the 2015 season.
Saban was famously the Dolphins head coach from 2005-2006 before taking the Alabama job. His other NFL experience came as the Houston Oilers defensive backs coach from 1988-1989 and the Browns’ defensive coordinator under Bill Belichick from 1991-1994.
Kiffin was the Raiders coach from 2007-2008, lasting just four games into his second season before he was fired.
Sixteen years ago today, a quiet Fourth of July afternoon was interrupted with the stunning news that former NFL quarterback Steve McNair had been shot and killed.
McNair was only 36 at the time.
The official explanation never made complete sense. Quickly solved as a murder-suicide, with McNair shot by his 20-year-old girlfriend, Sahel Kazemi, who then supposedly shot herself.
The rush to close the case seemed odd. Police concluded that Kazemi shot McNair execution style, twice in the chest and twice in the head.
A subsequent effort to re-open the case ultimately failed. The issue was pressed by Vincent Hill, a former Nashville police officer who aggressively pursued the theory that it was not a murder-suicide.
In 2018, SI.com took a closer look at the unanswered questions in Fall of a Titan, a podcast series.
“I could make a case that things don’t add up,” former Titans coach Jeff Fisher said in a 2024 Netflix documentary on the McNair murder. “I don’t want to speculate. Just let it go.”
Even now, it’s hard to let it go. It’s hard not to wonder whether someone got away with double murder. And while that won’t change the fact that McNair was killed on this day in 2009, there’s a nagging sense that justice may not have been done.
McNair was the NFL’s co-MVP in 2003, and he led the team to the Super Bowl in 1999.
The third overall pick in 1995 out of Alcorn State, McNair spent 13 seasons in the NFL — 11 with the Oilers/Titans and two with the Ravens. The Titans retired his number (9) in 2019.
