Titans Head Coach Brian Callahan

The Train Daddy is back with sports news, life lessons and politically incorrect talk. All aboard! This will be my annual Super Bowl article. We will touch on the matchup, location, halftime show and my favorite topic—Super Snacks!

But before we talk about the coming Super Bowl, let’s talk Titans: particularly, the somewhat surprising and drastic changes to the coaching staff. To hear the national sports media tell it, the Titans made the dumbest decision ever by firing Coach Mike Vrabel following the 2023 season.

Personally, I would have given Mike just one more year, but Amy wanted new blood. The Titans hired former Bengals offensive coordinator Brian Callahan as this team’s new head coach. I like the hire itself; he comes from good coaching stock and, who knows, maybe his pops Bill Callahan will follow, as rumors suggest. His dad is considered one of the best offensive-line brains in the game, and the Titans have been a disaster in that department the last two years running.

Most important to me was—if Titans owner Amy Adams Strunk decided to fire Vrabel—that the next head coach had to be an offensive-minded guy. This is a team that could hardly score 21 points if their lives depended on it over the last few seasons.

The Titans had a list of nearly a dozen head coach candidates and there were only about three men on that list that had any business getting head coach looks. Thankfully, Callahan was one of them!

I am going to miss Vrabel and, who knows, it may end up being a huge mistake letting him go. But it was clear to many Titans fans these last few seasons, Vrabel always appeared angry and like he would rather be anywhere else than coaching football. His miserable attitude was a topic of conversation among Titan nation long before he was fired.

Callahan with Titans owner Amy Adams Strunk and GM Ran Carthon; photo by Jessie Rogers for tennesseetitans.com

Rumors now circulate claiming that he wanted more power and responsibility, and he was blindsided when Ms. Amy said no and ultimately fired him. It’s crazy to think that two coaches like Vrabel and Bill Belichick are still out there looking for jobs with the head coach options dwindling. Part of what made both coaches successful in their own ways is their brash “my way or the highway” approach. It’s also what makes them tough hires for a new franchise.

I am excited that new coach Callahan is bringing an offensive approach with an emphasis on analytics. It’s not always about tough-guy football; if you want to win in today’s league you have to evolve.

As a Titans fan, I have been saying for most of this past season that the end couldn’t get here fast enough. Here we are nearing the end of this NFL season, and it’s a mix of feelings. It’s sad knowing we won’t have football every weekend to entertain us, but it’s also an exciting new direction as we near the upcoming draft and off-season. This team has a young QB they have some hope in with Will Levis, a high draft pick, and lots of money to spend. Right now, a quick check on salary cap space shows the Titans with the second-most cap space in the league. This team has many holes and depth issues but nothing a brain and some money can’t fix.

Callahan and Ran; photo by Donald Page for tennesseetitans.com

Agree with the new direction or not, Amy Adams made the decision, and she’s the Boss Lady!

Enough about the Titans, the Super Bowl is just around the corner. Super Bowl LVIII, or Super Bowl 58, features the Kansas City Chiefs vs. the San Francisco 49ers with Usher set to take on the halftime show. I don’t dislike Usher, but bro is past his prime and has been irrelevant for some time. Hopefully he puts on a good show but that’s a disappointing headline. It’s about time the Super Bowl gives us some rock or country! Instead, we get a 45-year-old Usher singing songs from 20-plus years ago about taking it nice and slow, and making love until the sun comes up. Why can’t we have Metallica?

The big game will take place on Sunday, Feb. 11, at Allegiant Stadium, home of the Las Vegas Raiders. The stadium holds up to 65,000 fans and this will be the first Super Bowl to ever take place in Nevada. This stadium began construction in 2017 and opened in 2020, the second-most expensive stadium in the world with a price tag of $1.9 billion.

Amy Adams and the Tennessee Titans will soon break that record with approved plans to open a brand new $2.1 billion beauty in time for the 2027 season. I hear the people crying about the roads, the schools and the homeless here in Middle Tennessee, but I still smile at the prospect of having one of the nicest stadiums in the world here in Nashville. Money well spent!

Back to the big game. It really is about time we make the Monday after the Super Bowl a national holiday in this country. I mean, daggum, over 100 million Americans celebrate the big game gorging on snacks and drowning in drink! It’s serious business that goes late into the night. An estimated 8 million-plus Americans admit to taking a pre-planned day off the following day. Many petitions have started over the years, yet none have gained enough traction. It’s a tragedy. Maybe with the help of all these damn Swifties we can get enough signatures for Washington to take us seriously.

It’s a sacred day. Chicken wings and burgers, oh my! Daddy, would you like some sausage? (one of the greatest movie lines of all time). We have fried pickles and chips galore. Nothing is better than taking some meatballs, adding some chili sauce and grape jelly and letting it slowly cook up in the crock pot. One of my favorites will always be a block of Velveeta with a couple cans of hot Rotel, a hefty portion of ground beef and some hot sausage.

Pigs in a blanket! Tater tots! Freaking 7-layer dips! My brain is about to explode just typing up these words. Hot dogs and nachos and all those smashed avocados turned into that amazing guacamole. Bowls of chili and entire pizza pies for us all—just like Kevin McAllister, everyone gets an entire cheese pizza all to himself.

Then, we Americans take over 300 million gallons of beer and drink it. We drink enough beer on Super Bowl Sunday to fill over 2,000 Olympic-size pools. It’s insane.

So, the Monday after the Super Bowl needs to be a national holiday, a day of healing, rest and self-reflection. Super Sunday to Mild Monday—it has a nice ring to it.

Who wins the Super Bowl? I have no love for either team, but I will be rooting for the 49ers. I don’t want to see Mahomes hoist another Lombardi, and I wouldn’t mind seeing Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce embracing while crying after a loss. That would put a smile on my face! I was rooting for the Lions to make it, and they put up a good fight but were knocked out in San Francisco.

It’s a tough road getting to the Super Bowl—unless you are the damn Chiefs, I guess, LOL. This makes the Chiefs’ fourth trip to the Super Bowl in five years. With a win, the 49ers would pull even with the Patriots for the most Super Bowl victories of all time.

The Tennessee Titans have much to improve on if they ever want to get back. GM Ran Carthon has his hands full, but for now Titan Nation should trust him to hopefully bring some of that 49’er success here to Tennessee.

The Train is rolling into the station. Choo-choo!