John Glennon

jglennon@tennessean.com

It’s been a challenging several weeks for Titans president and CEO Steve Underwood, who during that time has spearheaded the franchise’s search for a new general manager and a new coach.

He’s also had to deal with the seemingly never-ending swirl of rumors that the Titans will be sold.

Last Monday he introduced new general manager Jon Robinson and coach Mike Mularkey — previously the interim coach — to the media.

A day later, Underwood sat down with The Tennessean to talk about the state of the franchise and the future:

You’ve said several times that the Titans are not for sale. But is there a difference between you saying the team is not for sale and the NFL — at least in theory — pushing you to sell or lining up buyers?

The league has never once indicated to us that they are attempting to force the sale. I’ve never heard those words used. I think they’re continuing to work with us on trying to resolve the ownership issues, and in the meantime, none of those things are affecting the operation of the club.

Again, lining up buyers is one thing, but there has to be something for them to buy. That isn’t the case here.

You mentioned these issues have been ongoing since Bud Adams’ death (October 2013). Why so long?

We’re working on it every day. We don’t want it to be a distraction. Sometimes the resolution of difficult problems can take a long time. I would think that at one point, the fiction writers about the sale of our team would grow tired of saying it’s going to happen and it never happening. In fact, I believe one of them at one time guaranteed it was going to be sold last year. I think the people who read him need to write for their money back because it hasn’t happened.

Titans not worried about continued sale speculation

Titans working with NFL to resolve ownership questions

Can you give us a clearer idea of the issues the NFL has with the Titans’ ownership structure?

Those issues are between our owners and the league. They don’t have anything to do with the business we conduct here, trying to put a winning product on the football field and run our football team from day to day. They’re not affecting that.

We’re doing everything we need to do to fix whatever issues we have competitively. The rest of our businesses runs great. We’re on track to achieve all the goals we want to otherwise where our business operations are concerned.

But we have never discussed the fixes we need to put in place where our ownership structure is concerned. We are continuing to work with the league on a daily, weekly monthly basis and we’re going to continue to do that.

Don’t you think there are plenty of fans concerned about what a potential change of ownership might mean?

Amy (Adams Strunk, the Titans' controlling owner) has made it abundantly clear that nothing about our ownership is going to change. I’m not sure how many different ways I can say that. They’re not selling. The team is not for sale. I’ve never seen a credible source cited — a name — that says the team is for sale. One of the sources of (the Titans ownership group’s) frustration and mine is that there are all these reports without a single source being cited.

So from my perspective, I look at it and say, 'Who would plant those kinds of stories that are false and erroneous?' The leading contenders have to be people who want to buy an NFL team. But they need to look elsewhere. This team is not for sale.

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Did the ownership issue come up in your search for a new general manager and coach?

Many of the candidates asked these same questions and I offered them the same reassurance I’m offering now. The team isn’t for sale. It’s never been for sale.

Speaking of that search, how much of a draw did Marcus Mariota prove when trying to hire a new general manager and coach?

That was huge. We asked every one of those men what appealed to them about the idea of working here. The first answer we got from all 10 of them was Mariota. That’s a true story, not an exaggeration. The second thing was having the first pick in the draft and among the other things mentioned was what a great town Nashville was.

We think all those things are important for our franchise, but the quarterback is the most important thing. You need a general manager, you need a coach, you need great fans and you need a great place for ballgames. All those things matter. But the teams that have most success on a consistent basis have an elite quarterback and we think we have that.

Titans coach Mike Mularkey wants faster, simpler offense

Turning our attention to money matters, you’ve got the second-most salary cap room in the league at over $20 million, according to the NFL Players’ Association. Do you see the team being very active in free agency?

We’ve got plenty of cap room available and our owner is going to be willing to spend money. She’s made that clear to me and to our head coach. I do think we’ll spend money to improve our roster. Jon has made clear to us in the interviews, and since he was hired, he does intend to see if he can find some improved talent in some areas of free agency. He also has a great tool available to him because we have the top claiming rights in the waiver wire. They’ve done a lot of great things in both places where he’s worked picking people up off the waiver wire.

We do need to find better protection for Marcus and more weapons to capitalize on his strengths as a quarterback. Those are all areas he and Mike have identified as additions we need to make.

You guys have decided to replace every seat at Nissan Stadium in a move that will cost Metro $15 million. Where does that stand?

That project will get under way in the next few weeks because to replace 70,000 seats is a very labor intensive task. We ordered the seats back in the fall. They’ll start being delivered sometime in the next couple of weeks because we need to get that all done, or at least started, before a soccer event we have (in March).

We may do it level by level if we can’t get it all finished by March. By June, we have to have it all finished so that we have everything is in place for the CMA Music Festival.

Nissan Stadium getting $15M seat replacement

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Is there more work under way at Nissan Stadium?

The stadium has almost two miles of expansion joints that keep the concrete from cracking. All those expansion joints are going to be replaced or retrofitted during the offseason. It’s a multimillion-dollar project. It’s going to take a long time. There are not a lot of contractors that do that. It’s very specialized work. But the expansion joints are really what keep the building healthy, if you will. Because the concrete expands and contracts during the cold.

Reach John Glennon at 615-259-8262 and on Twitter@glennonsports.

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