Geoff Calkins

The Commercial Appeal

After 20 years we can laugh about it, we can laugh about the whole preposterous deal.

We can laugh about the year the Tennessee Oilers/Titans played their games in front of tens of thousands at the Liberty Bowl

We can laugh about Oilers/Titans owner Bud Adams calling the residents of this city “Memphanites.”

We can laugh about NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue doing Adams one better by calling then-Shelby County mayor Jim Rout “Mayor Stout.”

More:Titans' 20 seasons sprang from rocky start in Memphis

We can laugh about the Oilers/Titans suggesting Memphians start a season-ticket drive to prove the city deserved to be the franchise’s temporary home.

We can laugh about the startling unwillingness of Nashvillians to drive just three hours to support their new NFL team.

We can laugh about Adams promising to play in the Liberty Bowl for two seasons, then bolting after one.

We can laugh about it because it turned out OK for everyone. The Oilers/Titans have done just fine in Nashville and Memphis went out and got an NBA franchise. Mike Heisley never would have moved the Grizzlies to Memphis if the city had an NFL team. Grit & grind would never have been.

So as we approach Thursday’s 20th anniversary of the Oilers/Titans first game in Memphis, we can look back with a sense of humor and pride.

The season-ticket debacle

That season in the Liberty Bowl was an unmitigated disaster. Which is exactly what the Oilers/Titans deserved.

Start with the threshold decision to stash the team in Memphis in the first place, and to ask Memphians to show their worthiness with a season-ticket drive.

“I would say we are not naive to the feelings of the people,” said Oilers/Titans executive Mike McClure, before demonstrating he could not have been more naive to the feelings of the people.

“A season ticket drive would be an asset,” McClure said.

Hahahahahaha.

Memphis had put together many a season-ticket drive to try to land an NFL expansion team. Memphis had filled the Liberty Bowl for many an exhibition game.

But grovel for the chance to act as a temporary storage facility for a team that was ultimately headed to Nashville? No way was Memphis going to do that.

Nor were Memphians going to show up in significant numbers to support a team that wasn’t their own. The morning of the home opener, this newspaper produced a special section with this banner headline: “Our dream, their team.”

The Nashville effect?

Just 30,171 showed up for that overtime defeat of the Raiders. Most of those 30,171 were Raider fans.

NFL and franchise executives were stunned by the reaction. Which only proves how little advance work they’d done.

C.W. Nevius, of the San Francisco Chronicle — who covered that opener — put it this way: “Down here, the Oilers are about as popular as green suede shoes.’'

Tennessean columnist David Climer attempted to explain Nashvillians' unwillingness to support their new team with this hilariously deluded explanation: “Nashville views Memphis the same way New York views Newark.”

Yes, he really compared Nashville to New York. So Memphians had the good sense to avoid the proceedings. Maybe the Oilers/Titans should have tried the Meadowlands?

The season finale was particularly delicious. The Oilers/Titans drew 50,677 for a win over the Pittsburgh Steelers. I’m not saying 50,000 of those were Steeler fans, but it was close.

After which, Adams still wouldn’t admit that the team would be breaking its lease and leaving after just one season. Asked about an ESPN report that the team would play the next year at Vanderbilt Stadium, Adams said, "ESPN? Who are they? The NCAA?"

Of course, the Oilers/Titans played the next year at Vanderbilt Stadium. The season after that, they dropped the Oilers nickname and went to the Super Bowl.

A fitting end

This paper actually covered a fair number of the Nashville home games in those days. But few Memphians seemed to care. Twenty years later, some Memphians have adopted the Titans as their franchise. More have stuck with the Steelers, the Raiders, the Cowboys or the Saints.

It’s not out of bitterness, at least not any longer. Not since the Grizzlies arrived in town. Make no mistake, an NFL franchise is bigger than an NBA franchise, and an easier entity to support. There are fewer games, so more people can afford season tickets. Small market teams in the NFL have an easier time competing for titles than small market teams in the NBA.

But the NBA fits Memphis, both in its pace and in its vibe. The NFL is eight regular-season games of violent grandiosity. The NBA is 41 regular-season home games of cool.

So it really did work out fine for everyone. We can look back at that misbegotten season and laugh. Just don’t let anyone tell you it was the year the NFL failed in Memphis. It was the year Memphis flipped off the NFL.