FanHouse Tennessee Titans

In case you hadn't noticed, sports these days are all about Goliath. In 2009, the Steelers, Lakers, North Carolina Tar Heels and now the Yankees have all won titles in their respective sports. Cinderella is yesterday's news. The teams that win these days are the teams that always win, and if you think that's boring, well, tough. You can kiss one of Derek Jeter's five World Series rings.

So with that in mind, we need to be really careful about overlooking the Dallas Cowboys.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. All you ever hear about the Cowboys is what's wrong with them. Terrell Owens was a pain. Roy Williams is a loudmouth, too, and isn't good enough to replace T.O. Tony Romo's too concerned with his golf game and his high-wattage love life to ever attain his potential. The new stadium is ridiculous...

You think being 0-2 scares Jeff Fisher? No chance. He's been 0-2 before. Heck, in 2006 his Tennessee Titans were 0-5 before finishing with a flurry that got them back to 8-8 and the fringes of the AFC playoff race.

"That was one of my favorite teams," Fisher said on a conference call earlier this week. "I've never been around a better locker room than that 0-5 team, because they believed in themselves and what they were doing. The key is, you just sell that belief."

That's what Fisher is selling this week, as his tough-luck Titans head to the Meadowlands to face the fast-starting, trash-talking Jets and the very real prospect of being 0-3. The good thing for Tennessee is that there's probably no salesman in the NFL better equipped for the job.

NASHVILLE -- One of these teams, the Texans or Titans, would join that early NFL wasteland, that 0-2 bunch where the bottom seems pit black. The light is there for some in the 0-2 bunch, but most can only grope
for it.

It is not where Houston owner Bob McNair wished to be and we already knew that. Several months ago, McNair proclaimed his Texans playoff bound. For emphasis, he repeated it just before his team's dull season-opening loss at home to the Jets.

So, at halftime here, with his Texans locked in a 24-24 scrap with the Titans, McNair was asked in his LP Field suite about how he felt things were going.

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Training camps have wrapped up, the NFL season is right around the corner, and it's still hot as sin outside. But instead of cooling you off with a warm island song, FanHouse break out ye old heat check for our 2009 NFL Season Previews. " We'll rate each club in 5 categories on a scale of 1 to 10, high score wins.

Let's rewind back to March 2008: I joined a couple buddies of mine for a Spring Break excursion to Las Vegas. We had an outstanding time, and the day we were to leave, we headed down to the sportsbook to lay down some futures bets. One of my friends had an interesting wager. His Super Bowl bet? The Tennessee Titans.

CANTON, Ohio -- The NFL's first preseason game of 2009 was billed as an AFL tribute contest honoring two charter members, the Houston Oilers and Buffalo Bills -- and no, that wasn't George Blanda handing off to Billy Cannon in the first quarter on Sunday night.

Most of the real nostalgia centered on whether Tennessee Titans quarterback Vince Young could recapture any of his 2006 rookie-season impact. Or even show anything of relevance after he sat on ice most of '08 following the loss of his starting job to veteran Kerry Collins in Week 1.

The verdict on Vince through one outing? Not so hot.

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Let's be honest, there are few things more entertaining in sports than when an athlete is absolutely despised by a city. And I don't mean despised in the Michael Jordan-tears-out-Cleveland's-heart-with-a-wooden-spoon level hate. That's rooted in Jordan's superhuman play on the field.

I mean on a level like LenDale White stomping on the Terrible Towel and refusing to apologize -- where the entire city is outraged at one particular player.

The Redskins made the big early splash in this year's free-agent market, inking DT Albert Haynesworth to a seven-year, $100 million contract ($41 million guaranteed). But this latest from Terry McCormick of the Nashville City Paper makes you wonder if Washington needed to pay Hayneworth even half that much:

"Tennessee's final offer to Haynesworth, according to a league source, amounted to a four-year package worth $34 million total, with about $20 million in guarantees, The City Paper learned."

Can't imagine ol' Albert had to think too long about that one.

Another former Denver quarterback is on the move, though I doubt this transaction will register as high on the excitement scale as the Jay Cutler trade to Chicago.

Tennessee has agreed to terms with Patrick Ramsey, who served as Cutler's backup for the past two seasons. Ramsey's only action last season came at the tail end of a 41-7 blowout loss to the Jets -- he completed two-of-three pass attempts for 19 yards. The Titans will be Ramsey's fourth team, following Denver, the Jets and Washington.

I don't imagine that a great deal will come from this meeting. The discourse will probably not be much more expansive than this:

Roger Goodell: Hi Pacman. Welcome to New York.
Pacman: Hello.
Roger Goodell: Wanna tell me what happened?
Pacman: I'm innocent.
Roger Goodell: I had a feeling you'd say that.
Pacman: Mmhmm.
Roger Goodell: I don't believe you.
Pacman: I had a feeling you'd say that.
Roger Goodell: This really isn't going anywhere, is it?
Pacman: Not really.
Roger Goodell: So I guess we're done here?
Pacman: Mmhmm.
Roger Goodell: Where are you going now?
Pacman: Scores.
Roger Goodell: Oh boy.
Pacman: You don't happen to have 5,000 singles on you, do you?
Roger Goodell: I'd be so happy if you were dead.

I really don't see much more coming from the meeting than that. Given the PR headache he's caused, Goodell just has to be hellbent on giving the maximum penalty possible to Pacman. I don't think there's anything that Pacman can say to change that.