Wilson Post Blogs

Maybe Bud Adams can’t help himself.

And you can’t teach an old dog, new tricks.

The Titans owner didn’t learn from his last misguided order. That missive was for the Titans to take Texas quarterback Vince Young with their first round pick of the 2006 NFL Draft.

Bud may have been the only one in the Titans building that wanted to take Young. The head coach didn’t want him. The offensive coordinator didn’t want him. The general manager didn’t want him.

That didn’t matter to Bud.

There are two ways Tennessee’s basketball team can get into the NCAA Tournament.

One, they can buy tickets and serve as spectators.

Two, they can get hot and stay hot.

They pretty much cooked their goose with early season losses to Oakland, to Austin Peay, to College of Charleston. The Vols lost twice to in-state rival Memphis, once in double overtime.

While the SEC basketball tournament is just around the corner as of Monday, there were four games remaining in the regular season.

That is one-fourth of the 16-game SEC schedule, enough time for some fence-straddling teams to fatten their resumes.

With four teams in a knot for fourth place with 6-6 SEC records, there are plenty of candidates to join the Top Three – Kentucky, Florida and Vanderbilt in the NCAA Tournament field.

After watching top-ranked Kentucky take Vanderbilt to school at Memorial Gym Saturday night, I came away overwhelmed by Kentucky and underwhelmed by Vanderbilt.

After all, the Commodores were ranked No. 7 in the country in at least one preseason poll. Some thought they would be a Final Four team, based on a senior dominated roster that had depth and players with SEC experience.

It was Eli Manning’s coming out party.

No better place to have it than in the House that Peyton Built.

Little Brother took the spotlight away from Big Brother.

And, for the record, Eli is an elite NFL quarterback.

It was played out before a packed Lucas Oil Stadium, whose fans were treated to one of the most competitive, exciting Super Bowl games since the idea was hatched 46 years ago.

During Super Bowl week, it was Peyton Manning who commanded much of the attention and press coverage generated prior to Super Bowl Sunday.

Eli grew up in Peyton’s shadow. Peyton was five years older, getting a five-year start in athletics. Five years is a distinct advantage when one boy is 12 and the other boy is seven. They used to compete in basketball where Peyton would beat Eli up.

The first time Eli won was a day when the game was tied and it was next bucket wins. Eli drove around Peyton and dunked on him.

That’s the day Eli knew he gained Peyton’s respect.

Eli grew into a hotshot high school quarterback at Newman High School in New Orleans, where Peyton set records but never won the big one.

Eli chose Ole Miss, where father Archie had been a folk hero. Eli beat Florida as a senior, a feat Peyton never accomplished at Tennessee.

While Peyton is at a crossroads in his decorated NFL career, Eli has risen to the elite class of NFL quarterbacks with two Super Bowl rings, one more than Peyton.

Peyton deserves some credit for Eli’s success. Most little brothers hate being picked on by big brothers. It does one thing, however, makes the little brother fight back, toughens him in the long run.

We see that toughness in Eli. We saw it in a playoff game when he got hammered. When he picked himself off the ground, he had grass and mud wedged in his facemask. His helmet was twisted half-way around his head.

While Peyton specializes in getting rid of the football before the posse arrives, Eli hangs in there until the last second, taking a smack-down in order to give his receivers a chance to get open.

Peyton often walked away from a game with his uniform clean as the Board of Health. The Giants equipment staff doesn’t have enough stain remover to get rid of all the blood, grass and mud from Eli’s uniform.

With yet another come-from behind 21-17 victory Sunday, Eli has built a legend as the Comeback Kid. Games are never over until Eli says they are.

Will history reflect that Eli is the most productive quarterback in the Manning family? After all, he could have an extra five years to catch and pass Peyton.

I don’t think Eli will have all the glitzy numbers that Peyton accrued as an Indianapolis Colt. Remember the Colts offense was built specifically for Peyton from the first day he stepped on the field. Peyton played home games indoors on artificial turf while Eli has to battle the elements of New York’s raw winters. Swirling winds and icy blasts are tougher on a quarterback.

Where Eli can pass Peyton is on the NFL’s biggest stage. Fairly or not, quarterbacks are often judged by how many Super Bowl rings they have. The game-winning 88-yard touchdown drive took nine plays. Five of them were passes completed by Eli Manning.

New Orleans quarterback Drew Brees gave Eli his props before the game.

“I absolutely do think (Eli’s) elite. I have a lot of respect for Eli,’’ Brees said. “He plays in a tough market and handles himself with a lot of class.’’

It takes an elite quarterback to know one.

Contact Sports Columnist Joe Biddle at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . 

Nashville’s Brandt Snedeker has become the PGA Tour’s Comeback Kid.

Earlier in his career the former Montgomery Bell Academy and Vanderbilt golfer would find ways to lose tournaments on Sunday.

Snedeker has managed to come roaring out of the pack on the final round to win three tournaments.

None will go down in history as more improbable than what Snedeker pulled off Sunday in the final round of the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines in sunny Southern California.

It wasn’t so much what Snedeker did, as it was what 24-year-old former Clemson golfer Kyle Stanley didn’t do.

I have watched and covered a lot of golf tournaments through the years. None had a more bizarre finish than the chapter Stanley wrote.

Stanley came to the final hole with a three-stroke lead over Snedeker, whose birdie on the final hole left him alone in second place and in the media tent going over his tournament with Stanley still on the course.

You know what happened. Stanley shot a snowman, an 8 in golf parlance. Eight strokes on the par-five. In the water on his third shot. Back of the green on his fifth shot. Two putts to get his ball in the cup and claim his first PGA Tour win.

Stanley 3-jacked the green and Snedeker shockingly found himself paired against Stanley in a sudden death playoff.

Snedeker has a knack of pulling these Sunday stunners. He came from five shots back to win his first Tour event in 2007 with a 63 at the Wyndham.

Last year, he fired a final round 64 to make up six shots, knocking off the No. 1 golfer in the world, Luke Donald, at the Heritage.

Sunday he pushed the envelope to a 7-shot deficit, only to get unexpected help from Stanley and make Snedeker’s 67 put him in the playoff.

Snedeker has had his share of Sunday heartbreaks during his career. No one can forget the 2008 Masters. After an eagle on the second hole, Snedeker grabbed a share of the lead. Could this be a signature win, his first major? Eight bogeys later, we had the answer.

Snedeker’s emotions got away from him that day in the interview room afterwards. He choked back tears, could not get his words out. He covered his face with a towel, sobbing. It was heart-wrenching to see the pain in his face.

But even Snedeker had never lost a tournament the way Stanley did, triple-bogeying the final hole when he had led the tournament from the first day until the final hole.

“I haven’t quite done one like that yet,’’ Snedeker admitted, “but I’ve had a couple where I really had some devastating finishes. You never want to see anybody go through that. … not even your worst enemy on the planet.’’

It was only Snedeker’s second start of the season, having left the Tour last fall to have a second hip operation Nov. 1. He was born with a congenital condition that would eventually require surgery on both hips. Two months ago, Snedeker was still relying on crutches to navigate around Nashville.

Media looked at the finish and made the story Stanley’s collapse, which it was. But it was also about a 31-year-old Brandt Snedeker who found a way to win what would be a two-hole playoff.

I’m not sure there has ever been an ending where the champion conducted a media interview about his runner-up finish, then an hour later re-appeared in the media tent with a trophy.

“Round two,’’ Snedeker informed the media.

Someone in the media called his victory “tainted.’’

Snedeker bristled.

“If anybody wants to see the trophy, it will be at my house the rest of my life,’’ Snedeker smiled. “It’s not tainted at all. Winning out here is hard to do.’’

Kyle Stanley found that out the hard way.

Contact Sports Columnist Joe Biddle at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . 

It started with a tweet on Twitter.

Joe Paterno is dead.

The tweet went viral, a growing problem that happens all too frequently in this digital journalism world when a supposed news source puts out stories that are not edited, nor checked for facts.

In somewhat of a rare departure in this era of take the money and run, former Titans football coach Jeff Fisher chose the fit over fortune.

In taking the St. Louis Rams offer, Fisher may have left some money on the table in Miami. He may have missed out on scenic sunsets and warm winters, but Fisher made the right choice.

You take a legal pad, draw a line down the middle and put the pluses and minuses down for both teams and St. Louis, downtrodden as it has been since 2007 (15-65), comes out on top.

So, I ask you, what does Tim Tebow do after he leads the Denver Broncos to the Super Bowl? In his rookie year, no less. Republicans are struggling to find a candidate they feel can defeat President Barack Obama. Tim Tebow is the man. Who can balance our country’s budget after so many have tried and failed? Tim Tebow, naturally. 

Who can erase the national debt, which at last glance was bigger than the Grand Canyon? Tebow is the man.

Although the college football season generates a lot of interest from fan bases and television networks willing to play Monopoly money for ratings, it is the recruiting season that is the lifeblood of college football.

Vanderbilt put the wraps on its football season, with a 31-24 loss New Years Eve in the Liberty Bowl. The Commodores got bowl eligible on the final regular season game.

It was a must-win game, played on the road at Wake Forest and the Commodores wasted little time in securing what I consider its most impressive win of the season.

Wow, did the fat man with the red suit and white beard make this my best Christmas ever?

Saint Nick dropped off a dozen Air Jordan 11 Retro Concord sneakers and left them under our tree. You know, the $180-a-pair Nike Jordans that first came out when His Airness and the Chicago Bulls were at the top of the NBA world.

I understand they were hot items in stores around the country this month.

Stop with the excuses

The theme running through the Titans locker room after laying a giant-sized omelet Sunday in Lucas Oil Stadium was all too familiar.

“We just came out flat.’’ No joke.

A lot of athletic teams use that as a flimsy excuse.

Tell me you stunk the joint up like a 24-hour cigar bar. I would buy that.

Is Tim Tebow for real?

Is he from another planet? If you cut him, would he bleed? Seriously.

He is becoming Rev. Billy Graham in shoulder pads.

He’ll run over you one minute and pray for you the next.

Just hours after the Titans botched an opportunity to post a signature win at LP Field Sunday, I was driving home and tuned into the final minutes of the Denver-Chicago game.

Down 10-0 with some five minutes left, Superman, uh, Tebow found another improbable way to rescue his team from the jaws of defeat.

With 2:08 left in regulation, here he was again. With all his mechanical flaws, with all the naysayers harrumphing that there was no way he could pull out this game.

After all, the Bears aren’t called the Monsters of the Midway for nothing. Surely Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher, who eats quarterbacks for breakfast, would put a knot on Tebow’s head the size of a grapefruit.

But, no. Tebow gets Denver to the outer limit of field goal range and kicker Matt Prater nukes a 59-yarder through the uprights with three seconds to spare. It forced overtime and the Broncos were still breathing.

After Chicago failed to score on its first possession, here came Tebow riding in on a white horse. This time Prater needed only 51 yards to decide the outcome. It was just another chapter added to Tebow’s legend, which is spreading around the NFL world like kudzu.

“If you believe, unbelievable things can sometimes be possible,’’ Tebow told reporters afterwards.

Can I get an Amen?

Adjectives fall short of describing what Tebow has done since his arrival in Denver. Doubters included his coach, John Fox, and Broncos executive vice-president of football operations and Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback John Elway.

The Oklahoma Cowpokes are bellyaching in their beer this week. They don’t get to play undefeated LSU in the BCS Championship Game.

Ah, the BCS. An imperfect system at best.

The Harris Interactive Poll, comprised of 115 voters (including this writer) from various walks of life, submitted their final top 25 votes Sunday.

LSU was a consensus No. 1. The brilliance of the panel is overwhelming, no?

No.

Alabama came out second, with Oklahoma State third. That’s the way my poll read, but I recognize there is legitimate room for debate that Oklahoma State deserved to jump an idle Alabama and grab the coveted second spot at the table.

Tennessee Coach Derek Dooley could not have had his players pick a worse time to quit on him than the final game of the season.

Vols fans has to be embarrassed by the fact players mailed it in against a woeful Kentucky team that beat Tennessee for the first time in 26 years.

The story is even more worrisome because Tennessee had something meaningful to play for – a post-season bowl game.

If successful, it would mean an opportunity to finish with a winning record in a season where a lot of things went wrong.

More importantly it would have given Dooley and his team another four or five weeks to practice. Heaven knows that team could have used more practice.

But the players were admitting they weren’t into the game. Some said they didn’t want to go to some minor bowl game, perhaps referring to last year’s Franklin American Mortgage’s Music City Bowl game in Nashville.

So they bailed out. They didn’t compete. For athletes, that is the cardinal sin.

So they lolly-gagged around while Kentucky used a wide receiver that had not played quarterback since he was in high school five years ago. Unlike Tennessee’s football team, Matt Roark took advantage of the opportunity he was given. Roark ran for 124 yards, as Kentucky won, 10-3.

11-23-11 Wilson Post My Bid

Vanderbilt travels to North Carolina where it will play Wake Forest.

Tennessee will travel to Kentucky where it will meet the Big Blue’s football team.

If Vanderbilt and Tennessee win their games, both teams will be bowl eligible with the minimum requirement of six victories.

That only goes to further prove there are far too many bowl games in college football.

The Tennessee-Vanderbilt game was filled with bad play, and even worse officiating. Both coaches were doing their best Saint Vitus dance impersonations on the sidelines.

Did anyone expect anything different? You had Tennessee entering the game 5-6, looking for its first win in SEC play. You had a 5-5 Vanderbilt team that beat SEC bottom feeders Ole Miss and Kentucky.

You now have two SEC teams who have to win their final game of the season to become bowl eligible. That would mean they won half their games, lost the other half.

The teams Vanderbilt beat have a combined record of 18-36, with FCS school Elon having the best record of 5-6. Vanderbilt plays Wake Forest having lost six of its last eight games.

Tennessee has been outscored 212-85 in conference games. The Vols won their first SEC game Saturday, beating Vanderbilt in overtime.

After escaping in overtime, Vols Coach Derek Dooley turned a non-word into a verb when he said: “We just gritted out a win.’’

Vanderbilt left Neyland Stadium feeling they gave the game away. In many ways, they are correct.

Place-kicker Ryan Fowler misfired on two short range field goals. Quarterback Jordan Rodgers had his worst game since moving into the starting role, throwing three interceptions and fumbling away the ball that led to Tennessee’s first touchdown.

They managed to turn a 72-yard pass that put the ball on Tennessee’s one-yard line into an 85-yard penalty, thanks to the knucklehead play of Josh Jelesky. The offensive lineman committed a blatant clipping penalty half a field away from the play. Jelesky is a junior who should know better by now. It makes me doubt that all Vanderbilt football players are rocket scientists.

Tennessee had its share of gaffes. Their field goal kicker hit his only attempt so low it flew under the radar at McGhee-Tyson airport, nearly decapitating a lineman or two.

Quarterback Tyler Bray was not as sharp as he was before breaking a thumb. This was his first time back and the rust was apparent.

Even the coaches set the stage for next season as James Franklin took exception to what leaked out of Tennessee’s locker room in the form of Dooley telling his team that they were Tennessee and Tennessee always beats the (expletive) out of Vanderbilt.

Franklin took his turn during Monday’s press conference to respond.

“That’s a wound that I’ll leave open,’’ Franklin declared. “I won’t forget it.’’

Them’s fighting words, way I figure it.

Emotions were high. Sure, Tennessee players celebrated as Franklin pointed out, like they won the Super Bowl. Why not? They had been kicked around much of the season, losing three of their SEC games to teams ranked 1-2-3 in the BCS standings.

Emotions were high for Franklin after his team beat Ole Miss earlier in the season. He wiped away tears in the post-game press conference. Nothing wrong with what either coach did.

It’s college football. It’s why unranked Iowa State upset then No. 2 ranked Oklahoma State last Friday night.

In the SEC, every team better drain its passion bucket every Saturday or they will be the team that walks off a loser.

Contact Sports Columnist Joe Biddle at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .  

The Tennessee Titans clubbed the Carolina Panthers Sunday.

It was impressive, 30 to 3 impressive.

Chris Johnson ran for 130 yards, caught four passes for 44 yards and showed signs of the Chris Johnson Titans fans have been searching for.

Wide receiver Damian Williams continued to earn the starting role he was given Oct. 2. Williams caught five passes for 107 yards with a 41-yard touchdown reception being the highlight.

From the local media coverage Monday, one would surmise the Titans are Super Bowl shoo-ins. Will they ever lose another game?

One publication promoted its columnist’s opinion on Page 1-A and he didn’t even cover the game. It must have been a slow news day.

Hey, it was the Carolina Panthers. Can we chill a little? It’s a team that has two wins this season. It’s a team that came out flat and paid the price. It has happened to the Titans this year. It happens to all but the elite NFL teams. Neither the Titans, nor the Panthers are in that conversation.

But I need more proof that this is a Titans team that has truly seen the light. We will see if that is indeed the case when they play the Falcons in Atlanta Sunday.

Atlanta Coach Mike Smith’s team has taken on his persona. They will bloody your nose. The next move is all yours.

Smitty was a defensive coordinator at Tennessee Tech before Brian Billick saw something in him he liked and took him to the NFL. Smitty was a blue- collar linebacker at East Tennessee State, never played a down in the NFL and doesn’t begin to compare resumes with Titans Hall of Fame player and current coach Mike Munchak.

Smith gives his team chances to win games. Although they lost a tough 26-23 game in overtime Sunday to New Orleans, Smith went for it in overtime on a fourth-and-one from his own 29. It came up short, but too often Smith has punted in those situations against the Saints, only to never see the football again.

“I stand behind our coach, behind our players,’’ Falcons linebacker Curtis Lofton said. “I would have done the same thing. If we convert, our offense drives down the field and we score to win the game.’’

You can bet the Titans will get the Falcons’ best shot Sunday. Two 5-4 teams stand at a crossroads in the season. The winner fights to have a respectable season.

The loser, well, 5-5 is just what it appears to be.

If the Titans come up short in Atlanta, it erases all the positive vibes they earned in Carolina. They cannot afford to stay around the .500 mark and hope to catch AFC South leader Houston.

And the playoffs are out of the question unless they win a division that is as bad as it has been ever since Peyton Manning got past his rocky rookie year in Indianapolis.

The Titans last seven games will tell the story of this season. Four of them are on the road. Four of the opponents have winning records. The only punching bag is 0-10 Indianapolis.

They finish up head-to-head with Jacksonville and Houston, two division opponents they lost to earlier.

They can write their own script. They know one game does not a season make.

Contact Sports Columnist Joe Biddle at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

The mysterious vanishing act that is Titans running back Chris Johnson continues to escape logic. How does the one-time fastest running back in the NFL change from a thoroughbred into a Clydesdale? Johnson has no burst, no acceleration – even on those rare occasions when he finds himself in space.

Cynics claim Johnson’s wallet is slowing him down. I guess lugging $53.5 million around would get tiresome. Former Titans defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth took his money and ran. Johnson took his money and he can’t run, at least the way he did two years ago. 

Titans quarterback Matt Hasselbeck played at Seattle with former Alabama running back Shaun Alexander. Alexander was headed to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He peaked in 2005 when he ran for 1,880 yards. The Seahawks rewarded him with an 8-year, $62 million contract. It was guaranteed for $15.1 million, and the team paid him $15 million in the first year of the new contract. At the time, it made Alexander the NFL’s highest paid running back.

“I see a lot of similarity,’’ Hasselbeck said Sunday. “Just in terms of when you’re so successful and you produce in such a major way with Fantasy Football and all of that stuff and people are just expecting it to happen.’’

Alexander broke his foot three weeks into the 2006 season. It began a decline that escalated when Alexander fractured a wrist and suffered a sprained knee and ankle in 2007. He was cut in April of 2008 and the Redskins cut him after four games and 11 carries that year and he was out of the league, just three years after having his best season.

  “It’s hard to be that elite all the time, so people got on him real quick, real easy,’’ Hasselbeck said of Alexander. “He probably got a little too much credit when things were good and definitely got too much blame when things were bad.’’

Fans at LP Field and those watching on flatscreens across the country see a different Chris Johnson. The boo-birds are in full throat. When asked, Johnson denies losing a step. He claims to be the same runner he was when he piled up 2,006 yards two seasons ago.

He averaged 125.4 yards a game in 2009. It dropped to 85.2 yards a game last season and is now averaging 43.1 yards a game -- 2.8 yards per carry. That, my friends, is pedestrian. That’s a mule crashing the Kentucky Derby field.

Even if he came back out of shape, Johnson has had seven games to get his mojo back. He may be regressing, as the Colts came into the game ranked second to last in run defense. New Orleans piled up 557 yards and 62 points a week before the Colts arrived at LP Field.

And, Johnson was shown up Sunday by Colts quarterback Curtis Painter, who lumbered 79 yards on just seven runs for his life.  Johnson managed 34 yards on 14 carries.

“It’s something we have to get going if we want to continue to win and make the playoffs. Our goal is to win the Super Bowl,’’ Johnson said.

To use one of former NFL coach Jim Mora’s legendary rants:  Playoffs? You’re talking about playoffs? Playoffs?

Mora faced reality. I’m not sure Chris Johnson has.

Sports Columnist Joe Biddle can be contacted at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .