With Super Bowl XLIV 3 days away, it doesn’t take much to reflect on Super Bowl XXXIV.  For those that don’t know their roman numerals (full disclosure:  I had to look up both to make sure I had them right), that’s Super Bowl 44 and Super Bowl 34.

Ah, Super Bowl 34.  Rams vs. Titans.  What a wild ride it was for Nashville.

Some snippets of The Road To Atlanta:

January 8, 2000 -

I was on the field as the Bills kicked a field goal to take a 16-15 lead with 16 seconds remaining.  I couldn’t allow myself to get bummed about the Titans first loss at the new stadium.  Stay focused.  Do your job.  There would time to sulk later.  I was going through my story lines such as; the Titans longest play from scrimmage was 14-yards… how could the Titans rush defense be shredded by Antwaine Smith?… I had to talk to free agents such as Joe Bowden and Barron Wortham because they may be gone next year… and, oh yeah, I had been working several weeks straight and I was going to put in to be off Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.  I was standing at the 10-yard line and just as my mind reached “Friday”, Kevin Dyson ran by me!  The Music City Miracle lifted the Titans to a 22-16 AFC Wildcard Playoff victory.  I scored a major coup after the game by convincing Dyson to come on Coach Fisher’s TV Show Monday.  We promote the heck out of it.  Dyson was a no-show.  That’s show biz.

January 16, 2000-

I had been in Indianapolis for a few days prior to the game and met the team at the hotel when it arrived downtown Saturday afternoon.  Seems Titans fans found out which hotel the team was in and the whole thing turned into an spontaneous pep rally.  It was bedlam as the players walked through the lobby.  Treating a college team like this happens but not in the NFL.  Thing is, most Titans fans had come from a college background and making the 5-hour trip was a no-brainer.  Titans fans flooded Indy and gobbled up thousands of tickets.  The RCA Dome was so loud, Peyton Manning and the Colts offense had to go on a silent count, AT HOME!  Titans sealed the game on a 68-yard TD run by Eddie George.  Titans 19  Colts 16.
After the game Colts General Manager Bill Polian scolded season-ticket holders for coughing up their tickets. 

January 23, 2000-

Having worked in Jacksonville in 1994-96 prior to my move to Nashville, I knew the Jacksonville TV guys pretty well.  One came up to me prior to the game and began the conversation by flashing his plane ticket to Atlanta.  He was telling me about his station’s plans to get him up there that night and start reporting (since there was only one week between this game and the Super Bowl).  I mean, no team beats another team three times in one season, right?  Jacksonville had just come off a 62-7 dismantling of the Dolphins.  Jaguars scored on their opening drive and I thought, “well, it was a good run” but then the Titans defense stiffened.  In the second half, the Titans scored a safety and on the ensuing kickoff, Derrick Mason ran back the kick for a touchdown.  Titans Executive Don MacLachlan was slapping me on the back as if I have a cough drop lodged in my throat.  Titans 33  Jaguars 14.  It was arranged before hand that the lights stay on at Alltel Stadium so that out of town TV reports could be done with a backdrop.  What actually happened? Bob Mueller and I huddled under an umbrella in a driving rainstorm in pitch blackness to deliver our live reports.  Apparently the stadium folks weren’t too thrilled with the result.  What happened to southern hospitality?  Bob and I, dripping wet, hopped off our connection through Atlanta Sunday night.  That hotel beer in a soggy suit (our luggage was being driven up from Jacksonville) tasted mighty good.  Why? 
Some Jacksonville TV guy ate a plane ticket.

Me and Mike Hill (now at ESPN) taking a goofy break at the ESPN Zone that News-2 took over during Super Bowl week.

January 30, 2000-

News-2 ends up sending 23 people to Atlanta Super Bowl week to answer to all our newscasts and also a nightly 30-minute Titans show right after News-2 at 10.  For once, the TV gods were with us as ABC happened to have the Super Bowl that year.  The night before the game, I picked up our game credentials and notice after the fact that of the 21 we requested, we were missing one; the one for the ABC network affiliate sportscaster in Nashville that would have had him in a primo seat in the press box.  Yep, mine.  I ended up watching the game in our News-2 satellite truck in the Georgia Dome parking lot on a 4-inch but 4-inch black and white screen.  It’s just as well as it made it easier to edit video for our 2-hour post-game show.   Rams 23  Titans 16.  After Dyson wss stopped short of the goal line, I calmly let the tape roll for 20 seconds so it wouldn’t run out, on our post-game show.  I climbed out of the truck and fought through the exiting crowd  and snuck onto the field without a pass.  To this day, that maneuver is still a “small victory” after the NFL gestapo refused to issue me a pass. 

After a long day... and long month. Wouldn't trade the experience for anything.

The picture to the left says it all.  It was taken just moments after our post-game show. 
Yes, that’s a dip cup in hand.  (A habit I’ve nearly broken.  Don’t scold me). 
Confetti strewn on the artificial turf.
Camera equipment surrounding me, this was my first chance to process the game.
Somebody titled this picture, “A Titanic Relief”.
To this day it was craziest month of my professional life.
That run didn’t end until Tuesday when we broadcasted live  2-hours of an “AFC Championship” parade.

I was able to get those days off… a month later after February ratings.

Anybody with 10th anniverary stories to share?