Titans' gunslinger hopes to complete a different dream as a songwriter

Last Wednesday, Tennessee Titans quarterback Kerry Collins, an aspiring songwriter, could have attended the Country Music Awards at the Sommet Center to rub elbows with the elite in that field.Instead, Collins opted for something much more special—the opportunity to hear one of his own songs performed live.

So, instead of heading to the CMAs, Collins was in the audience at the legendary Bluebird Cafe, and he wasn't the only Titans player in attendance that night. That's because the song Collins was about to hear was co-written with Lisa Hentrich, the wife of Titans punter Craig Hentrich, who performed the song.

Along with songwriter Marcia Ramirez, Collins and Hentrich collaborated to create the song "Running out of Reasons," which they now plan to pitch as a demo to artists and labels around town.

The idea for the song was originally Collins', but he said the tune needed a different perspective. He didn't have to look far to enlist some help (their lockers are right next to each other), asking the Titans punter to solicit his wife's help on the project.

Collins, who's always had a dream to pursue songwriting and is never far away from his guitar, knew he had "something" but it needed "something else."

"I had idea for a song, and it needed some female influence on it," Collins said. "I came and I told Craig, 'Hey, I need to get Lisa to write this song.' It's a good idea and I think I can get it written. So naturally, we got together last month, me, him, her and another lady, Marcia Ramirez, and we wrote it."

Craig Hentrich recalled that conversation as well, knowing that Collins has collaborated in the past with such popular songwriters as Jamey Johnson and Paul Overstreet among others, and decided to try and pair his quarterback and locker neighbor with his wife as writing partners on the tune.

A song is born

Lisa Hentrich, who has performed both in the country and contemporary Christian genres during her 12 years in Nashville, released a self-titled CD in 2007 and has been busy establishing credentials of her own.

She performed at Farm Aid two years ago at the request of Willie Nelson, and has had songs cut by Clay Walker, Chris Cagle and former Lone Star member Richie McDonald. Hentrich also co-wrote a song with Lee Greenwood.

So, Craig thought his wife and Kerry would be a natural fit—as songwriting partners, of course.

"He'd done quite a bit of songwriting in the off-season, and one day he came up to me and said, 'I've got this idea, but I think I need to write it with a woman.' So I said, 'I'll ask Lisa if she wants to write it with you.' And that's how it kind of got set up," said Hentrich. "It ended up being a really good song."

How great a song would be judged at the Bluebird once Lisa Hentrich debuted the song during her Wednesday night performance. And that's why Collins skipped the CMAs and listened in.

"It went over great. It got a lot of great reactions to it," Lisa Hentrich said. "Several people came up to me afterwards and said how much they liked it. It got a really great response."

Collins was pleased with the enthusiastic reaction especially after Hentrich introduced it by announcing the veteran NFL quarterback as co-author.

"I thought the response was pretty good," he said.

A song in his step

The veteran quarterback has been plying his songwriting skills for several years now, but making the transition from pro sports to the Songwriters Hall of Fame is a tough task—in fact, it has only been done once.

Mike Reid, who played several seasons in the 1970s with the Cincinnati Bengals before leaving to seek his songwriting fortune in Music City, is now a member of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. He penned a dozen No. 1 country hits, including "Stranger in My House" for Ronnie Milsap, which won him a Grammy Award in 1984.

Many professional athletes have dabbled with singing and performing, but writing their own songs? That's the hard part.

Even so, should Collins follow Reid's path, the two men already share a similar history.

Both men played for legendary coach Joe Paterno at Penn State, and both were All-Americans and first-round NFL Draft picks.

Both played in two Pro Bowls and both had chance meetings with songwriters to kick-start their songwriting endeavors—Reid with Larry Gatlin; Collins with Hentrich—and both moved to Nashville.

Almost sounds like fate for Collins, doesn't it? But at the Bluebird, he was anything but confident.

Although Collins, a man who has started a Super Bowl and plenty of playoff games in a 15-year professional football career, would never say so, Craig Hentrich revealed that the veteran quarterback was a little bit nervous with his foray into a different element.

"He walked in and said, 'This is the first time I've been nervous in a long time. This is the first time I'm gonna hear my song out in public.' He was all nervous as to how everybody was going to react to it, but it got a good reaction and she sang it well," Craig said.