Titans’ Disaster Season Has Sparked a Fan War

Seven years ago, the Tennessee Titans lost in the AFC Championship Game, pro football’s semifinal round just before the Super Bowl. Superstar running back Derrick Henry took handoffs from Ryan Tannehill, a veteran quarterback who’d won the Associated Press’ Comeback Player of the Year award with the team and made the NFL playoffs in three straight seasons. Fans widely praised coach Mike Vrabel, who’d soon be named the AP’s 2021 Coach of the Year, for winning over the locker room. The front office had clearly won its second-round draft gamble on wide receiver A.J. Brown, who matured into a three-time Pro Bowl selection and league-leading playmaker.

The team has since tumbled so far down the standings, and stayed there for so long, that the Titans fandom has entered an existential crisis. Blame has gradually moved up the organizational hierarchy to the top — CEO Burke Nihill and owner Amy Adams Strunk — as the team experiences historic levels of losing. The team’s recent baby-blue rebrand has turned into a mocked symbol of Band-Aid solutions. A taxpayer-subsidized $2.1 billion stadium for a team valued at $8.5 billion has stopped making sense for fans who have seen just one win in the past 16 home games while castoff stars Henry, Vrabel and Brown succeed elsewhere in the league. The Titans’ draft pick history, a key metric for building teams that measures the capability of a front office, is mostly a string of busts as the team entertains its fourth general manager since 2022. Across the league, the team is ridiculed in memes. 

Sports media, including Titans reporting, differs from other types of journalism, because there is a clear desired outcome and bias. Owners, fans and combative radio hosts all want wins. Reporting analyzes why the team is not winning. Bad games invite criticism about play-calling and individual performances; one or two bad seasons turn the spotlight to coaches and management.

After dropping five games to start the 2026 campaign, the Titans now stare down a fifth straight losing season. Such a dark period has starved supporters of positive talking points and pushed content past typical on-field analysis. Deeper questions surfaced in recent weeks about the fundamental competency of the Titans organization following a string of high-level incidents widening the gulf between fans and team leadership.

It's Official: Nashville Will Host Super Bowl in 2030

NFL owners approve move by unanimous 32-0 vote Tuesday at league meetings in Florida

After the preseason, team leaders revoked press credentials for flamethrowing commentator Jared Stillman — known for his relentless criticism — after a tense line of questioning between Stillman and Titans quarterback Cam Ward. But the team’s consistent failures often prove Stillman right, and he has earned a large audience over years on the beat.

“It’s become like North Korea, where everyone must praise the supreme leader,” Stillman tells the Scene. “They have dug a moat around the organization because they don’t want to face negativity.”

Three executives were abruptly fired last week, though their domains (chief revenue officer, brand marketing, creative) seem divorced from on-field success. Instead, it looked like a bottom-line business decision as team newsletters reflect badly suffering ticket sales, especially regarding expensive luxury seat licenses in the new Nissan Stadium, which will make its debut next season.

With abysmal results and the organization seemingly in shambles, A to Z Sports’ Titans reporter Easton Freeze released his own “Fan Sentiment” survey to followers. Nearly 8,000 responses showed self-described obsessive fans who have turned apathetic. More than half vowed not to spend any more money on the team this season. Opinions on Strunk and Nihill have dramatically shifted negative in the past year. Both have overseen regular firings at coach and general manager that produced the same results. Fans blame them for a lot, but mostly, they just want to see leaders publicly take responsibility.

Strunk splits her time between Tennessee and Texas and has empowered Nihill as an organization spokesperson. According to other reporters, Nihill has been avoiding media and turning down interview requests. (The Titans did not grant the Scene’s request either.) Hours after Freeze dropped his survey results, Nihill addressed the public.

“I personally feel a sense of stability,” Nihill told ESPN. “I believe that [general manager] Mike Borgonzi and [coach] Robert Saleh are ultimately going to get this team out of the woods and restore it to competitive football. The train is on the tracks. It just hasn’t picked up momentum, but it will.”

Every year, the NFL rewards the league’s worst team with good draft picks and punishes the top teams with difficult schedules. Five losing seasons defies structural balancing mechanisms in place to help keep the league competitive. A comeback win on Sunday against the Indianapolis Colts became long-awaited salvation. In a media ecosystem prone to hyperbole and exaggeration, it also gave fans the faintest reason to believe in a turnaround.