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Jan

8

Raven rally UPDATE!

By Matt Wilson | Filed Under Miscellaneous 

Okay, now Steve McNair has said he WILL attend a pre-game pep rally for Ravens fans held at the Limelight Club across the street from LP Field.

Yesterday, the former Titans star (who played two years in Baltimore) said he would not attend. The event is a fund-raiser for the Steve McNair Foundation and the Ronald McDonald House in Baltimore.

McNair played 11 years for the Titans. He took the Titans to their (so far) only Super Bowl appearance. He won an MVP award here.  He was the face of the franchise as it transitioned from Houston to Tennessee. He’s in the Titans Ring of Honor.

Then, when it appeared he was on the downward slide of his career, the Titans made the painful decision to move on and trade him to Baltimore. After two years, he retired and now still lives here in Nashville. He says he still supports the Titans and still is friends with people in the organization.

Still, attending this rally seems to me like a way to subtly dig at the Titans for trading him at the end of his career. Last summer, at his football camp at Goodpasture, McNair coached while wearing a Ravens visor. When he met with the media, he was asked about it and shrugged it off, saying it was no big deal.

Kenny Winchell, owner of the Limelight Club, the host of the rally for the purple-clad rivals, said he had no doubt McNair will be for the Titans during the game on Saturday.

Maybe, but you have to wonder. Is there really NO OTHER WAY McNair can raise money for charity this weekend than by attending a pep rally for Ravens fans?

• The comments section in our story today was pretty funny.  One poster said Titans fans should boycott the Limelight Club for hosting an event for Ravens fans.

Then “LimelightNashville” posted a response full of PR-speak as a way of essentially saying: “Please don’t boycott us!!!”

It reads: “Limelight Entertainment Venue, across from LP Field, is proud to be game day headquarters for Titans games, and we are loyal Titans fans. On Saturday we will be a sea of blue and will be rooting hard for our home team. With an open night on our calendar, we put together a Baltimore party to raise money for the Ronald McDonald House and the Steve McNair Foundation. We did not promote this event in Nashville and only wanted to welcome Baltimore fans to our fine city while simultaneously raising money for charity. It was not our intention to offend any Titans fans in the process. After talking to Steve’s management, he WILL BE IN ATTENDANCE on Friday Night. We are all excited to raise money for a good cause, and we look forward to a great weekend in Nashville. GO TITANS!
Sincerely,
Limelight management”

Read it in the voice of a radio announcer talking too fast for the full effect.

But any rally for rival fans THE NIGHT BEFORE THE GAME calls into question our bona-fides as a football city. Can you imagine a bar in Pittsburgh  hosting a rally for rival fans? Or Green Bay? Or Philly?

It’d never happen. Never.

Guess we have a couple of more decades to go for the full NFL culture to sink in in Nashville.

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