This is the OTP presented by Farm Bureau Health Plans. No matter your life stage, you can plan on Farm Bureau Health Plans for great health coverage with a sensible price tag. Visit FBHP dot com. I'm Mike Keith with a very special guest from WKRN News Too for forty three years, Bob Mueller.
Nice to see him, Mike. Thank you for asking me to be part of this. This is exciting.
How's to doing.
I'm doing great.
I remember the first time I met you January two thousand, Atlanta, uh huh, Planet Hollywood, the Monday before Super Bowl thirty four, and it's one. I have a lot of memories of that week. Ice storm, the ice storm, all of it, but I'll never forget. John Dwyer asked me to be on the program you guys were doing down there, and I walk outside and there's Bob Mueller, and I'm like, what's Bob Bueller doing here? And so I knew it was a big deal.
Ben. I was on the road a month that year because obviously that was you know, the magical year of nineteen ninety nine. We did a special outside of Nissans to Adelphia Coliseum that turned into the Music City miracle. We moved to Indianapolis, broadcasting out in the snow and watched the Titans fans take over the stadium in Indianapolis and Peyton manning false start. Then we flew to Jacksonville where Butch Spard had almost got a fistfight with some
with some Jacksonville fans. We win there. We do our post game in a pouring rain on the field in Jacksonville with one light, me and John Dwyer. They turned the stadium lights out on us and we're in the rain with one cleag lanlight on us for an hour. We finish our show soaking wet, have to run to the airport get enough plane to fly to atlantaut where we're there for a week. That was pretty good.
That was a wild twenty two days, which was.
An unbelievable time.
So how did they you're on the news side, how did they get you involved in all of that?
We were doing a lot of the who's coming to the game, who's the sponsors that are coming to the game, Where are some of the charity money going to. We did a lot of stuff with kids in the in the NFL zone. We did kind of the outside of sports aspect of how this Super Bowl and how this team is affecting the community of Nashville during this stop, during this run.
The Indianapolis thing, as we go there this week, I think is the forgotten part of the trip. Because everyone remembers the Music City Miracle game, everyone remembers Jacksonville, everyone remembers the super Bowl. But the Indianapolis thing was really a wild deal because when we arrived Saturday.
Nine's everywhere, everywhere, everywhere.
And I mean it was shocking.
Once think and his white white coat coming in and that the hotel room we were there when the team arrived, absolutely packed with fans hanging from the rafters cheering these guys on to come in. And the stadium, you remember you did the game. The stadium was filled with more Titans fans than Colts fans, and Peyton had at least three fall starts.
They did at their own state. They had to take a time out because the crowd was too loud on offense in the first half, and it was just it was an incredible experience. You and I have something in common. We both moved here from Chattanooga, Yes, and I remember when we moved here, I knew Nashville was the state capitol, and I knew Nashville was bigger than Chattanooga, but I don't remember thinking Nashville was that much bigger or that much Did you have the same impression when you.
Moved, exact same impression. The reason I wanted to come here, I was really into politics, and obviously, being the state capitol, it would be more in tune with what I was pursuing in my broadcast career, so I wanted to come cover the state capitol. But yeah, it was a little bit bigger, but really not much different than Chattanooga. It was kind of a quiet town with you know, some power folks over here, and nobody went downtown and that
was it. Three restaurants, maybe it was, you know, it was the reason I came here was for work, because I wanted to cover politics. And you know, the first thing I covered was Lamar Alexander's gubernatorial run and got to meet Howard Baker and got to meet spokes from when I was in college covering Watergate hearings, hearing them on the radio. Then got to meet these folks and eventually, you know, Al goreth two presidential runs. So that was why I came here and it paid off for me.
But you could certainly understand that twenty two day period in January two thousand and what it meant to people based on what it had been like when you came here twenty years ago. It was quite a moment.
Well, and Mike, you know this too. There's Nashville before pro sports and after pro sports, and there's it's night and day. You know, once the arena came, we didn't have a team, but then we got the team, and then you know, the miracle happens that the Oilers want to come to Nashville, and that actually happens. There's no comparison between when that happened and what was before that. Before that is not even close to what we're seeing now.
All right, So I want to mention Duncan here real quick because we're doing the OTP and it's always game on with Duncan. So grab a coffee and kick off the action, whether that's drinking a cup of coffee on your way to the game or grabbing one to go
before watching the game at home. Duncan is always there to help you get your game on, just like the pros, like Bob Muller, we need to be at our best come game time, which is why Duncan is the most important part of your game day ritual because it's always the best call for football America runs on Duncan. Bob Mueller, Yes, where were you when the Music City miracle happened?
Well, I could all three hundred thousand people that were in that building. I actually was in the building. I was in our suite. We had done a pregame show and my general manager was kind enough to let us come watch the game of the suite, and our suite was next to a big double suite. That big double suite belonged to Bud Adams, the owner of the Tennessee Titans and the Progresses. And with sixteen seconds left, Buffalo kicks the field goal and the stadium suck drive air.
Everybody in our suite, everybody in the other suite are putting stuff down and getting ready to heading to the doors, and people are leaving, and I'm the only one. I'm sitting on a glass window with a windows slide open, kind of leaning halfway out of the out of the suite into the stadium. I'm going. You know, we got aldel Greco. If we can make a we're not out of this yet. And then they make the kick and it's a short kick and our Lorenzo Neal gets it.
We seem tossed back to White check what's this? And there's here. He goes down down, Kevin Dyson wide open, catches it for seventy five yards and the place explodes it. Everybody comes running back into the suites. The last person in mister Adams. So he was not in there, was not in there when it happened.
He was Bud Adams. You saw him.
I was there. He was not in say had left.
He was headed out.
They were heading out of the suite before the kickoff that turned into the Music City Miracle. They got back into the suite after the celebrations going on in the end zone.
You have given the OT people something they didn't know. That's crazy.
Yeah, well that's I love telling that story.
Okay. So as as somebody who spent his life in journalism and you were deep into it even at that point, did you realize at that moment the significance of what had just happened?
No, No, you know, I don't know anything about what's it like to go to a Super Bowl or what this which win means just it just means, Okay, you're going to go play another football game, or what does it mean for the city of Nashville. No, I don't think anybody understood how that game, how that the Music City Miracle changed Nashville. For one thing, It's always going to be remembered for it. It's been played a thousand
times and your call is fantastic. You and Pat Bryan weren't just fantastic, and so no, I don't think anybody. I think as the years have progressed, we've realized what that what that one play meant to this city.
Wow, when did you know you were going to Indianapolis?
Well, we knew. We had planned before the playoff, before the Wildcard game that you know, this is what we're going to do if this all half this wins, were going to go and so we were packing ready to go. We did our show. Me and John Dwyer. You know, the Sunday was a Sunday or Saturday game. I can't remember anymore.
The Buffalo game was Saturday.
I thought Saturday game. And then we did that game. We win, we do our post show and we're off to Indianapolis and spending a week up there, snowed on us. We're broadcasting in the snow outside. You know, it was so excited, so much fun, The most have ever had my career, Absolutely the most fun. All these fans are so excited, and the Indianapolis as the bars and the restaurants are packed with Titans fans. Game day approaches and it's cold outside and we get inside and the place
is just rocking with fans. The hardest thing about my job at that point was trying to be poised and not cheer the team in the broadcast booth because you know, I'm a news guy and I'm not covering the game. I'm covering other aspects of it, but I can't cheer in the forum. So we win in Indianapolis, we do our postgame. Me and dwy are just looking at each
other like this is unbelievable. We didn't think we were gonna leave Indianapolis with a win and headed to Jacksonville, and you can't beat Jacksonville three times in a row. You just can't happen. And they were so cocky, their fans were. They knew they were gonna win, and anybody who looked affiliated with the Titans was just given grief by everybody. They were pushing in shoves at Saturday nights before game parties with people like I said, bush Beards
and somebody else almost got into a fistfight. And I will never forget the whoop and the Titans put on Jacksonville and seeing Matthews lift that trophy and seeing that the team on the field with that trophy. Afterwards, just going We're going to the super Bowl, super Bowl for this franchise and what it meant to these players and the owners and the coaches and Jeff Fisher and everybody. People are in tears, and it was just a feeling
of like, these guys have really accomplished something. It doesn't really matter what goes on from here, but this is this is something that they have wanted forever and they finally got it.
It made me so happy because I'll never forget all the people who had worked for the Oilers, who had been close in the late seventies and early eighties. The Steelers kept them out of two super Bowls, and then they had the seven straight winning seasons with Warren Moon, and they went through the move and every and they didn't want to move. You know that wasn't their idea, but once they got here they realized it was a
special place. They came to embrace it. They said, man, this is this is something else.
I think the ownership of the Titans players and teams at that time when they came here were surprised by how they were greeted by no to accept.
It, there's no question.
And it was a little rough going in because the stadium wasn't built yetting or playing in Memphis and Vanderbilt for a couple of years, but once you got to the stadium, it just seemed like the team enveloped or the city enveloped the team well.
And it was such a wave too, because we played the first game at the stadium. It's Friday night against the Falcons in the preseason. We throw deep on the first play of the game, and everybody's like, hey, this is our place. And you know, people thought Nissan Stadium was so special because it had chairback seats. You know, that was that was the amenity. It wasn't Wi Fi at big screen and led at that time, It's like, we don't have to sit on a bench. This is fantastic.
We might as well be on the Starship Enterprise. And then we start three and zero, lose a game, get to six and one, lose a game, get to nine and two, lose a game, and then win our last four and we go thirteen and three, and it's been this fun year. We get to it's a playoff game, Well, we're gonna lose. It's okay, Buffalo's been really good, and then all this stuff happens and the significance of the miracle play. I contend that it's the most significant play
in NFL history. And here's why, because we advanced from there to the super Bowl. Now the immaculate reception. The Steelers lost the next week. Now it may have been a more spectacular play. Maybe I don't know. But the other part of it that I don't think is taken into account is what is discussed by you, and that is not just the football significance, but what the next twenty two days meant to the franchise, to the region, to a generation of people my kid's age, your kid's age,
who who became NFL fans in that moment. It established football in a region of the country and solidified the move.
And we were doing. Once we got to Atlanta, and the Super Bowl week and we were doing an extra we were doing all our newscasts and we're doing an extra half an hour, extra hour after the newscast from what were we the ESPN zone. That's where we were, and our ratings we had the we were fortunate enough ABC had the game that year. We were our ratings
through the roof. Everybody in Nashville was watching you guys, watching us tell the story of what was going on in Atlanta, through the ice storm, through everything that was going on, And I'd like to know, you know, what was it like for you guys, because I know what it was like for us. It was strange because as the game is ending and it looks like it's tied, they moved the media. We're going to the locker room,
so we miss Titans get going down. We were in the four years somewhere heading down to the locker room and here the yell, and we don't know what it is. And then we find out what it is. It's the deeps, it's the it's it's the one poor defensive play we made the whole game. But then we're kind of peering out and we see McNair making his run and there's
no question this is going to happen. And then you know, Kevin Dyson on the end of that whole year from the Music City Miracle to one your short and you can't believe it's over with and it just it's just like it's over. It's it's over. And then we you know, for security reasons, people were maybe taking their job a little too seriously. We're trying to get out to cover, to cover the they won't let us out on the field,
and we're got, we got where're going live. We got to get out there, we gotta go, we gotta go. Finally get out there, and Al del Greco's and tears. He's the first person we talked to, and we're you know, we're so proud of these guys, and we know also how much it just hurts that they were this close to to you know, who knows if we'd have won, but this close to keeping the game, going to give
it another shot. And I remember interviewing Jeff Fisher and and I've never seen him at a loss for words, and he was at a loss for words with me and John were talking to him and and he just was so proud of the team and just so disappointed. At the same time, it's.
The most empty I've ever felt after anything, as I mean to lose a super Bowl that way. After that, twenty two days and we got back to the hotel and they have a post super Bowl party. Travis Tritt is performing at our post super Bowl party. And I will always be a Travis Tritt fan because he I felt like I needed to go down and go to the party. My wife didn't want to go down and she was worn out, and she says, how can you do this? I said, well, they've done this nice thing
for us. I should go down. And he stopped his set and he goes, listen. He goes, I just want you to all know how proud we are of you, and you played a great game. And of course, you know, the President called us after the game. I've never heard of the president calling the losing team when.
We did a parade for the losing team ever Hashville, and I've always wondered if it was the wrong thing to do. I don't think it was. I think the city was so in love with this team. It was showing appreciation even though they didn't win it that they wanted to show the appreciation for these guys for what they did, and I think the players appreciated that, even though they didn't have a Lombardi Trophy with me. And the downtown was insane, well.
They say, and I don't know that anyone counted, but it has been said that there were more people at the runner up Super Bowl parade in Nashville than they're wearing Saint Louis at their Super Bowl Championship preriade. It was crazy. People took their St.
Louis. They're not great big football fans. They're better baseball, right, but yeah, it was packed downtown. I mean, we were broadcasting live obviously, and I'm the players are on the backs of convertibles coming through, and people are throwing confetti, and there's Titans flags everywhere, and there's kids everywhere, and they're signing autographs as they go by. The mayors down there. It was just it was a big thank you as what it was that was.
To go from you know, we have the parade right there the first part of February, and if you had gone back six months, we didn't know if we were going to sell out all the games. You know, we had to work hard to sell out the first preseason game, and then the second preseason game, and then the regular season opener against Cincinnati.
To me, that's at the whole station. They were going to lose that game, and they pulled.
It out, pulled it out, and then the Cleveland game that followed, and so then we you know, when we started three and oh, then we sold out a couple more games, and when the record got better, we sold that the season, and you know, that was the goal, but that was no sure thing, and you look back on it now, how that changed that whole period of time. And like this weekend, Titans fans are going to go to Indianapolis. Yes, next weekend, thousands of Titans fans are
going to London. And what we're talking about, almost twenty five years ago set the stage for this, which is really crazy.
Thing like it. I'd have to talk to other people that broadcast in other cities, but I've never seen it was like a college atmosphere. It was like tailgating from going to college games. That everybody who was a Titans fan, they got in the buses, they got in their cars, they got in the planes and followed the team. And that just doesn't happen a whole lot in the NFL on a regular basis.
And you think about Kevin Dyson.
What a great I'm actually friends with Kevin and I talked to him about this all the time and give him grief anyone you got short, and he takes it in. But he's the book in for the whole for the whole year.
He's the book in for the whole year. And he's an interesting story because he's the miracle guy. Well he's the guy who got picked before Randy Moss. He oh yeah, oh yeah, he's the miracle guy. He's the one yard short guy. He's the guy who has what was on its way to being a great career sort of short circuit because of a very strange injury that happened in practice.
And now he's principal. He's doctor Kevin Dyson, doctor Kevin Dys And you think about the impact of all of that in a twenty five year period in who this person is as part of this community in all these ways.
And he chose to stay here and be part of this community, which so many former Titans have. There are so many former Titans, you know this, who live here and call this place home because they feel so welcomed when during their playing days and even afterwards. You know, people still go up and see these Keith Bullock and you know, you name it there that live here or visit here and are still part of this community.
I don't know if you saw the reaction to Keith Bullock on Sunday.
I did.
It's crazy, it was rock star crazy. And then he stayed out fire. He is mister Monday Neck. But what he means to people, what Eddie George means to people in so many different ways.
Yes, you had football coach. How great is that? I mean, can you imagine being one of those players played for Eddie George.
By Son played at Vanderbilt and he chose to come back here, and you know, he becomes an actor and he does all the things. I mean, he's Eddie George.
Yeah, he's the beast he is.
And then Steve McNair.
The Tragedy of the Titans. Yeah, you know, I was on a golf course with Neil Or in my morning anchor when we got the call and you know, just you've got to be kidding me. Well, we didn't believe it was true, you know what. And then then we're on the air and then it's just it's just got awful. It was just a terrible, terrible day. And I lost my father that same week, oh, just a few days later. It was a terrible week for me. Yeah. I didn't
know Steve very well. I'd met him a couple of times, but the man that he was in the way that he died, and it was just awful, It was just awful. I know, it must have been just crushing for the franchise.
Well, you're in the bed MGM studio. We're glad you're here, Bob Mueller. But we've got a picture of Steve McNair in the corner and everyone who comes in has to go see that picture because he is He's the heart and soul and losing him was crushing. And then how Eddie, Eddie George decided to take the mantle of being the lead Titan. He's the chairman of the board, he's the guy that steps forward when you have to have it.
Of that part of the family. It's been it's been heartbreaking and at the same time gratifying to watch what has come through that, because I don't think Edy really wanted that.
Yeah, I agree with you. I think Eddie was a great player and a great representative for the Titans in the city. But you know, I think he was a more quiet guy than Steve was. Steve would never backed away from a question. We'll tell you exactly what he thought. But yeah, and liked being the leader of the team.
All right. I got to read this for our friends at seat geek, the official ticketing partner of the Tennessee Titans. The deal is finalized in Seat Geek is the newest member of the Titans family. If you haven't heard the name yet, get used to it, because you'll be hearing it a lot more through the twenty twenty three season. Whether you're buying or selling tickets to Titans games or any live event in Nashville, Seat Geek is the place to do it. Seat Geek the new official ticketing partner
of the Tennessee Titans. So Titans fans can fan you're you probably go back to your start seeing a guy do live, good stuff, good stuff. All right. So I want to ask you this week with Bob Mueller. Yeah, thanks on Sundays? How long has that been on?
I started that show in two thousand and six. Okay, So there was a big Senate race Bob Corker and Harold Ford Junior, and that was the start of the show. I had done one in the eighties and nineties for a while, but that one's been going on since two thousand and six.
Very good show. Thank you, especially if you're a political science graduate like I. Thank you so well done.
I think it's important, not just as my show. I think it's I think that people of a community want to hear from their elected officials, and there are not enough venues, and that's why I do it. I think it's important for people to hear the folks who they vote for, who they vote against, their opinions, what they're doing for their constituents, what they're doing for the community. Well, they're not doing for the community, and that that's really why I do it.
And it's often forgotten too that there is a public service aspect and responsibility with a radio station or a television station, and a lot of our great Titans radio stations have those sorts of programs, and I hope it'll always contend well.
I appreciate that. It's kind of my baby. I write it, produce it, book the guests to do it all.
It's really good. It is really really well done as that guy. What was a bigger accomplishment for the organization getting the first stadium deal done or getting the second stadium deal done?
Oh? I think the second stadium did really I do you know. I know I was here during you know, the vote that was going to happen. It was never not going to pass. That was not going to happen. They were not going to deny an NFL franchise to come to Nashville. I was never afraid of that. I know that there was a lot of folks that spent a lot of time campaigning, and if you look at the result, I mean didn't blew it out. It was
a big win. I think this is difficult. Was more difficult because the political aspect of the country has changed since nineteen ninety eight. So I think that's why it was more difficult. That and two hundred and eighty five million as opposed to two point one billion is a big difference. But I think the positive that didn't happen for whatever reason with the Titan Stadium that's there currently is that this is not just the stadium. This is River North Oracle, what the city's going to. This is
East Bank will be unrecognizable. In five years, there's going to be a whole new community, walking bridges, maybe a marina parks. This isn't just about the Titan Stadium this time. This is about a whole development of public public, private moneies that are coming in there that's going to transform the city. That's why I think it's more important and was harder than the first one.
Well, the other aspect of it too, is in the first one, Nashville had no leverage. No they they the year had to do it or they didn't. And this time around it was said, let's change how Metro's portion of this is going to be paid for it.
I think that was fair.
Yeah, with the hotel motel and with you know, the sales tax issues around there, and to see, you know, what this place is going to be is exciting. I'm thrilled it's staying in the same footprint too, because I love that we have the stadium where we do.
Yeah, I know you can't, but I think where the stadium is now is actually a better site than where the new one's gonna be. I think love looking over the river now. I know you can't just tear it down a bill because you've got to play somewhere. But it's gonna be gorgeous. It's gonna I think that if it comes out like the renditions are, people are going
to love this thing. And I was rooting for a retractable roof because I think I think the the temperatures and the and the climate here are perfect for it. But we've got translucent and there's going to be open on the sides of it, so I think we're close to being able. It's going to feel outdoor.
I think we were all for retractable, but when they did the research saying how rarely you use it, I mean just.
For the cost, like a half a billion dollars.
Crazy, Yeah, it's crazy. Do you know that they could have done a retractable roof on Arrowhead in nineteen seventy one for twenty five million dollars And it was crazy at the time. There was a roof they could have slid back and forth between the baseball stadium and the football stadium and so there you know, there actually been designs in this way. And we're going to go to Indianapolis this weekend. Who knows whether they'll have the roof open or not.
And it's a process. They got to kind of decide to do it, and it takes a while to get it open.
So the thing that I'm I'm excited about a lot of things about the new stadium, but the terraces too. That's going to give Bob Mueller the chance to look over downtown and look over the rear.
Are Are you surprised? And I know it's because partially because of the footprint that it's actually gonna be a little smaller than the Sun Stadium.
No, No, not at all. The design. I mean, I think the league's I don't think mantra is not right, but.
Sort of a lot smaller, but a little bit.
Well, they wanted to go fifty five and the Titans do. We couldn't go to fifty five. We had to stay in the sixties. But what's happened, Bob is the change in the public's feeling about like the upper deck yep. And that's why you're going to see the upper deck be at least in part, sort of the party deck
where people can hang out. People have changed how they use tickets, how they use the stadium, and I think that's going to be fun because my kids would certainly buy a ticket on the party deck and stand there with their friends and eat the food and drink the drink and go out on the terrace tracks.
A different audience.
It attracts a different audience. And you know, Burkenye Hill has said it consistently, and that is we have to give fifteen, sixteen, seventeen different experiences. We're now at Nissan Stadium. You get about four and that's that's life.
Yeah, well, yeah, I'm looking forward to it's going to be. It's going to be an experienced when that stadium is up and running.
This has been an experience to have you here. Thanks for doing this. And I was thinking about anybody who follows you on any of your socials or.
Oh me on my boat and my ski, Well we know.
I mean you were an active guy, You were an athlete growing up, and so getting has to talk sports for the news guys kind of probably love.
You know. When I was in college, like I said, I tried to play some baseball. Wasn't quite good enough, but I did get to do play by play for baseball for football and kind of soccer and basketball. And I absolutely am envious of you. I think it's why
did you give it up? I think it's the most fun because in the seventies when I was graduating and getting in, it was when they first started hiring people that were former athletes, and that's it was a big trend, and they weren't really that everybody was kind of going in that route. So I went to new and I love news. I'm a big news guy. But by far of everything I've done, the years I was in college doing baseball play by play were the most fun I ever had. I loved doing baseball play by.
It's pretty great.
It's so much fun sitting in the stands doing play by play.
Well, you go to the park, you stand around during BP and you talking to the to the manager or whoever you're talking to the guy. I mean, it's just it is the leisurely game that when it goes in the seventh or eighth thing, when it really goes, it's very exciting.
And baseball, to me, is the hard sport. You've got to be a storyteller. You to be really hard good baseball announcer. It is there's a lot of downtime and you don't want to You don't just fill it with stats, need to fill it with personality. You need to fill it with something that's going to keep an audience well.
And the part of it too, that's very complicated in calling baseball is you're you're talking about the hot dog you eate and the experience you have, and then a guy hits one in the gap and you go from slow, slow, slow to really fast and it's a it's hard to keep up that pace and keep up with everything. But the guys who do it well, they're the best.
I was a big Jack Buck fan. Jack Buck and Harry Carey in the day Jack Bucks book at my high school senior football graduation Bankwood, I got a picture with him when I'm seventeen years old. It was you know, he was my hero. He was such a good announcer.
I know he and Harry were together, but he and Mike Shannon yep, oh, yep, Mike. You know. I remember we went to Atlanta to a game in nineteen ninety two and bucking Shannon. You know, one of the big reasons I wanted to go is I wanted to see them in the booth. So I brought my binoculars and by the second inning it was filled with smoke and we could see the beer cooler. I mean they were old school man. They were working on some Marboroughs and at some bud Why.
It was a different time.
It was a different time man. Thank you for doing this absolutely, thank you for joining the Snickers hot seat. You go there, you go, Bob Mueller news to forty three years. Congratulations on a great career.
I appreciate you come back and do this again. I'd love to thanks for the invitation, all right.
For Bob Mueller, I'm Mike Keith, thanking you for joining us for the Oh Team. Peete,