NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A mistaken reveal of a plush football bearing the Titans’ supposed “new” logo — followed by sharp-eyed fans spotting it in New Nissan Stadium renderings — set social media ablaze this weekend.
The circle, three stars and blade-like T quickly became one of the NFL’s biggest talking points.
But the logo everyone suddenly thinks is new has actually been in Titans spaces for years.
For decades, it was featured on the floor of the lobby of the team's headquarters in MetroCenter. I had a flash of that come to me on Sunday, and found the above picture in my files.
I’m not certain if it was there when the team moved into the building in August of 1999, but one Titans old-timer told me he was pretty sure it was there from the start.
If it came later as part of a renovation, the logo still wasn’t new, and the placement on a lobby floor suggested it wasn’t viewed as a primary team logo.
That source said the Titans didn't consider it an official mark, just something they used on occasion, mostly when the fireball tail of the main logo was difficult to duplicate or made things hard to center.
And when the team built a large second building on its campus in 2020 and 2021, the old lobby and that floor disappeared.
It's also been used in other features, like the 22nd Element fan attendance program, which started in 2018.
Now the flameless logo is making a grand comeback. We don't know the details yet, but clearly, we will be seeing a lot of it.