USA Today
HOUSTON — From his penthouse office, Tennessee Titans owner K.S. "Bud" Adams Jr. can see from one side of this sprawling city to the other.
When the heavy rain stopped and the dark clouds drifted by, he pointed to a rounded roof in the distance — the Astrodome, where his Houston Oilers played for so many years.
But it's inside the office that his story is told, through hundreds of pictures on the mahogany walls. There's Adams as a high school and college football player, his dark hair slicked back. In more black-and-whites he's with friends from the Oilers era or with his wife, Nancy. Other shots show a graying Adams alongside a Tennessee Titans logo, the big smile still there but his face showing age.
"Time marches on, doesn't it?" he said.
So does Adams, who turns 86 in January. He still shows up every day to oversee his massive oil, energy, ranching and farming businesses here and his NFL team 700 miles away in Nashville.
And while he loves to talk about the past, Adams has an eye on the future. For the first time publicly, he said the franchise would remain in the family following his death and he envisions his grandson, Kenneth Adams IV, someday calling the shots.
Most importantly for Titans fans, he said the team's not going anywhere.
"There's no way we'd leave Nashville," Adams said. "There is great support there."
What Adams wants more than anything, however, is a crowning moment after 49 years as owner of the team. His 12-1 Titans, who come here Sunday to face the Houston Texans, are among the favorites to play in Super Bowl XLIII on Feb. 1 in Tampa
Adams flashed his AFC championship ring from the 1999 season, when the Titans lost Super Bowl XXXIV to St. Louis Rams.
"I'd like to wear one that says 'Super Bowl champions,' " he said. "Maybe this is the year. I'll keep my fingers crossed. But at my age I just take it one day, one game at a time. You can't build your hopes up."
'A stable franchise'
While Adams pulls for the Titans to win a Super Bowl, he can take comfort in the fact that the team he purchased for $25,000 in 1959 is a winner financially.
According to Forbes, the Titans are valued at $994 million, placing them 20th in the magazine's rankings of the 32 NFL franchises. That's up from $922 million last year. In 1999, the inaugural season at LP Field, the Titans were valued at $369 million.
"They are not a team that has sacrificed winning for the sake of making money," said Mike Ozanian, Forbes national editor. "They have been able to do both. ... It is a stable franchise."
Adams had had offers for the Titans. Yet the owner, whose friends and associates describe as intensely loyal to family, plans to keep the team under the Adams banner.
As things stand now, his daughters Susie Smith and Amy Strunk will each get a share of the team, Adams said, and the other third will go to the family of his deceased son, Kenneth S. Adams III — his grandsons, Kenneth Adams IV and Barclay Cunningham Adams, and their mother, Susan Lewis.
His daughters aren't interested in running the team, Adams said, and Barclay is just a junior at Mississippi. It's Kenneth who is being groomed to someday run the show.
The 24-year-old University of the South graduate has spent the past two seasons sampling every facet of franchise operations as an administrative assistant to Titans Senior Executive Vice President Steve Underwood.
Adams said he's thinking about elevating his grandson to vice president, perhaps in two years.
"I want him to get a little more age on him because I think he'd be respected a little better," Adams said. "But he might be the one running it after I'm no longer the head guy. First he has to get well acquainted with all the phases of the organization, and he has been working in all those areas to try and do that."
Kenneth Adams declined a request to be interviewed for this story. Underwood, who's worked for the owner for 32 years, said the younger Adams is a model student.
"He is so interested in trying to figure out why our business works the way it does and has learned a tremendous amount just in the last year and a half," Underwood said. "I don't think there is any question that he has the ability some day to have a leadership role in our organization."
Adams also made it clear the Titans will remain in Nashville when he steps aside. Provisions and penalties in their lease, which runs until 2028, make it almost impossible to move the team, he said.
Adams has been asked if he'd sell the team, however. He said as recently as last year a group of California investors offered $1 billion, but "I didn't invite them back for a second visit."
He's not surprised by the interest.
"I get a lot of calls," he said. "People will look and see, 'Well, that guy, he's in his 80s. He'll be wanting to sell here soon.' "
Man of his word
After a controversial exit from Houston — spurred by a dispute with the mayor over Astrodome renovations — and a shaky beginning in Tennessee, Adams has seen mostly good times since the 1997 move.
He smiled while recalling his first call to then-Nashville mayor Phil Bredesen to pitch his plan.
"The first thing he said was, 'Fella, my secretary told me what you told her and I don't believe anyone that owns an NFL franchise in a big city like Houston would move it to Nashville as small as we are,' " Adams said. "And he hung up on me, thinking there was nothing to it."
Adams bet his wife he'd hear back from Bredesen soon.
"Sure enough he called back to apologize. He'd checked on me and realized I really did own the team," Adams said. "We talked and things kind of went from there. It's worked out pretty good I guess. We've had great fans, and great support. Nashville has been great."
Bredesen, now governor, admitted his initial reaction was "Right, sure." He still visits Adams at Titans games and said he's "always genuinely liked him" even if their talks about bringing the Oilers to Nashville weren't always smooth.
"He didn't always do everything I wanted and is a tough negotiator — but his word is as good as gold," Bredesen said. "He'll tell you yes and he'll tell you no, but whatever he tells you is good."
After the 1997 season in Memphis, where fans looked the other way, and a lackluster '98 season at Vanderbilt Stadium, the team changed its name from Tennessee Oilers to Tennessee Titans in '99 and moved into Nashville's new downtown stadium. Every game at the venue now known as LP Field has sold out and the waiting list for season tickets has more than 20,000 names.
"It was very controversial at times, people were trying to impeach me and tried everything to stop it," Bredesen said. "But I have run into innumerable people who have said to me they didn't want the team at first and now they go to every Titans game. I am sure there are still some people who don't like it, but overwhelmingly people have seen what it has done for the city. This year with the success they are having it makes it even better."
Adams was quick to recall that '99 season, when the Titans produced the Music City Miracle — an incredible game-winning play in the postseason opener — and marched to the Super Bowl.
He spoke of great players like Steve McNair and Eddie George, but needed a media guide to recall some particulars and players of other seasons.
"I've seen a whole lot of games," Adams said, sounding almost apologetic.
Golden years
The Oilers/Titans have made the playoffs 15 times since 1970, 59 of their players have been Pro Bowl selections and eight are in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
The number Adams is most proud of, however, is 62. He and Nancy celebrated their 62nd wedding anniversary in October, but her health has deteriorated to the point that she's now in a wheelchair.
"It makes it tough to get around," Adams said. "We usually make all the games but we've had to miss some."
Adams said he's had some health issues of his own. His appetite isn't what it once was — lunching with a visitor this week he ate half a bowl of clam chowder, but saved the bulk of his fresh strawberries for Nancy — and he's lost some weight in recent months.
"We went to the heart doctor recently, both of us did, and he said 'Everything looks fine, Bud,' " Adams said.
So he doesn't see any reason to quit working at this point.
"I'd like to get to be 100 years old," he said with a smile. "I've had too many friends that when they retired from the business world to go play golf and take it easy they didn't last too long, or they got sick and are in the hospital.
"I think working keeps you occupied and you keep yourself ready to go all the time. So as long as I am feeling good ... "
Adams doesn't make a lot of trips to Nashville, but he remains in contact with Underwood, General Manager Mike Reinfeldt and Coach Jeff Fisher on a regular basis and they said he knows what's going on at the team's facility in MetroCenter.
"The guidance he provides us is invaluable and is a large part of the reason we are enjoying success this year on and off the field," Underwood said. "He still has enormous respect for our fans and understands everything there is to know about operating a professional football team."
Special feeling
In every corner of Adams' office there's some kind of football keepsake or memorabilia.
Perhaps even more impressive is his collection of western art and Native American artifacts, another reminder of his past — Adams is part Cherokee, from his mother's side. An entire room is devoted to his collection.
But his love for football and his desire to win a Super Bowl shines brightest. He wants more stories to tell, and the 2008 Titans seem poised to provide them.
"I think this team is special, I really do," Adams said. "Winning all those games is not easy to do ... If we keep winning, we're going to set ourselves up nicely.
"But if you've been around this game as long as I have, you know anything can happen."
