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DeAndre Hopkins Explains Titans Connection Behind TD Celebration

Hopkins scored his first touchdown as a Chief but gave love to the Titans during his celebration.

Josh Wilson

Hopkins scored two touchdowns in Kansas City's Monday night win over the Buccaneers
Hopkins scored two touchdowns in Kansas City's Monday night win over the Buccaneers / Jay Biggerstaff-Imagn Images
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Monday night, the Kansas City Chiefs improved to 8-0 in a tightly contested 30–24 overtime win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. DeAndre Hopkins had his coming out game, scoring his first and second touchdowns as a member of the Chiefs in his second contest with the team after being acquired in a trade with the Tennessee Titans.

Following his first score, Hopkins led an ensemble of his teammates emulating a dance from Remember the Titans, the 2000 film starring Denzel Washington.

Hopkins explained the reasoning for pulling out the dance on X (formerly Twitter) the morning after the win, making sure there was no room to interpret the dance as a dig at his time with the Titans.

"It was a shout to Tennessee, if u know me u know it’s nothing but love for Nashville. Ran and his crew are like family. Without them, I wouldn’t be here."

Hopkins spent all of last season with the Titans and the first six games this year. He racked up 1,230 receiving yards and eight touchdowns in 25 games. Hopkins is already looking more like his former All-Pro self catching passes from Patrick Mahomes, but clearly he has nothing but appreciation for Tennessee's part of his career arc.

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Josh Wilson
JOSH WILSON

Josh Wilson is the news director of the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. Before joining SI in 2024, he worked for FanSided in a variety of roles, most recently as senior managing editor of the brand’s flagship site. He has also served as a general manager of Sportscasting, the sports arm of a start-up sports media company, where he oversaw the site’s editorial and business strategy. Wilson has a bachelor’s degree in mass communications from SUNY Cortland and a master’s in accountancy from the Gies College of Business at the University of Illinois. He loves a good nonfiction book and enjoys learning and practicing Polish. Wilson lives in Chicago but was raised in upstate New York. He spent most of his life in the Northeast and briefly lived in Poland, where he ate an unhealthy amount of pastries for six months.

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