Could Titans Get Company in Tennessee?

The Tennessee Titans are the only NFL team in the state, but could that change?

Lori Locust, Tennessee Titans defensive quality control assistant, runs players through drills with the coaching staff during mandatory mini-camp at Ascension Saint Thomas Sports Park in Nashville, Tenn., Tuesday, June 4, 2024. Locust is the first-ever woman coach for the Nashville football team. / Denny Simmons / The Tennessean / USA

Nashville is home to the Tennessee Titans, but their name has marked territory over the entire state.

As the only NFL team within a few hundred miles of itself, the Titans have fans from all over the state and perhaps even beyond. But that may change someday with the NFL looking to expand in the future.

ESPN writer Bill Barnwell identified cities that could expand if the NFL chose to do so, and Memphis was on the list.

"A popular pick for spring leagues over the past 25 years, Memphis is far enough away from Nashville and has an entirely different identity as a city," Barnwell writes. "The Titans will certainly have picked up some fans in Tennessee after moving from Houston in 1997, but if you've seen the way Memphis supports the Grizzlies, you can imagine what that would look like in football form. An entire stadium of fans chanting "Whoop that trick?" A stadium in the shadows of the Bass Pro Shops pyramid? I'm excited. There's another new Tennessee team on the way as well, although it's in a different section."

Though they are both in Tennessee, Memphis is a good 200+ miles away from Nissan Stadium in Nashville and is on the other side of the state. If a team were to build in Memphis, it would be able to attract a whole new unique fanbase that would take up southern Tennessee and perhaps even Mississippi and Alabama.

In 2001, the Memphis Maniax were part of the first XFL, but the league folded after just one season. Then, in 2019, the Memphis Express were born in the Alliance of American Football (AAF). However, the team also suffered from the failure of the league.

In 2023, the USFL ran it back with the Memphis Showboats, a revival of the team that took part of the USFL in the 1980's. The team was part of the USFL-XFL merger and participated in the first-ever UFL season this spring.

It's clear that there's football interest in Memphis, but the NFL isn't expected to expand any time soon, so the Titans should be safe from having an in-state intruder ... for now.

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