Greg Arias: Sometimes You Do Get To Come Home

Getting hired to be a reporter at AllTitans.com takes me back to where it all began for me. I consider myself very lucky to be back in the same role I enjoyed as a young and inexperienced reporter when I stepped inside Adelphia Coliseum to cover my first Tennessee Titans game more than two decades ago. Hence, it's good to dive back in again.

George Walker IV / Tennessean.com / USA Today Network

NASHVILLE — There's an old saying that "you can't go home again." That phrase served as the title of a 1940 novel by Thomas Wolfe. An excerpt from Wolfe's writing shared the idea in this quote. 

"You can't go back home to your family, to your childhood, back home to a young man's dreams of glory and fame ... back home to places in the country, back home to the old forms and systems of things which once seemed everlasting but which are changing all the time — back home to the escapes of Time and Memory. "While it is true that a return to a place from your past won't be the same, it is possible to return "home" at a different time yet still feel as if you never left. 

Such is the case for me today as I have returned home, home to a place and a career that I love and have missed since it ended for me in 2020.

That place is back with Sports Illustrated/Fan Nation and my role as a writer, though not covering Vanderbilt this time. Instead, I'm back to my roots as a writer, covering the Tennessee Titans for AllTitans.com.

Thanks to AllTitans.com publisher Tom Brew, who reached out shortly after taking over this site, I have agreed to join his staff of outstanding individuals and writers covering the Titans. 

It has been a goal, and perhaps even a dream, to be able to return to covering sports, and in particular, the Titans. I had all but given up hope of this day happening until I got a text message a few weeks that set the wheels in motion.

There have been some changes since I last covered the Titans in 2018. Amy Adams Strunk had taken over the team, and Mike Vrabel was hired as the head coach, replacing Mike Mularkey.

While Mularkey deserves a share of the credit for his work to begin the Titans' turnaround from the abysmal Ken Whisenhut days, Vrabel had, until 2022, set the franchise on solid footing. 

However, a 7-10 season record in 2022, following his winning the AP Coach of the Year Award in 2021, has left him and the team's roster in a tenuous position entering 2023. 

New Tennessee Titans General Manager Ran Carthon :: George Walker IV / Tennessean.com / USA Today Network

Enter new general manager Ran Carthon, hired away from the San Francisco 49ers, where he has served as both their Director of Pro Personnel (2017-2020) and their Director of Player Personnel (2021-2022), working under general manager John Lynch, and helping build one of the best rosters in all of football.

What hasn't changed about this job during my exile from covering the team? Besides the additions of the last four seasons, the history of the Titans has stayed the same. So is how the game is played and the life of a reporter covering an NFL franchise. 

One of the biggest things in making my decision to accept this role was the fact that we, as a team, will be coving the Titans both at home and on the road in the coming season, something that I've always felt was vital to genuinely being in the know about the team you cover.

So here I am, back where it all began for me as a writer, covering an NFL team and being privileged to do it under the banner of Sports Illustrated?Fan Nation with AllTitans.com

Yes, Mr. Wolfe, it feels like I have returned home, and here's to a lengthy stay doing what I love.  

Related Titans stories

• TOM BREW COLUMN: New AllTitans.com publisher Tom Brew says hello to Nashville, finally coming home to his family roots after an award-winning journalism career in Florida and Indiana. Here is his first column for the Sports Illustrated/FanNation site, with plans for his strong lineup of reporters and staff for the coming year, and links to new social media sites. CLICK HERE
• REACTION TO KELLY HIRE: Reaction has been mixed on the internal promotion of Tim Kelly to offensive coordinator, replacing Tod Downing. CLICK HERE   
• FRONT OFFICE ADDITION: General Manager Ran Carthon wasted little time adding former Packers executive Chad Brinker as assistant general manager. CLICK HERE
• VRABEL ON KELLY: Titans head coach Mike Vrabel made the call to promote Tim Kelly to the offensive coordinator position. CLICK HERE