My Plane Ride With Keith Bulluck

Since the Great KB most likely is done in Nashville I'd like to tell my story of a plane ride (Southwest Even!)from Los Angeles to Nashville sometime in February of 2008. If any of you were ever on the titansonline message board you might have read it already.

I used to travel to L.A.X every week for about a year for my job. I'd usually fly back on Thurs or Fridays. Well, after getting through all the checks and such I found my terminal and had a seat. I looked forward about 40 feet and I thought I recognized an athlete, rapper, someone I'd seen before. He was slumped over and looked to be asleep. It was tough to tell.



So as our plane arrived and he gathered his stuff it hit me... KB! (Side note. A guy I work with went out there with me that week that loves the Titans and he never recognized him, at least not til we went to collect our baggage and I told him. Also, ZERO people recognized him on the plane) So, 9 times out of 10 I'd be one of the first 25 to board but on this occasion I forgot to check in 24 hours in advance. Still, I wanted to find a seat next to KB and talk some football! I board the plane and I see KB and he's next to the window on a 3 seat side. A guy was on the outside seat and all that was left was middle seats on the plane so I took the one by KB.

I sat down and said "You're KB". He said "yep". I could see he had done made a makeshift pillow on the window so I said "don't worry, I won't bother ya".

LA to Nashville's is a 4 to 5 hour trip and KB slept about half of it. When he woke up he looked at me and said "Damn, I'm struggling. I've got a hangover". lol

He said he was out in LA to meet some friends and they got hammered drunk on the last night. He asked me if I live in Tennessee or Cali and I explained what I do for a living.

Well, enough of the small talk. Here's the things I asked him and his replies.

I asked him about just having 2 years left on his contract and if he thought he'd stay with the Titans. He said "If they wanna pay me I'd love to stay but you seen how they did Steve and Eddie, what do you think they'll do with me? It's just a business man. My next contract may be my last so I'm gonna get paid. If it's the Titans, great! If not I'll move on".

I asked him where he would you like to play if not Tennessee and he said "Home in New York." He liked both NY teams but preferred the Giants.

I asked him about the Spygate deal with the Pats and if he liked that they got beat in the SB. (I was insinuating him liking the Pats losing because of cheating) He said Belichick was a great coach and acted like Spygate was nothing. He said something about how you could know every play coming and it would still be tough to defend it. He did like the Giants won only because "a lot of friends" were on the team.

I asked him about Pacman Jones. He instantly shook his head and said "Man, that was Jeff's boy. Jeff stuck his neck out to draft him and Pacman let him down." He said the organization was against Jones but Jeff saw a playmaker and selected him. I said I bet Jones would be out of the league in a couple of years and KB said something about he'd be somewhere making it rain. LMAO

I asked him about Syracuse getting screwed on a couple of late calls in the UT/Cuse game of 98, the year UT went undefeated. Cuse lost that game 34-33 on a last second FG. There was a bogus penalty on a 4th down attempt that gave UT life in the last drive. He said it was BS and got fired up about it like it was the day before.

I asked him about VY. He just shook his head and said "I don't even want to talk about it/him" My asking was because of the hotel incident, the plane missing thing and the 9TD/17Int season as well as the sink bomb he laid against SD in the playoff game just a month before. I don't know how he took what I was asking but that was his answer. After the Young/Jax incident to start the 2008 season Adam Schefter came out with a report about Young wanting out of the SD playoff game and BOOM, I thought that was without a doubt what KB meant. That story was soon discredited by Fisher and company(as is ALL negative stories because Fisher protects his players) so who knows. It sure did make sense. Non the less, KB gave off the impression at that time he didn't care much for him. He was the guy that made the comment "No one's quitting on this side of the ball" or such.
As we all can see, it looks like everyone including Bulluck has been on board with VY for a while now. KB even stuck up for VY late last year. Fisher has a way of controlling that clubhouse, that's for sure.

I made the mistake of calling his foster family his real family. He made sure I knew he had a birth mom he loved real quick!

Well, when we landed I got the guy beside us to take our pic and we shook hands and I said "Hope the Titans keep you here until you retire". He said he hoped so also but they better be ready to pay him.



I wen to the baggage way ahead of him and as I grabbed my bag and turned to leave he was there and shook my hand again and said later and such.

Awesome guy, period. Him, McNair and Fisher will always be my favorites. All three gave more than a decade to the fans of Nashville and it's no accident all three are highly respected in the inner circles of the league.

Oh yeah, I asked him why he was on a Southwest Plane. He said $200 is a lot of money! lol

 

Thanks JC and you know I have to disagree. lol

Jeff was right about Pacman's talent. We wouldn't have gotten to 10 wins in 2007 without him in the return game. The organization never took a chance before. Pacman was a punk and had some baggage, Jeff took a chance on maybe a kid becoming a man. Pacman stabbed him in the back. It didn't work in the long run but it did yield some wins.
Jeff also hand picked CJ so there's a winner.

 

JC, you're pretty much right on about me. I am an underdog guy. I'll defend players that are crapped on because there's always someone else that's playing just as poorly that doesn't get the hate.

 

That is not correct. I said that KB said "I don't even want to talk about it or him."

The rest was my opinion of what he might of meant. I could be totally wrong.

As for me, yes, I was always against the pick of VY. I hated how he was picked(Bud Adams) but Leinart or Cutler weren't any better of a choice at the time either. Just the timing more than anything. When it comes time for teams to draft a franchise QB some have a Manning, Rivers or Rodgers waiting to be picked. We had a Young, Leinart and Cutler waiting. The 49ers had the same bad luck with Alex Smith. It's all about timing.