It started with a phone call in the summer of 1995. On one end of the line was Phil Bredesen, who was preparing a campaign for his second term as Nashville’s mayor. On the other: Texas millionaire Bud Adams, an oil man who, in a bitter fight with the city of Houston, was threatening to uproot his pro football club to Tennessee.
“I was skeptical,” recalled Bredesen, who would later become Tennessee’s governor. “I wasn’t a football fan. I wasn’t exactly sure who he was.”
That conversation, which carried enormous stakes for the two men — both financial and political — set in motion an unlikely series of events that unfolded in the quarter-century that followed. An underdog quest for an NFL team. A meteoric rise to the the apex of the sport. A descent into mediocrity, punctuated by the murder of its one-time star quarterback. And a resurgence that has brought renewed excitement — along with the 2019 NFL Draft — to Nashville.
At that moment in 1995, bringing a National Football League franchise to town was the longest of long shots for Nashville. This was Music City. And, with the emergence of artists like Garth Brooks and Randy Travis, country music was exploding. As Bredesen and other leaders looked for a way to take the city to the next level, they naturally turned to entertainment.
Efforts centered on building an arena that could host a steady stream of concerts, and perhaps a basketball or hockey team. With the construction of Bridgestone Arena, pro sports franchises soon came calling, expressing interest in relocating their teams to Nashville.
But their intentions were not always pure.
“We got used a lot by other cities who would want to talk to us,” Bredesen said. “And what they really were doing was telling their cities, ‘If you don’t give us a new stadium, we’re going to move to Nashville.’”
Talks progressed. The NHL’s New Jersey Devils and the NBA’s Minnesota Timberwolves indicated interest in moving to Nashville, but those negotiations petered out. Seeking to cut through the political theater, Bredesen created a term sheet laying out exactly what Nashville was offering sports suitors in terms of revenue arrangements.
That document found its way down to Houston and into the hands of Adams.
Trouble in Texas
Kenneth Bud Adams was an Oklahoma-born tycoon, a proud member of the Cherokee nation and an athlete in his own right. He played football at his prep school, and at the University at Kansas. A 1942 Jayhawks roster lists Adams, then 19, as a five-foot-ten, 150-pound quarterback. Also on the team: future U.S. Sen. Bob Dole.
But Adams was more interested as a young man in making money, and lots of it. Soon after getting out of the Navy, He went into the petroleum business, and with the economy booming after World War II, made a bundle. He was shrewd and driven, a no non-sense businessman who was soon involved in several other ventures. After securing his fortune, Adams returned to his love for sports and ended up owning the Houston Oilers, an American Football League franchise.
The Oilers joined the National Football League with the AFL/NFL merger in the late 1960s, and the team had several successful seasons, particularly in the late 80s and early 90s, behind star quarterback Warren Moon.
But trouble was brewing in Houston.
The economics of operating an NFL team were evolving, and generating more revenue from a team’s home stadium became increasingly important. But when Adams asked Houston for a new stadium for the Oilers, city leaders refused.
Adams was incredulous. To the original co-founder of the AFL, who built the Oilers up from scratch, it was a matter of principle.
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