Keith Bulluck reflects on Tennessee Titans career, still being called 'Mr. Monday Night'
Tennessee Titans legend Keith Bulluck was supposed to be in Portugal on Saturday night.
Europe had to wait.
Bulluck was inducted into the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame on Saturday at the Omni Hotel Nashville, alongside a long list of honorees that included fellow NFL veterans such as Eric Berry and John Henderson. Bulluck, who played for the Titans from 2000-09, logged more solo tackles than any player has since the franchise moved to Tennessee (790) and played more games in a Titans uniform (157) than any non-punter ever has.
"It’s a pretty cool, great honor," Bulluck said. "Now that I’ve had time to kind of digest it all, it’s a culmination of my career. The hard work and dedication I put in. The challenges I accepted. Some goals accomplished, the biggest obviously of winning a championship not accomplished. But that has nothing to do with when it comes to the individual honor of being inducted in anyone’s Hall of Fame. This is for myself, but it also goes for the teammates and the coaches that I had throughout the years that pushed me and challenged me and stepping up to those challenges."
Bulluck, 46, was at a Titans ticket-holders event with general manager Ran Carthon when Brad Willis, executive director of the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame, asked him what he'd be doing on July 22. Blindsided, Bulluck said he was headed to Portugal. The family moved things around and will now leave on Monday so Bulluck could accept the honor.
The Titans' first-round pick in the 2000 NFL Draft, Bulluck made one Pro Bowl and two All-Pro teams. Nicknamed "Mr. Monday Night," Bulluck was particularly dynamic on Monday Night Football, making 66 tackles with six interceptions, 12 pass breakups and a touchdown in 15 games.
When Bulluck reflects on his time with the Titans, he says he breaks things up into three eras. In the first, he was the young guy in a locker room full of established veterans like quarterback Steve McNair and running back Eddie George, the rookie joining a team that had just made a Super Bowl run. By the time McNair and George gave way to Vince Young and Chris Johnson, Bulluck says he was in his second act as a leader and locker room fixture.
Bulluck's last act, his final season with the Titans in 2009, is one he's still a little sour on. The Titans started that season 0-6 but won seven of their next eight games to squeeze back into the playoff hunt. But Bulluck was injured in the final game of that eight-game stretch, an overtime win over the Miami Dolphins, and didn't play in the ensuing loss to the San Diego Chargers that kept the Titans out of the playoffs.
"I honestly feel if I didn’t get hurt against Miami, we would’ve beat the Chargers on Christmas night," Bulluck said with a smile.
He played one final season in 2010 with the New York Giants.
More than a decade after his last game in a Titans uniform, Bulluck still lives in Nashville. He briefly moved to New Jersey after retiring, but never sold his house and later moved back to the Music City. He still gets a kick out of fans stopping him on the street and calling him "Mr. Monday Night," though he's not surprised.
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He wouldn't expect anything else out of the fans he ingratiated himself among for a decade as a player.
"When I played here I was always out in the community," Bulluck said. "After losses you could probably find me at a bar licking my wounds. I’ve always been embedded in the community. I’m not hard to see or find if you’re looking for me. I’m a Nashvillian."
Nick Suss is the Titans beat writer for The Tennessean. Contact Nick at nsuss@gannett.com. Follow Nick on Twitter @nicksuss.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Keith Bulluck joins Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame, reflects on Titans
