Titans-Saints honorary captains: ALS awareness advocates Tim Shaw, Steve Gleason

Tennessee Titans coach Mike Vrabel wasn't surprised by the blank looks on his players' faces.

A few years ago, Vrabel showed some of the younger players on the Titans' roster a picture of a linebacker. The prototypical linebacker. As Vrabel puts it, a dude who was "jacked up, full of sweat and grass-stained." And when these players were asked if they knew who was in the photograph, few, if any, recognized the man. Even though he was sitting in the room with them.

"They didn’t (recognize him) and I didn’t expect them to," Vrabel said Friday. "I said it’s the same guy that’s sitting over there. Just the shock."

The man was Tim Shaw, a one-time Titans linebacker who has been battling the neurodegenerative disease ALS since 2014. Shaw, who signed a contract to be a Titan For Life in 2016, will be one of the honorary captains when the Titans open their 2023 season against the Saints on Sunday (noon, CBS) in Louisiana. The other will be Steve Gleason, a beloved former Saints safety who also has ALS and has been an outspoken advocate for finding a cure and assisting those afflicted with the disease.

Shaw played with the Titans from 2010 to 2012, logging 61 tackles. He was their special teams captain in 2011 and 2012 thanks to his ability to run down return men on kickoffs and punts. Of his tackles, 25 came on special teams.

"I am so fortunate and grateful to get to be so involved with the Titans," Shaw said in a news release put out by the Titans. "Being an honorary captain for a game would be cool, but what makes this so special is to be doing it with Steve. Steve has been a role model for me since day one of my diagnosis. And not just a role model, but a friend."

Shaw announced his ALS diagnosis in 2014. Nearly a decade later, he's a fixture at Titans practices and has his own locker. The game in New Orleans will be the first time he has traveled with the Titans in Vrabel's tenure.

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Shaw's presence with the team is much more than a novelty. Vrabel says Shaw still has regular conversations with Titans special teams coordinator Craig Aukerman, sharing what Vrabel calls "Tim's Tips" on what players can do to match his success.

Vrabel says director of football administration John Streicher came to him in the summer with the idea to honor Shaw and Gleason before the Saints game. The Titans checked with Saints coach Dennis Allen and GM Mickey Loomis to see if the home team would be on board. But they also had to check with Shaw to see if traveling to New Orleans would be something he could do.

"That’s a lot out of his normal routine," Vrabel said. "So I think first of all just showing him the respect and asking him if that was something that he would want to do. Just like the football camp here. Because we may think it’s a great idea, but Tim may not. So I think that was the first thing that we wanted to do. He was all for it and I know that him and his family are all excited to be able to go down there and watch the game with Steve and his family."

Gleason announced his ALS diagnosis in 2011. He played with the Saints from 2000 to 2006 and had 71 tackles. He's best known for his blocked punt in the first quarter of the Saints' first game in New Orleans in nearly two years following Hurricane Katrina, a play that resulted in the Saints' first touchdown in the Superdome since the storm devastated the city.

In 2019, Gleason became the first NFL player to be bestowed with a Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian honor Congress can award, for his work in bringing awareness to ALS.

Vrabel says he hopes putting the spotlight on Gleason and Shaw on Sunday can help shed some extra light on ALS, even if it's just in a small way.

"I think if we can understand that, that these are guys that I know — I’ve watched Steve play and I’ve watched Tim play — that go from these incredible athletes and physical players running around, crashing into people and this is something that just takes it away pretty sudden," Vrabel said. "Hopefully it brings great awareness to it."

Nick Suss is the Titans beat writer for The Tennessean. Contact Nick at nsuss@gannett.com. Follow Nick on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, @nicksuss.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Titans-Saints honorary captains: Tim Shaw, Steve Gleason fighting ALS