Let’s face it – every day we are routinely bombarded with questions. When you’re an emerging media company in Nashville, people just want to know what your opinions are on everything. It’s only natural. And, since our duty is to serve the people, well, we have no choice but to be present. That’s the SoBro Way. Also, aren’t mailbags just a barrel of laughs anyway? Welcome to the newest weekly recurring feature up in this bitch: The SoBros Mailbag. As always, hit us with those mailbag questions @SoBrosNetwork on Twitter, email ’em to me anonymously at thesobrosnetwork@gmail.com. And, holy shit, I need to update this terrible intro paragraph that I’ve been using literally ever since I started writing this column…
Question:
If Justin Fields plays as a punt returner this season does that leave the door open for a Malik Willis career revitalization?
— Jake Robertson (@GloryDaySports) May 2, 2024
Answer:
Why not? I mean, holy shit…that might be his path to success in the NFL. Could you imagine? To go from maligned third string quarterback to superstar return man! That would be awesome. I’m here for it. Let’s run it.
Question:
If you could have one person sitting next to you on that big red couch who would it be and why? And what would be the cocktail and snack of choice? Also, what music would be playing softly in the background…? I know this is a tough one!
— Nabil Brent Remadna KXAN (@RemadnaKXAN) May 2, 2024
Answer:
Man, this is a tough one. The cocktail would be a gin and tonic. The snack would be Golden Flake’s Sweet Heat potato chips. And, the music playing in the background would be the Frank Sinatra playlist. That’s relaxing to me. Oddly enough, the hardest part to figure out would be the “who” of it. I think I ultimately go Hunter S. Thompson. What a podcast that would be if we could get some mics in front of us too.
Question:
How many times will T'Vondre Sweat make Skoronski or the RG look like little boys during training camp this year?
— Football & Other F Words (@FWordsPod) May 2, 2024
Answer:
Well, if the right guard ends up being Danny BrunZ, I’d say it’ll happen quite a bit. I’m intrigued to see how the presence of a big meaty 360-pounder will impact the development of guys like Big Meat Pete and the Trench King. If Sweat is as relentless as his good moments on tape, that’s going to end up being a case of iron sharpening iron.
Question:
Given the Titans team needs at the end of the season, what letter grade do you give the Titans for roster construction? What would you have done differently in free agency or the draft?
— Chef Ran (@jay36600747) May 2, 2024
Answer:
Chef Ran, I absolutely would’ve paid for a premium linebacker. I love the drafting of Cedric Gray, but it’s a bold strategy to put the fate of the green dot on a rookie. Not to mention, I loved this class of free agent linebackers. Aside from the way they handled linebacker and safety for that matter, I’d say the decisions they’ve made so far have been good enough to warrant a B+.
Question:
If you were a bird, what type would you be?
— Grizzler (@GrizzWizz24) May 2, 2024
Answer:
I like to think I’d be an eagle, just hanging out around the mountains and whatnot, but I feel you have to really be regal in order to be an eagle, and I don’t know if I’m that.
Question:
If the Titans sign Tyler Boyd, who gets left off the 53 man roster at WR?
— Rowdy GC (@Rowdy_TTBN) May 2, 2024
Answer:
Get ready to learn New England, Kyle Philips.
Question, from Owen on Instagram:
What’s something outside of sports that could benefit from a draft?
Answer:
I’d love to see a media draft. Let us enter for a combine, show off our work rate, interview with big media, and may the best man win. Maybe that would level the playing field and I might be able to get a job writing. Or restaurant drafts – let’s get Taco Bell to draft Sean Brock and see what happens.
Question:
In your opinion, why is it that Nashville doesn’t have NBA or Major League Baseball teams? One would think the #29 tv market in the country could support the Big 4 major sports.
— Ed Helinski 🇺🇸🇵🇱 (@MrEd315) May 2, 2024
Answer:
I think there are a few things at play here, Ed, and I should be clear that these are just theories and I don’t have any sort of concrete inside information on it. It’s just from hearing this conversation take place in this city for the better part of the last two decades.
For one, while the TV market may be quite large, I’d assume that figure would include all of Davidson County as the “metropolitan Nashville area.” I don’t know that there are enough people living within close enough proximity to downtown to attend 182 games of a MLB season, for example. The economy is another factor in this consideration for the average fan. Without a wider population base to draw from, I imagine you’d likely start getting people having to choose between which teams they’d want to support. While the population is growing at a rapid rate, I think we’re just now getting to a point where there are enough people actually living close enough to support more professional sports teams.
There also has to be interest from the leagues themselves in terms of coming to a market. For those of us who have lived through the transformation of Nashville, it feels like forever since “New Nashville” arrived. But, governing bodies and major national organizations tend to move slowly. Even when the NFL Draft came here in Nashville, I remember hearing people talk about it on their broadcasts and thinking, “have y’all just now heard of Nashville?” Sometimes, it feels like people are just now catching up on all there is to do in this city. As the major players continue to catch up and do their market research on the city, I’d imagine interest will heat up.
Finally, it would be a logistics dilemma I’m not sure city leadership is willing to prioritize. Where will the teams play? Will there need to be a new stadium? Another new stadium, I should say! What are we going to do about roads? What about the teachers not being paid appropriately? You start talking about infrastructure and funding, and it may be a bit of a hard sell.
I think the bottom line here is that there needs to be a groundswell of support from the public. A lot of the other “big city sports market” boxes have been checked, but if they can start merging public support with interest from the major sports leagues, that’s the sweet spot where something can actually happen, in my opinion. Regardless of what I think, I feel like it’s coming – one of these days, a MLB and/or a NBA team will call Nashville home.
Keep the questions coming – catch y’all next week!
Stoney Keeley is the Editor in Chief of The SoBros Network, and a Dogs Playing Poker on velvet connoisseur. He is a strong supporter of Team GSD, #BeBetter, and ‘Minds right, asses tight.’ “Big Natural” covers the Tennessee Titans, Nashville, Yankee Candle, and a whole wealth of nonsense. Follow on Twitter @StoneyKeeley.
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