GALLERY: NFL Draft takes on Nashville

GALLERY: NFL Draft takes on Nashville

The NFL Draft is being held in Nashville this week for the first time ever.  An estimated crowd of over 200,000 people attended the first round of the draft on Thursday. The NFL has taken over almost every inch of downtown. The main stage where the picks are announced is on lower Broadway, but the NFL is also holding a free festival across the Cumberland river in the parking lot of Nissan Stadium, called the NFL Draft Experience. The festival has photo opportunities with NFL memorabilia and trophies, chances to meet NFL players and free tours of the Titans locker room. On Thursday, the “NFL Draft Experience” had Titans players Marcus Mariota, Derrick Henry and Corey Davis along with several other NFL players. The full list of player appearances for Friday and Saturday’s festival can be found on the Fan Mobile Pass app.  Attendees for the festival will need to download the Fan Mobile Pass app to be able to get access to many things. Nashville has become the epicenter for many national media outlets this week including ESPN and the NFL Network. ESPN’s popular show “College Gameday” broadcasted Thursday night from Broadway. Once the draft started on lower Broadway, the Arizona Cardinals selected Kyler Murray as the first overall selection. The hometown Titans picked later in the draft and selected Jeffery Simmons. The following six rounds of the NFL draft along with the NFL Draft Experience festival will continue through Friday and Saturday this week. « ‹ of 3 › »...

Students compete in Lipscomb version of NFL Combine

The Student Activity Center challenged the students to see if they have what it takes to compete in the NFL Combine. Competitors ranged from freshmen to graduate students, all students were welcomed to join in on the fun. “I think it went really well. I was very happy with the turnout,” Steffani Davis, a Facilities and Marketing graduate assistant for the SAC, said. “I think we really had some awesome athletes. Some students didn’t play football in high school, then others were standout athletes on their high school football team. We loved having everyone that participated.” The NFL Combine gives hopeful NFL players a chance to show off their God-given talents such as strength and speed. Joe Flacco of the Baltimore Ravens threw 74 yards in a quarterback challenge during the combine. Jay Cutler threw a football 60 yards from his knees. The top Lipscomb participate threw 48 yards. “We tested the contestants in your basic kick, pass, punt, and your basic speed and agility drills the NFL players have to go through in the combine,” Davis said. “Everything we did is pretty much the exact events they do in the NFL Combine besides, we just tried to monitor it more to fit the college students.” After tallying all the points from the different events, freshman Daniel Vaughn won the competition. Vaughn went home with two tickets to a Titans game for his efforts. There was not a single person who got first place in every event. “Everyone was actually pretty even. Some people really excelled in the speed and agility, and then evened out with the throwing,” Davis said....

The Film Session (a weekly NFL recap): Fingers Off the Panic Button

Hello, NFL fans! Football nerd Cory Woodroof here. I’d like to welcome you into The Film Session, a new recap of the week in the NFL that will be published every Tuesday here on the site. I’ll always offer you 10 of my takeaways from the week, go over the power rankings and give my player of the week. Also, I’ll highlight five games that have me excited for the week ahead. Shall we begin? Week one in the NFL is always one of the sports’ best times, but it’s also one of the worst times to be gauging a team’s future success (or lack-thereof). Think back to last year. Could any of us predict that, after week one, the Chiefs were back in business? How about that the Texans were on track to pick number one in the 2014 draft? We may get small hints of this and that, but there’s still a long season ahead. So, if your team won a big one, congrats, but don’t get too comfortable. And, if your team is struggling, don’t lose hope. The best coaches can always make adjustments and get their teams back to business. This week, a few teams got back to playing like they’re known for playing, a few surprise teams handed defeats to some of the league’s best and Peyton Manning was Peyton Manning. Here are my top 10 takeaways from the first week of the season. If there’s such a thing as the “Super Bowl Slump,” don’t tell the Seattle Seahawks. In a complete home field pummeling of the Green Bay Packers, the reigning champions proved...

Tennessee Titans 2014 draft includes hits, misses

After months of anticipation for prospects both highly regarded and barely known, as well as NFL die-hard fans, the 2014 NFL Draft has finally come to a close. Thanks to a 2013 campaign that saw a fifth consecutive playoff miss, the Tennessee Titans roster went through an overhaul in the offseason, leaving plenty of holes to be filled by the draft. Having been a Titans fan for the franchise’s entire existence, I can say that this draft, like many before it, had both highs and lows. Here are my thoughts on the Titans’ 2014 Draft selections. First Round, 11th pick: Taylor Lewan, Offensive Tackle, Michigan: Easily the most baffling selection in an otherwise solid draft haul for the Titans. With the team’s two most glaring needs being a quarterback and a defensive back, the Titans chose an offensive tackle despite having two starters entrenched in that position already. I, personally, was hoping for Texas A&M star quarterback Johnny “Football” Manziel. Even if he does not live up to his ultra-high expectations, he will be an entertaining player who draws crowds to the stadium. The Cleveland Browns sold 2,000 season tickets in the first 24 hours after selecting Manziel in the draft. Second Round, 54th pick: Bishop Sankey, Running Back, Washington: After a historic drought for running back selections, the Titans made Sankey the first back chosen in the 2014 draft. Sankey was an extremely productive player in college and will be a solid replacement after losing Chris Johnson in the offseason. Fourth Round, 112th pick: DaQuan Jones, Defesnive Tackle, Penn State: The Titans have always seemed to make good...

Former Gov. Phil Bredesen shares insight into political past with newest “now that you ask…” conversation

Former Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen has done it all. Tuesday night, Bredesen spoke at the most recent “now that you ask…” conversation series hosted by Tom Ingram. Lipscomb’s Shamblin Theatre was full of attentive students and community members listening to Bredesen talk about his early life and career. During his term as governor, Bredesen tackled education, finance and health care in Tennessee, establishing large financial reserves, a statewide Pre-K program and a children’s health insurance program. Bredesen was also mayor of Nashville from 1991 to 1999, during which he recruited the NFL Tennessee Titans and the NHL Nashville Predators. However, before Bredesen accomplished those tasks, he started out on a track quite far away from politics. “I wanted to be a forest ranger,” Bredesen said. “In high school, I had no interest in politics at all. But when JFK became president, I realized that politics was something that good people could do, and make it good.” Bredesen then recalled his interests shifting from forest ranger, to geology, to physics. “When Sputnik was launched, I thought it was a sign that I should go into the sciences,” Bredesen said. “The hard sciences are a good field to go into.” Bredesen got into Harvard College “almost on a whim,” where he studied physics. “Growing up near Cornell University and Columbia,  I always thought I’d go to one of those colleges, but I applied late to Harvard and ended up getting in,” Bredesen said. When Bredesen finally became involved in the political world, the losses seemed more than the wins at the beginning. “There were a lot of losses, but I learned a...