NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — During the regular season, the Tennessee Titans distributed two commemorative game balls to the game’s best offensive and defensive players.But once the Titans make the playoffs, the tradition changes.If they win, the entire team gets their own custom ball with their name on it.
That means, Signs Now Nashville is on call to see if they’ll be hard at work on Monday morning.”It’s all on deck. We all pick up brushes and paint stuff, and we just start painting,” said Neil Finnell, operations manager at Signs Now. “It’s like the fourth goal, yeah.”
Every member of the Titans organization, on and off the field, gets a ball — which means they’ve started buying and priming 108 balls.”Ryan Tannehill or AJ Brown all the way up to No. 53 on the roster, everybody gets one,” Fennell said.
Just like the team itself, they have a successful game plan to make this happen.First, they use thermal printers, which are older than most current Titan players.”If it’s not broken, don’t fix it, so we keep using the same machine,” he said.
Neil then used transfer tape to methodically and meticulously attach the design to the football.”You don’t want it to look like a sticker, you want it to look like something applied precisely to a football,” Fennell said.
Then he rubs and heats the ball to keep it smooth.”We took a heat gun and heated it up. So we made sure that when they handed it over to the good people, nothing came off in there,” he said.
If Neil makes it look easy, it’s because he has a lot of practice.”It’s probably about 3,000 now,” Fennell said.
Since the team moved to Nashville, Neal has been designing custom game balls, including the one that took running back Eddie George’s Super Bowl 34 score, and turned it into a custom memorabilia.”It’s kind of cool to be a part of that part of history, it’s kind of like a feather in a hat, if you will,” he said.
That’s an honor for any professional, but it’s a real thrill for this Titans fan.”I didn’t miss a home game before COVID, I always played every home game at the stadium,” Fennell said.
That’s why he’s excited for this weekend’s game, but even more so for an extraordinarily busy Monday morning.”I wish we were just covered in paint and football and we didn’t know how to get them done. I really do. That would be a good question,” he said.
Perhaps the greatest achievement of Neil’s career: three footballs he designed were inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Guangzhou.One in honor of Bruce Matthews’ back-to-back streak, and two honors for the achievements of late kicker Rob Bironas.
Post time: Jan-24-2022