So the Tennessee Titans are in the process of hiring a new Chief Business Officer, some mundane title for some bean counter to be plucked, surely, out of some humdrum job search. Right?
Pfft. You kidding?
This is the Titans we're talking about. Of course, there’s drama. Of course, there’s controversy.
Of course, I’m having to sit and read through documents of a “racial discrimination” lawsuit that was filed against the NFL’s Arizona Cardinals. Because that lawsuit included, among its defendants, a Cardinals executive named Jeremy Walls, who the Titans wouldn’t confirm they are hiring as CBO even after radio host Jared Stillman reported, through anonymous sources, that they were.
Stillman, as you likely know, is the media member whose credential
the Titans foolishly pulled just before this season for being a big meanie and criticizing them. Quite the coincidence, huh, that he’s now out there breaking news the franchise doesn’t want broken through anonymous sources?
But this isn’t about Stillman. It isn’t necessarily about Burke Nihill, either, though it sure does seem like the Titans' CEO is the one being glared at by Stillman's anonymous sources.
It’s about Jeremy Walls.
Whoever that is.
Most sports fans care about wins, losses, players, coaches, general managers. They typically wouldn’t bother to know or care about names below the top line of the business side's org chart unless they are forced to know and care – and when that happens, it’s rarely for positive reasons.
I would not, in fairness, know Mr. Walls if he walked in my house. I have no idea if he’d be a wonderful addition or a terrible boss or anything about him other than broad allegations from Walls’ former executive assistant, Kendra Hogue.
In a lawsuit filed jointly with former assistant coach Don Shumpert, Hogue sued the Cardinals, owner Michael Bidwill and Walls, the team's Chief Operating Officer, for “discriminatory treatment because of their race” and “intolerable working conditions,” forcing her to leave a job she held for approximately two months in 2024. Hogue and Shumpert are Black.
The compliant alleged that “Hogue's boss, defendant Walls, and/or other managers or employees made racially offensive comments and actions which contributed to a hostile work environment.” Hogue did not detail specific instances of comments or actions from Walls in the complaint, and in a statement to the Arizona Republic, the Cardinals pushed back, saying “the team strongly denies these claims and will prove they have no merit.”
I reached out to the Titans to offer the chance to explain themselves. Their response was a statement from a team spokesperson that said, “We have not yet made a final selection for our open CBO role.” They didn’t disassociate from Walls. They just said they hadn’t finalized a decision. Equivocation, while expected, wasn't the right play.
If the Titans intend to hire Walls, then own it. Show conviction in your decision. Stick up confidently for it. Explain to your fans why you believe this is best for the franchise and why they shouldn't be concerned about the lawsuit and the quality of person being hired to a position of authority.
Otherwise, it comes off like there’s something to be ashamed of here. If that's the case, why make a hire if you feel the need to do it on the downlow? You're allowed to choose someone else.
Whether the Titans hire Walls or not, this topic is already a source of embarrassment and additional scrutiny for Nihill at an inopportune time. His football team is 0-5, and it just got booed while being spanked at Nissan Stadium by the Houston Texans, the AFC South rival that Titans owner Amy Adams Strunk, reputedly, most wants to beat.
And that is the moment to add a new executive who happens to be a defendant in a lawsuit filed against another NFL franchise by his former executive assistant? And also a hire, by the way, that’s part of an ongoing business-side restructure that's going over poorly, with recent firings the Titans tried to keep secret and couldn’t because, again, someone – vindictively, it appears – leaked it to Stillman?
How can that not raise questions about leadership and morale in the building?
The Titans remain a mess on the field, obviously, and they've been a mess far too long. That’s a big problem. When the worries, though, begin to spread into decisions that aren't on the football side of the operation, it somehow feels like a separate, larger, unrelenting problem.
Like we might be discovering, finally, how it got so bad for the Titans that chaos and secrecy is their new normal.
Reach Tennessean sports columnist Gentry Estes at gestes@tennessean.com and hang out with him on Bluesky @gentryestes.bsky.social
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: The Tennessee Titans' biggest problems, somehow, might be the ones off the field | Estes
