The Tennessee Titans shocked the entire NFL world last offseason when the team fired head coach Mike Vrabel. The 2021 AP Coach of the Year led Tennessee to two division titles, an AFC Championship game appearance in 2019, and a 54-45 regular season record. Vrabel produced four consecutive winning seasons to start his Titans tenure but suffered two straight losing campaigns in 2022 and 2023 and was fired in January.
Tennessee quickly hired former Cincinnati Bengals offensive coordinator Brian Callahan after parting ways with Vrabel, but Callahan’s rookie campaign has been a complete disaster, as the Titans are 2-8 and will likely land a top-three pick in the 2025 NFL Draft.
Callahan and Vrabel are the two most recent head coaches of the Titans, but many forget that Mike Mularkey played a pivotal role in bringing winning football back to Nashville for a short stretch.
Mularkey took over the job after the franchise fired Ken Whisenhunt during the 2015 season. The Florida native went 2-7 as the interim coach to finish 2015 and served as the full-time head coach for two seasons, leading the Titans to two straight winning seasons and a playoff victory in 2017.
Tennessee fired Mularkey after the 2017 season in favor of Vrabel, but before departing Nashville, the long-time NFL coach wanted to have one more good laugh.
During an appearance on the Action Sports Jax’s Brent & Austen show, Mularkey stated that he called NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport to tell him that he would be receiving a new contract from the Titans, knowing that he would be fired sooner rather than later.
“The best thing I did there at the end, which I can now talk about, was when I got called in that Monday morning after the New England game. I knew they were going to fire me,” Mularkey said on Action Sports Jax’s Brent & Austen. “So Sunday night, I called Ian Rapoport, and I said, ‘Hey, I don’t know if you know this, but I’m going to break it to you – I’m getting a new contract in the morning.”
Do you remember @RapSheet reporting Mike Mularkey was going to get a contract extension from the #TitanUp but was fired instead? I think we might know why… @BrentASJax @A_Train_92 pic.twitter.com/2YlyRg7d2k
— BrentDanStuartMarcelAlivia (@ActionSportsJax) November 20, 2024
Though getting fired isn’t a joyful experience, Mularkey made sure to have some fun during a difficult situation.
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