A Titan of the Old School Gets It Done in the ‘90s

Bud Adams, the Tennessee Titans’ owner, appeared at a news conference Thursday without the lucky tie he has worn this season. . . .

“I ate nachos a couple of times after winning and spilled hot cheese on there,” he said. . . .

But he said he expects to have the tie back in time for Sunday’s Super Bowl game. . . .

“We’ve got a gal at home who does pretty good with spots.” . . .

Although Adams moved his team, then known as the Oilers, to Tennessee in 1997, he still lives in Houston. . . .

“I’m not afraid to walk around anywhere,” he said. . . .

He acknowledged, however, that the Houston media treat him like a pariah. . . .

“When you’ve been around as long as I have, you recognize the power of the press,” he said. “You’re not going to defeat them. But I did bust one of them in the jaw back in ’67. I had taken all the crap from him I could.” . . .

Adams, who founded the AFL with Lamar Hunt in 1959, said he had more fun as an owner in those days. . . .

“You’ve got agents now who think they’re smarter than the owners, and some of them probably are,” he said. . . .

Asked if the story was true that he once gave a few head of cattle to a player as a signing bonus, he said, “Whether it was cattle, girls, money, cars, that’s the way you did things back then. Now you have to have everything in a contract.” . . .

Reporters here wait patiently for the scheduling of the Georgia Frontiere news conference.

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Dumbest question ever asked by a reporter at the Super Bowl? . . .

Although there are literally dozens of nominees, the overwhelming favorite was this one from Butch John of the Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, Miss., to the Redskins’ Doug Williams: “How long have you been a black quarterback?” . . .

Funny. But John told Jack Wilkinson of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution this week that the question was never asked. . . .

“This is what I said, verbatim: ‘Doug, it’s obvious you’ve been a black quarterback all your life. When did it start to matter?’ Everybody got a good laugh out of it. His answer was that it didn’t matter until he got to the NFL. . . .

“What bothers me is that people will repeat it without checking their facts. It’s like one of those urban legends.” . . .

It shows how far we’ve come that Titan quarterback Steve McNair’s color hasn’t been an issue this week. . . .

It showed we’ve still got much farther to go when Atlanta Brave executive Stan Kasten, visiting the Super Bowl media center Wednesday, said that several teams have inquired about trading for John Rocker. . . .

McNair’s brother, Freddie, plays wide receiver for the Florida Bobcats in the Arena Football League. . . .

His team was 1-1 in 1995 against the Iowa Barnstormers, whose quarterback was Kurt Warner. . . .

One key matchup Sunday is Titan defensive end Jevon Kearse versus Ram tackle Fred Miller. . . .

The Rams hope it goes better for Miller than the last time the teams met, in the Titans’ 24-21 victory at Nashville on Halloween, when Kearse had five tackles, a sack, two quarterback pressures and a forced fumble. Miller was called for six false starts and incurred a holding penalty. . . .

A St. Louis sports columnist wrote that the Rams had to reshoot their team photo because Miller moved. . . .

“You mean ‘the Curse?’ ” Ram Coach Dick Vermeil said when asked about Kearse. . . .

He’s better known as “the Freak.” It’s hard to believe 15 players were drafted last year before Kearse. . . .

“I pulled a back muscle doing a back flip when he fell to us,” Tennessee defensive coordinator Gregg Williams said. . . .

St. Louis wide receiver Az-Zahir Hakim guarantees a victory. Well, somebody had to do it. . . .

Faith Hill is coming from Nashville to sing the national anthem. . . .

Her husband is country and western singer Tim McGraw, whose father is former major league relief pitcher Tug McGraw. . . .

Other Music City stars expected to attend the game are Reba McEntire and Brooks & Dunn. . . .

Which one sang, “I’d rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy?”

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Winner: Bud Adams.

He donated two tickets to an auction to raise money for Kaia Jergenson, a freshman basketball player for David Lipscomb University in Nashville. She is on life support after contracting bacterial meningitis three weeks ago and having parts of both legs amputated.

Losers: Titan and Ram players who called Atlanta Falcon safety Eugene Robinson and asked him what to do in town on the night before the game.

Randy Harvey can be reached at his e-mail address: randy.harvey@latimes.com.