Titans Watch Painful Rerun

OAKLAND -- Talk about must-see TV.

After their final practice in Nashville, just before they headed to the airport to fly to Oakland, Tennessee players caught a glimpse of their run to the 2000 Super Bowl. It was being aired on TV sets scattered throughout the locker room.

A quick refresher: The Titans came within a yard of the end zone on the game’s final play but were stopped just short of scoring the touchdown that would have forced overtime in a 23-16 loss to the St. Louis Rams.

“Everyone immediately dropped what they were doing,” defensive tackle Kevin Carter said. “No one was going to shower. No one was going to get a haircut or talk on their cell phone. Everyone just stopped and watched the television. It was cool.”

If Carter sounds especially thrilled, it’s because he was on the other side in that epic battle. He won a Super Bowl ring with the Rams.

That said, he made sure not to rub it in by reminding his teammates of that. The Titans who played on that Super Bowl team know all too well the importance of getting that far.

“This game is bigger than everything else,” running back Eddie George said of today’s AFC title game. “It’s about us doing this together and getting that opportunity, understanding that this only comes around once in a lifetime. You may never have the opportunity again.”

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The Raiders put tight end Roland Williams on injured reserve Saturday, ending his hopes of playing in today’s game or possibly the Super Bowl. He has torn ligaments and some cartilage damage in his left knee.

The team activated running back Madre Hill from the practice squad to take Williams’ place on the 53-man roster.

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Raider defenders Rod Woodson and Bill Romanowski have the utmost respect for each other.

That wasn’t always the case.

Woodson played for the 49ers in 1997 when Romanowski, then a Denver linebacker, spit in the face of San Francisco receiver J.J. Stokes.

“My image of Romanowski was shot,” Woodson confessed. “But it’s different [now] because he’s a good guy. He’s intense on game day now, but you need to be intense. I was with Ray Lewis, who is a great guy, but on game day he’s a different guy. He’s a competitor.”

Asked to define the so-called Raider mystique, Woodson said: “The mystique of the Raiders is bad boys, taking the black sheep of the league and putting them in that silver and black and things like that. Back in the day -- and I’ve been a Raiders fan since I was a kid -- it was definitely that way. But I think the way the game has changed, because the game is starting to be played 365 days a year and you’re working out every day, so guys aren’t doing the same things.

“But that was kind of a mystique. Al Davis would take shots on guys, long shots, that might have a great year in the previous year and bring them in. That was the whisper around the NFL.”

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The wife of Raider receiver Tim Brown is due to deliver twins any day. And, yes, it could happen today, although Brown squirmed in his seat when asked about that possibility.

“I’ll tell you, that’s not cool right there,” he said with a laugh. “That is not cool. We’ve been going round and round about this whole deal, so she had an appointment [Thursday] and the doctor said she was doing fine, and he thought she was going to make it to February. And if we needed somebody to go down to San Diego, he would be more than happy to go down there with her.

“We’re taking it a day at a time, and, hopefully, this won’t be a situation that I have to deal with. But if it is, I think the Raiders and myself will deal with it the best way possible and try to make it happen.”

The Browns already have a daughter, and Tim has a son from a previous relationship.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.