When the Titans came within one yard of sending last year's Super Bowl into overtime, Stanton was hard at work on the sidelines serving as an on-the-field contact for members of the media.

"Last year was definitely interesting," he says. "It was the team's first year as the Titans. They had been the Oilers for 38 years. Our team was not thought of that highly.

"We're now considered one of the top four or five teams in the NFL. All the attention that was focused on other teams last year has fallen on us, too. We're just trying to get one yard better and improve this year." The Titans went into this year's playoffs with the best record in the league.

Although he sports an AFC Championship ring these days, he says he holds more dear the 1996 Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Baseball Championship, which he helped earn as a designated hitter for the Southwestern Pirates.

"At Southwestern, I was involved in a lot of things. I was a Pike and really involved in my fraternity, not to mention baseball and academics. I learned about stress and how to manage time. I didn't have time to be inefficient because of all my activities," he explains.

"Playing baseball helped me develop healthy respect for competition. Academically, I learned to write well, and that has helped me tremendously. I can't even begin to describe how much my time at Southwestern helped me learn to balance all the activities in my life."

After graduating from Southwestern, Stanton, who worked three summers for his hometown's minor league baseball team, the Midland Angels, completed a master's degree in sports management at the Univ. of Tennessee.

He always thought that he would work in professional baseball. Instead, Stanton landed a job with the American Football Coaches Association, whose primary focus is college football.

"I went to an association convention in January 1999 at the Opryland Hotel in Tennessee, where I met the public relations staff for the Tennessee Titans. Apparently, I made a favorable impression because in May 1999 they hired me."

Stanton admits he thrives on the variety inherent in his job. "There's always something new every day and more to do than time to do it. I help set up interviews between media and players. I also help with press releases, player statistics and media guides. There's never a dull moment.

"We got a call from a fan the other day - a fan in Texas - who wanted to give us an offense he had designed. The thing about professional football fans is, anybody in the world who's a football fan always thinks they have advice we can use. Why they think someone in my position can influence that is beyond me. But when I get a call like that, it brightens my day to think how privileged I am and how many people in the world would love to be in my job."

-Carrie Johnson '93