Titans: Avoiding 'energy vampires' among top goals this season

The Titans want to avoid “energy vampires.”

The idea was introduced when players finished offseason workouts, began packing for a long summer break and each found a book stashed in their belongings at Saint Thomas Sports Park.

“It was kind of weird,” safety Da’Norris Searcy said. “I was like, ‘You put these books in our locker and we’ve got to read them before we come back?’ I mean, I never had to do that before. So it was different, a little curveball.”

Titans coach Mike Mularkey had given the players homework — in addition to studying the playbook — suggesting they read a motivational text titled “The Energy Bus: 10 Rules to Fuel Your Life, Work, and Team with Positive Energy.”

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Its author, Jon Gordon, first spoke to the Falcons in 2008, the team’s first season under coach Mike Smith. Mularkey was the offensive coordinator. Titans offensive coordinator Terry Robiskie was the wide receivers coach. Atlanta was coming off a 4-12 season and had a rookie quarterback in Matt Ryan.

“We weren’t supposed to win many games that year,” Mularkey said. “We won 11. (The book) just sends a really simple message. It’s really easy reading. I think it’s just a simple message about the real world. Not just for a football team, but a business. … It’s just about being on the same page with everybody. Being on the bus. The positive bus. We don’t want anything negative.”

Gordon, who spoke to the Titans during training camp, has written 17 books and worked with other professional teams, including the NBA’s Miami Heat and Los Angeles Clippers, and Major League Baseball’s L.A. Dodgers and Pittsburgh Pirates, according to his website, jongordon.com.

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Gordon also spoke to the Clemson football team as it built toward a national championship.

“What’s really weird is hearing the guys quote his quotes at practice,” said Titans linebacker Kevin Dodd, a second-round draft pick in 2016. “And I’m like – bang – it’s like I’m right back at home, because it’s exactly what we did at Clemson. Just quoting his quotes all throughout practice. People be like, ‘You’re being an energy vampire!’ Stuff like that.”

So the Titans aren’t concerned about losing the opener to the Raiders.

They’re moving on to Jacksonville.

And as for uncertainty earlier in the week about where the game might be played, given the impact from Hurricane Irma?

The location was never a distraction.

And what about quarterback Marcus Mariota, returning to the stadium where he was carted off the field with a broken leg on Christmas Eve?

That was last season.

“We focus on ourselves,” Mariota said. “How can we get better every day?”

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Mularkey, of course, quizzed his players when they returned from training camp to ensure they had read the book. Those who didn’t likely aren’t around.

“The guys not jumping aboard, we’re getting rid of them,” tight end Delanie Walker said. “Asking them right now, ‘Are you a part of this Energy Bus?’ And if they’re not, we’re going to get rid of them, because we’re all moving in the same direction this year.”

Every player surveyed was effusive in its praise.

“I loved the book. I encouraged my wife to read it,” cornerback Logan Ryan said. “I think it was great. I read every word of it. It inspired me to train hard. It inspired me to have the best offseason I’ve had in my career.”

“It’s a great story,” linebacker Brian Orakpo said. “And a lot of guys came back in here talking about it, so you can tell that they read it.”

Left tackle Taylor Lewan offered the sharpest criticism, citing its “cheesy title.”

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“But it’s a good book, man,” Lewan said. “I read books like that all the time. I actually do. I believe in the law of attraction. I believe that if you really believe something can happen, it’s going to happen. And once you believe those things, you kind of focus on what you think about all the time, because you can really manifest those things.

“You have to dictate your life and control the things you can control, and you can’t worry about the things you can’t control.

“Avoid those energy vampires, man. They’re (explicit) everywhere.”

Reach Jason Wolf at jwolf@tennessean.com and follow him on Twitter at @JasonWolf and on Instagram and Snapchat at TitansBeat.

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