Burke Nihill did the thing almost no NFL executive bothers to do. The Titans CEO sat down with ESPN and told the fan base, without a single press-release hedge, that the organization is sorry.
“The first thing I would say back to the fans is just that we are sorry,” Nihill said, speaking on behalf of controlling owner Amy Adams Strunk. “We are 0-5, and that is not nearly good enough.” He added that the team has “let our fans down because football is supposed to be fun.”
He is not wrong about any of that, and it is more than most franchises in this position offer. The harder question is what an apology accomplishes when everybody responsible for the mess keeps their job.
Nihill Backed Saleh and Borgonzi in the Same Breath
In the same conversation, Nihill expressed confidence in head coach Robert Saleh and general manager Mike Borgonzi, saying he believes the two “are ultimately going to get this team out of the woods” and that there is “organizational belief” in both of them. He compared the franchise to a train that “has not picked up momentum, but it will.”
The patience with Saleh is reasonable on its face. He is in his first season running the Titans, five games is not a sample you fire a coach over, and nobody hands a first-year staff a roster this thin and expects a turnaround by mid-October.
Borgonzi is a much harder sell. Since he arrived ahead of the 2025 season, Tennessee has won three games. The roster he assembled is producing a league-worst offense averaging 246.4 yards and 11.6 points per game, and a defense that has forced two turnovers in five outings. A general manager in year two usually gets the benefit of the doubt. A general manager in year two with three total wins is asking for a lot of it.
The Numbers Behind the Apology Are Brutal
Tennessee has lost 33 of its last 39 games. The active losing streak is seven, dating back to Week 17 of last season. That is close to two full calendar years of non-competitive football spanning two head coaching staffs and one front office.
Which is exactly why the apology registers as something other than noise. Nihill could have said nothing and absorbed the hit in January. Instead he said the number out loud, took ownership on behalf of Strunk, and attached his own credibility to the two men he insists will fix it.
That is a public bet with a deadline. If the Titans scrape together four or five wins and field a functional offense by December, Nihill looks like the rare executive who was honest with his customers and right about his staff. If Tennessee finishes the way it started, this is the clip that runs on a loop the day somebody gets fired.
Nashville has earned the right to be unmoved by it. Saying sorry costs an executive nothing, and no apology has ever moved the ball between the 20s. The only statement that will actually land in Tennessee is a win, and five weeks of evidence says one is not arriving soon.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.