Coach says rookie Cam Ward near unanimous pick for one of the Titans' captains

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Coach says rookie Cam Ward near unanimous pick for one of the Titans' captains

2025-08-29 06:34 Last Updated At：06:41

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The Tennessee Titans are banking their rebuild around quarterback Cam Ward, and the No. 1 overall draft pick is showing quick results at least inside the locker room.

Ward is one of seven Titans voted as team captains for this season, and coach Brian Callahan said the vote was pretty close to unanimous for Ward.

“Cam’s definitely earned it,” Callahan said Thursday. “The leadership he’s shown over the course of his time here from the offseason through training camp, those guys have a lot of respect for him. And traditionally, your quarterback tends to be a captain. That’s just sort of how it works.”

The Titans announced team captains Wednesday night. Wide receiver Calvin Ridley and running back Tony Pollard are captains for the first time in their careers. Three-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons, linebacker Cody Barton, safety Amani Hooker and long snapper Morgan Cox are the others.

Ridley called being voted a captain a great honor for someone in his seventh season. He also isn't surprised that Ward was picked as well. Ward is the Titans' first quarterback voted a team captain as a rookie since Marcus Mariota in 2015.

“He came in like it was his team, you know?” Ridley said of Ward. "It was a no-brainer that he was going to get picked because he breaks the huddle down, he talks to the whole team. He’s a leader on this team.”

The Titans drafted Ward in April after going 3-14 last season. That also put them atop the NFL waiver wire for the league's roster cutdown deadline Tuesday. Tennessee, which will hold that spot through the first three weeks of the regular season, used that to claim four defensive players.

They also set their first practice squad, adding three more players Thursday morning with offensive linemen Corey Levin and Clay Webb joining defensive back Sam Webb.

Mike Borgonzi, hired in January, said Ward has done an outstanding job preparing for the regular season and the season opener Sept. 7 at Denver.

“I’m very pleased with Cam,” Borgonzi said. “The whole staff is. The way he’s come in here and worked from day one, the time he’s put in, early mornings, and just like any other rookie quarterback, they have to work through some stuff.”

Tennessee has had three straight losing seasons and now has only six players drafted by this team between 2019 and 2023. The 53-man roster features 26 players, including nine draft picks, new to Tennessee this season.

“I think some of the things we did holding on to some of these younger guys, it depends on the roster, but we want to keep our best players,” Borgonzi said. “So that’s really why we kept some of those guys on.”

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Trump isn't waiting for future generations to name things after him. It's happening now

WASHINGTON (AP) — Most American presidents aspire to the kind of greatness that prompts future generations to name important things in their honor.

Donald Trump isn't leaving it to future generations.

As the first year of his second term wraps up, his administration and allies have put the president’s name on the U.S. Institute of Peace, the Kennedy Center performing arts venue and a new class of battleships.

That’s on top of the “Trump Accounts” for tax-deferred investments, the TrumpRx government website soon to offer direct sales of prescription drugs, the “Trump Gold Card” visa that costs at least $1 million and the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity, a transit corridor included in a deal his administration brokered between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

On Friday, he plans to attend a ceremony in Florida where local officials will dedicate a 4-mile (6-kilometer) stretch of road from the airport to his Mar-a-Lago estate as President Donald J. Trump Boulevard.

It’s unprecedented for a sitting president to embrace tributes of that number and scale, especially those proffered by members of his administration. And while past sitting presidents have typically been honored by local officials naming schools and roads after them, it's exceedingly rare for airports, federal buildings, warships or other government assets to be named for someone still in power.

“At no previous time in history have we consistently named things after a president who was still in office,” said Jeffrey Engel, the David Gergen Director of the Center for Presidential History at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. “One might even extend that to say a president who is still alive. Those kind of memorializations are supposed to be just that — memorials to the passing hero.”

White House spokeswoman Liz Huston said the TrumpRx website linked to the president's deals to lower the price of some prescription drugs, along with “overdue upgrades of national landmarks, lasting peace deals, and wealth-creation accounts for children are historic initiatives that would not have been possible without President Trump’s bold leadership.”

"The Administration’s focus isn’t on smart branding, but delivering on President Trump’s goal of Making America Great Again," Huston said.

The White House pointed out that the nation's capital was named after President George Washington and the Hoover Dam was named after President Herbert Hoover while each was serving as president.

For Trump, it’s a continuation of the way he first etched his place onto the American consciousness, becoming famous as a real estate developer who affixed his name in big gold letters on luxury buildings and hotels, a casino and assorted products like neckties, wine and steaks.

As he ran for president in 2024, the candidate rolled out Trump-branded business ventures for watches, fragrances, Bibles and sneakers — including golden high tops priced at $799. After taking office again last year, Trump's businesses launched a Trump Mobile phone company, with plans to unveil a gold-colored smartphone and a cryptocurrency memecoin named $TRUMP.

That’s not to be confused with plans for a physical, government-issued Trump coin that U.S. Treasurer Brandon Beach said the U.S. Mint is planning.

Trump has also reportedly told the owners of Washington’s NFL team that he would like his name on the Commanders’ new stadium. The team’s ownership group, which has the naming rights, has not commented on the idea. But a White House spokeswoman in November called the proposed name “beautiful” and said Trump made the rebuilding of the stadium possible.

The addition of Trump’s name to the Kennedy Center in December so outraged independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont that he introduced legislation this week to ban the naming or renaming of any federal building or land after a sitting president — a ban that would retroactively apply to the Kennedy Center and Institute of Peace.

“I think he is a narcissist who likes to see his name up there. If he owns a hotel, that’s his business,” Sanders said in an interview. “But he doesn’t own federal buildings.”

Sanders likened Trump's penchant for putting his name on government buildings and more to the actions of authoritarian leaders throughout history.

“If the American people want to name buildings after a president who is deceased, that’s fine. That’s what we do,” Sanders said. “But to use federal buildings to enhance your own position very much sounds like the ‘Great Leader’ mentality of North Korea, and that is not something that I think the American people want.”

Although some of the naming has been suggested by others, the president has made clear he’s pleased with the tributes.

Three months after the announcement of the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity, a name the White House says was proposed by Armenian officials, the president gushed about it at a White House dinner.

“It’s such a beautiful thing, they named it after me. I really appreciate it. It’s actually a big deal,” he told a group of Central Asian leaders.

Engel, the presidential historian, said the practice can send a signal to people "that the easiest way to get access and favor from the president is to play to his ego and give him something or name something after him.”

Some of the proposals for honoring Trump include legislation in Congress from New York Republican Rep. Claudia Tenney that would designate June 14 as “Trump’s Birthday and Flag Day," placing the president with the likes of Martin Luther King Jr., George Washington and Jesus Christ, whose birthdays are recognized as national holidays.

Florida Republican Rep. Greg Steube has introduced legislation that calls for the Washington-area rapid transit system, known as the Metro, to be renamed the “Trump Train.” North Carolina Republican Rep. Addison McDowell has introduced legislation to rename Washington Dulles International Airport as Donald J. Trump International Airport.

McDowell said it makes sense to give Dulles a new name since Trump has already announced plans to revamp the airport, which currently is a tribute to former Secretary of State John Foster Dulles.

The congressman said he wanted to honor Trump because he feels the president has been a champion for combating the scourge of fentanyl, a personal issue for McDowell after his brother’s overdose death. But he also cited Trump’s efforts to strike peace deals all over the world and called him “one of the most consequential presidents ever.”

“I think that’s somebody that deserves to be honored, whether they’re still the president or whether they’re not," he said.

More efforts are underway in Florida, Trump’s adopted home.

Republican state lawmaker Meg Weinberger said she is working on an effort to rename Palm Beach International Airport as Donald J. Trump International Airport, a potential point of confusion with the Dulles effort.

The road that the president will see christened Friday is not the first Florida asphalt to herald Trump upon his return to the White House.

In the south Florida city of Hialeah, officials in December 2024 renamed a street there as President Donald J. Trump Avenue.

Trump, speaking at a Miami business conference the next month, called it a “great honor” and said he loved the mayor for it.

“Anybody that names a boulevard after me, I like,” he said.

He added a few moments later: “A lot of people come back from Hialeah, they say, ‘They just named a road after you.' I say, ‘That’s OK.’ It’s a beginning, right? It’s a start.”