Tom E. Curran • E-mail

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Jeff Fisher grabs the TV remote on the right side of his desk, aims it at the flat-screen hanging from the wall and mutes Jim Rome. Rome, eyes squinted, head cocked skeptically, keeps talking without sound.

Fisher tosses the remote to the desk and settles back in his chair, fingers locked behind his head.

“He’s a friend,” Fisher says, tilting his head at the TV. Rome’s eyebrows dance and waggle. They have homes near each other in Montana, Fisher explains. Been trying to get together on Rome’s ESPN show. Schedules hadn’t meshed.

This week it did. Which should be no surprise. With Fisher’s Tennessee Titans the NFL’s last remaining unbeaten team, it was a good time for Rome to ensure their schedules meshed.

People are making way for Tennessee. The Titans' perfect record — which stretched to 6-0 after beating Kansas City on Sunday — will surely cause interest to spike again.

That has Fisher thinking back. Not to the start of the century, when the Titans were one of the NFL’s elite. Rather, it's to 2006 when they began as bottom-feeders, but nearly made the playoffs.

“This team’s personality hasn’t changed since we started 0-5 that year,” Fisher says, leaning forward. "But even though that start wasn’t easy, that was one of my all-time favorite years in coaching. To watch them stay together and have a chance at the end to make the playoffs? We learned a lot through that experience. And now we’ve won eight straight regular-season games. But you take the same approach at 5-0 that you take at 0-5. Even keel.”

There’s a lack of self-importance among the Titans this season. Take linebacker Keith Bulluck.  When Tennessee improved to 5-0, rallying past the Ravens in Baltimore, Bulluck was asked what 5-0 “meant.”

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“It means we can still go 5-11,” he answered.

For some NFL franchises, having success materialize suddenly can mean a loss of focus and a swelling of heads. Bulluck’s seen teams break into their home run trots too soon.

“The Lions were 6-2 last year and that’s a perfect example,” he says. “Didn’t make the postseason. We need to keep everybody focused and everybody humble.”

Which, given the histories of so many of their best players, should not be a problem. There’s a well of humility-causing scenarios in the Titans' locker room.

Albert Haynesworth, Tennessee’s havoc-wreaking defensive tackle, may be the NFL’s MVP. Two years ago, he was regarded as a devil incarnate, having pried the helmet off Dallas Cowboys center Andre Gurode and then stomping Gurode’s head.

Kerry Collins, the veteran quarterback who’s taken over and played well in place of injured enigma Vince Young, battled alcoholism and the public embarrassments that came with it a decade ago.

Kyle Vanden Bosch, a second-round pick of the Arizona Cardinals in 2001, went from injury-riddled bust in the desert to Pro Bowler in Tennessee.

Bulluck enjoyed the salad days of the Titans as a rookie in 2000. When the Titans crashed Bullock “held his breath and bit his tongue until it got better again,” Fisher says.

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And the list goes on for a team that’s not just devoid of superstars, but stars.

“So many of these guys have experienced hard times in the NFL,” says Tennessee’s talented defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz. “They made it through those things. They made it through not having a job and having injuries and being not wanted and personal situations so they’re really hard working and they appreciate what they have. We have a lot of guys that are what’s right about the NFL.”

That anyone would be referring to Haynesworth as being an example of “what’s right about the NFL,” is — to put it mildly — a major upset. But while Haynesworth still plays with a fearsome level of aggression and fury, he did take responsibility for the blinding rage that overtook him two years ago. That rage that earned him a five-game suspension, the longest for an on-field incident in league history. The rage could have ended his career.

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“The thing I think was most interesting about [his response] — and obviously it was an embarrassing moment — was that he waited after the game and tried to visit their locker room to apologize," Schwartz says. "He also stood up to face the media after the game and said he was disgusted with himself. And later that week he held a press conference to say, ‘Anybody else want to talk about this, c’mon.’ That took a lot of courage. It would have been a lot easier to walk away from it.”

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