As we've nearly reached Super Bowl Sunday, 30 other teams and their fan bases can only wish and hope to be on this stage a year from now. For the Tennessee Titans, it's going to take a whole lot of improvement in a short amount of time.
No one knows that better than former Titans wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins, who is now one game away from being a world champion with the Kansas City Chiefs.
Hopkins was ultimately traded from the worst team in football, record-wise, to a team that may end up winning their third-straight Super Bowl. And, of course, on opening night at Super Bowl 59, he was asked about his time with the Titans.
"I got to thank Ms. Amy and Ran for allowing this to happen," he started out.
Hopkins went on to talk of his appreciation for both Amy Adams Strunk and Ran Carthon and reiterated that he wouldn't be in this position had it not been for them.
Then, he went into the game where everything changed. In the blowout loss to the Buffalo Bills last season, Hopkins was rumored to have been benched. However, he took the high road and let people say what they wanted to say.
The Bills game is where everything took a turn for DeAndre Hopkins' future
"I'm not the type to go on social media and speak my truth ... I didn't get benched," Hopkins said.
"That was the first time in my career where I was like, 'man, I don't belong on this field right now.' We weren't winning. No plays were being called for me. Not that I'm a player that ever needs the ball, but if I'm on the field I want to be included in something.
"The next day, I went into Ran's office and was like, 'man, I'm almost losing love for this game being in this situation,'" he admitted.
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Hopkins said Carthon's response was understanding and he knew it was time:
"I see it in your eyes. This isn't a place where you want to be," Carthon told Hopkins.
"We had a tough conversation and the next day I got traded to the Chiefs," he finished.
Of all the difficult conversations that have happened such as this one, Hopkins and Carthon couldn't have handled it any better or more professionally. Titans fans knew Hopkins wasn't goiing to be sticking around for much longer, but it still hurt to see him go.
If he was going to be on his way out no matter what, fans can at least rest in the fact that the matter was handled with class. There was no media blowout. There were no back-and-forth arguments between the two sides.
Most of all, there is no bad blood between Hopkins and the Titans. Over any other narrative that's been written, this is the most important of them all.