Either way you look at it, don’t expect the rule to change, according to Titans kicker Rob Bironas – especially in light of The Chicago Tribune reporting this week that there were 50 percent fewer concussions on kickoffs last year than there were in 2010.

“The way the league brought up the safety issues and brought all the information forward about concussions and kickoff tackles … I think you can’t really backtrack there (on the rule),” Bironas said Thursday. “They don’t want to see the injuries. With the medical information we have now and the different stats they’ve put together over the years, I don’t think there’s any backtracking because the reasoning is to reduce those big hits and concussions. It’s not just about (players’) careers, but about life after it.”

The five-yard switch certainly made quite an impact:

In 2010, the last year prior to the new rule, only 17 percent of all NFL kickoffs were touchbacks. In 2011, with kickers blasting away from the 35, a whopping 45 percent of all kickoffs were touchbacks.
In 2010, there were 23 kickoffs returned for touchdowns. In 2011, that number fell to just nine.
In 2010, the Titans returned 64 kickoffs, an average of four per game. In 2011, the Titans returned only 32 kickoffs, an average of two per game.
It’s hard to blame Bironas for being in favor of the new rule, as – in addition to the health statistics – the switch certainly helped his kickoff numbers. In 2010, 23 percent of Bironas’ kickoffs went into the end zone. That figure jumped to 58 percent in 2011 when he kicked from the 35.

“I personally like the rule because it gives more touchbacks and that will hopefully increase the longevity of my kicking career for a few more years,” Bironas said. “Coaches don’t really care (what yardline) you’re kicking from. They just want you to put it out of the back of the end zone.

“Guys on the team that are running down the field and want to get tackles sometimes say, ‘Hey, kick it high and short,’ so that they can get some tackles. But coaches want you to put it out of the back of the end zone.”

See the complete story at The Tennessean’s Titans Insider.

Bironas will serve as co-chair of the Christmas4Kids Celebrity Golf Tournament, which will be held April 10 at Pine Creek Golf Course in Mt. Juliet.

Funds generated by the tournament are used to give Middle Tennessee children from 30 different schools, totaling more than 400 children, a December party with Santa and Mrs. Claus, a ride on a famous tour bus, and money to purchase gifts for family and friends at a local Wal-Mart.

“I think seeing the different guys on the Titans that have their organizations and that are always doing charity events and stuff, I learned a lot from them about being in a community and giving back,” Bironas said. “I enjoy giving back to Nashville and the community, giving back and helping children, so it kind of hit all the likes I have for doing charity work. What better time is there than putting smiles on the faces of kids and friends during Christmas? That’s what it’s about.”

Bironas has actually been involved with various Christmas4Kids charities for years, assisting in the annual Charlie Daniels Band concert and the Tour Bus show. But as co-chair of April’s golf tournament – along with the bluegrass group The Roys – Bironas will be taking his participation to a new level.

“I’ve done Christmas shopping with kids before through the Titans organization and it’s just great to see the smile on these kids’ faces when you take them to the story, to know that they’re going to have Christmas and that they’re going to have a party with Santa Claus,” Bironas said. “A lot of times their first question is, `What am I going to buy my brother and my sister? What am I going to buy my Mom and Dad? They want to share. They want to give to their family and friends.”

In addition to Bironas and The Roys, some celebrities who are participating in this year’s Christmas4Kids tournament include: Kelly Sutton, Buddy Jewell, Shane Tallant, Doyle Lawson, Hollywood Yates and Jeff Bates.

Anyone interested in registering a team to participate in the golf tournament or signing up for a sponsorship should visit http://christmas4kids.org for more information.

See the complete story at The Tennessean’s Titans Insider.

The induction ceremony will be open to the public and will be start at 6:30 p.m. June 15 at the Palace Theater during the Kentucky Pro Football Hall of Fame’s 10th Anniversary Celebration. Tickets go on sale March 1.

The 2011 All Commonwealth Collegiate Team was also announced, and it included Defensive Player of the Year Danny Trevathan of the University of Kentucky and Offensive Player of the Year Bobby Rainey of Western Kentucky University.

The Blanton Collier Award for Integrity will be presented at the celebration in June. It will go to the Manning family, including Peyton and Eli, who will be attending with their parents, Archie and Olivia, and their older brother, Cooper.

The inductees:

Rob Bironas: The former Trinity High School player has kicked for the Tennessee Titans since 2005 and has made 189 of 219 field-goal attempts (86.3 percent) and has connected on 99.2 percent of his extra-point tries.

To read the whole article – please head to the full article at The Courier Journal.

He’s converted 26 of his 29 field goal attempts this season — including a pair of 51-yarders last Saturday against the Jaguars — but he still kicks himself for the three he missed, and one of those was a 66-yard attempt.

Last season Bironas missed two of his 26 kicks. He hasn’t missed an extra point since 2005.

“I’ll try and put them all in next year,” he said. “My goal is to make them all.”

The seventh-year pro was not voted to the Pro Bowl, but he said it didn’t bother him. That honor went to Oakland’s Sebastian Janikowski, who’s 27-of-31.

“I am not playing to have a Pro Bowl accolade put next to my name,” said Bironas, who was the AFC’s Pro Bowl kicker in 2007. “If that’s the case I would have been disappointed years ago.”

His motivation, he said, is simple. He feels like he’s kicking for his job every week.

“Because if I’m not going to do it, somebody else is going to,” he said. “I know there’s always somebody out there trying to get it. There’s only 32 (NFL kickers) in the world, so there’s probably hundreds if not thousands trying to get in the league. So I’m trying to keep my job.”
To read the full article, visit TheTennessean.com.

Well I think they both have done very well. Directional kicking, kicking through the end zone, Rob (Bironas) has done a good job with the kickoffs and obviously with the field goals and the length of the field goals. It gives us a lot of confidence to kick the ball aand to kick 50 yarders. A lot of times the concern is where we would give the other team the ball if he misses it, so I think he has had a really, really good year. Brett (Kern) is the same way with the punting. He has had some great punts, some great directional punts, and the coverage has been good. I think special teams overall has had a really good year.

(on Rob Bironas’s accuracy and his only long-range miss being from 66 yards)

That’s his fault too because he told me that day that he could make that one so I gave him a shot at it before halftime. He is huge weapon. Every game I am always talking to him and he is always honest other than that one game when he told me he could hit from 65. He is very honest with what he can make, during the game I am talking to him quite a bit and Alan (Lowry) is talking to him. He is very helpful even on kickoffs with which way he likes to kick with the wind and then with me where to go for it and to not go for it. Where he can hit it from is very helpful. I think his honesty is more than anything that if he does think he can kick it from certain spots. There have been games where you will be in a spot and he will say no and you do something different. It’s a great weapon to have, you hope you don’t have to kick too many field goals but obviously it’s great to have one that you can count on.

Read the whole story at TitansOnline.com.

Bironas had been tied with Morten Andersen (1990-91) and Jeff Wilkins (2005-06) with a field goal of 40 yards or longer in eight straight games, the longest mark since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger.

The Titans kicker hit a 51-yarder at 7:05 of the first quarter Saturday against Jacksonville. He is the first kicker whose streak is in a single season.

Bironas is the NFL’s all-time leader in field goal accuracy 40 yards or longer with a minimum of 100 attempts at 78 per cent.

Read the whole story at TSN.com.

Rob Bironas is astonished by the amount of support generated by his friends during the final hours of his NFL 2012 Pro-Bowl campaign. Thousands have already cast their vote to secure the Tennessee Titans placekicker a coveted spot on the starting lineup of the AFC’s special teams for the January 29th battle in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Less than 48 hours remain for the official NFL Pro-Bowl balloting, which will conclude midnight Sunday. Vote NOW!

Rob’s friends and fans are passionate about sending him off to Honolulu next month. So many have sent in viral video support that he has created two separate video vignettes for his official website.

“I am overwhelmed by the support of so many good friends I’ve met while playing for the Tennessee Titans,” said Bironas. “Who would have thought something as simple as a video would create such a buzz?! Thanks for your support.”

In the first episode, Joe Don Rooney (of Rascal Flatts), Dierks Bentley, Chad Warrix, Storme Warren (SiriusXM’s ‘The Highway’ / GAC’s ‘Headline Country’), Troy Gentry (of Montgomery Gentry), Craig Morgan, Phil Vassar, Lee Roy (of The Roys), Charlie Daniels and Kid Rock pay tribute.

Round two, scheduled to premiere today, features fun bits from Carrie Underwood, ALL the Flatts gang, including Jay DeMarcus and Gary LeVox (and Joe Don Rooney), Chad Warrix (an encore performance), Tracy Lawrence, Nashville Predators’ right wing dangler Jordin Tootoo, TN Titan quarterback Matt Hasselbeck, Eric Church, Keith Anderson and Colt Ford.

To cast YOUR vote for Rob and other favorite Pro-Bowl nominees, visit the Official 2012 NFL Pro Bowl ballot page at www.nfl.com/probowl iPhone and Android users can visit the MOBILE ballot at www.nfl.com/m/probowl/ballot.

Ken Amato snaps to Brett Kern who readies the ball for Rob Bironas. Amato joined Tennessee in 2003, Kern in 2009, and Bironas has called Nash­ville home since 2005. They’ve made “good” field goal music much more often than not.

“We have a rhythm. I know when that ball’s coming and when to start. There’s basically no room for error. We have a great operation,” Bi­ronas said. “It’s 1.3 seconds from snap to kick at the most. We get a lot of them down in 1.26, 1.25. It’s five-hundredths of a second, but that difference is being blocked or not being blocked. I’ve got faith in them; they’ve got faith in me.”

Bironas began the season as the fourth-most accurate kicker in NFL history, having made 85.6 of his field goal attempts. He’s continued that marksmanship this season, making 20 of 23 (87 percent) attempts and is 27-for-27 on points after touchdowns. That accuracy stems from quick execution, trust and practice.

The path that Bironas took to the NFL was much less smooth. The Louisville, Ky., native played two years of football and four years of soccer in high school. He walked on at Auburn and earned a football scholarship. A coaching change his senior year left him without a schol­arship, so he transferred to Georgia Southern to finish his college career, then transferred back to Auburn to finish his degree in spring 2001.

Green Bay signed him in April 2002 and cut him that August. Tampa Bay gave him a brief look in August 2003, and he spent the 2004 training camp in Pittsburgh but didn’t make the roster. He kept kicking, however, by playing arena foot­ball for three different teams in those three years before signing with the Titans in June 2005.

“Between college and getting here in Tennes­see I think I lived in 11 different cities in four-and-a-half years,” Bironas recalled. “The shortest was Tampa for three weeks.”

Bironas persevered through that stretch un­til he won the kicking spot during 2005 training camp. Even then, he didn’t have job security.

“It was good to finally get the job here but my first three years I was a week-to-week contract, so it wasn’t that secure at all,” Bironas said. “My first year I actually lived in a hotel because I’ve seen too many guys play one game, two games, five games and get cut after one bad kick. In our position, the first contract is all week-to-week. Nothing’s guaranteed.”

Bironas made a franchise-record four game-winning kicks in the 2006 season, including his career-long 60-yarder to help the Titans beat Indianapolis 20-17 and a 49-yarder the week before in a 24-21 win against the New YorkGiants. Bironas is the only kicker to make game winners against Eli Manning and Peyton Manning in consecutive weeks.

Bironas also set an NFL record by making eight field goals in a game against Houston in 2007. He donated the cleats and football from that game to the Pro Football Hall of Fame and played in the Pro Bowl that season, but an­other kick came to mind when asked about the biggest ones of his career.

“One that really sticks out is preseason ’05 — my rookie year. I had a 53-yarder with 12 seconds in the game to send us into overtime,” Bironas recalled. “To me, that was the first clutch kick I made at this level with the Titans. Most people think, ‘Preseason?’ but that one was big to me because it kind of put my name on the leaderboard for the job that I have now.”

Bironas connected on three field goals (48, 27 and 44 yards) Sunday in a win at windy Buffalo. It was the sixth consecutive week in which Bironas has made at least one field goal from more than 40 yards. He is the most accurate kicker from that distance and beyond in the NFL since 1970.

Kern takes the snaps and sometimes spins the ball and tilts it before Bironas sends it through the air and through the uprights. Kern also serves as the football equivalent of a golf caddy for Bironas before each attempt. They have grown close over the past couple of sea­sons by rooming together on road trips.

“The relationship we have on and off the field is really good,” Kern said. “With him kicking field goals, I’ve kind of figured out when he’s off or re­ally on and how he wants the ball held. I kind of help him out with wind and certain situations to do the best he can. It’s a good operation.”

Once his job status as Tennessee’s kicker be­came more established and he was able to plant roots in Nashville, Bironas began working with charities. He founded The Rob Bironas Fund, which raises money for music education pro­grams in Middle Tennessee. He blogs and sells items like autographed mini footballs, T-shirts, hats and wristbands to raise money for the fund at www.robbironas.com.

“Here in Music City, I thought what better way to try to give back to the kids with music edu­cation and help promoting it and helping push it where it’s cut from school budgets,” Bironas said. “We know what it does scholastically for kids. It creates a lot of the same drives I had in the sports world. Not everybody is athletically inclined, but you can sit down and learn music. You might not be the best in the world at it, but everybody can sit down and learn it.”

Bironas said he enjoys all types of music, from country to rock to rap, hip-hop, rhythm and blues and the orchestra at the Nashville Symphony. He said he believes music teaches children values such as discipline, responsibility, determination and hard work.

“I think everybody enjoys music, from waking up in the morning with your alarm clock, to lis­tening to the radio, to putting on a headset when you’re working out,” Bironas said.

He also enjoys helping with teammates’ non-profit organizations, and served as voluntary chair of the Make-A-Wish Foundation, helping give out the organization’s 1,000th wish last year. He said volunteerism is the “easy part” of being a professional athlete and the most rewarding.

“When you meet these kids, you know they’re making a difference,” Bironas said.

From TitansOnline.com.

The “Music City Miracle” determined the most recent playoff game between two of the eight original American Football League franchises with just 16 seconds remaining in the Wild Card round of the 1999 playoffs. The Titans (6-5) and Bills (5-6) have playoff aspirations again this season, but both teams need to win Sunday.

Kick returns can be game winners, momentum shifters, tone setters or changers of field position. They can provide points or yards, which tend to be tougher for offenses to gain as the season progresses and the weather gets colder.

The Titans have returned two kicks for touchdowns in three weeks and won both games in which they sprung free. Marc Mariani streaked 79 yards to the end zone after fielding an early punt at Carolina, and made a clean handoff on a reverse to Tommie Campbell, who sped the remaining 84 yards of a kickoff return against Tampa Bay.

Titans coach Mike Munchak said those plays have provided lifts, but it’s also been helpful that Tennessee has prevented teams from returning a kick for a touchdown this season. The Titans have allowed 163 yards on punt returns, sixth least in the NFL, and allow 23.7 yards per kickoff return, which is tied for 15th.

“The whole package has been good,” Munchak said. “The coverage unit; now, we’ve had a couple of points scored. (We have) a lot of things going in the right direction there, and that’s a huge plus to have going into this part of the season.”

Munchak said Titans special teams coach Alan Lowry, who was with Tennessee for the “Music City Miracle” and special teams assistant Chet Parlavecchio have been a good combination.

“He gets a lot of these guys on the sideline and does a lot of technique work with them where Alan hasn’t had as much time in the past,” Munchak said. “I think they work well together on game day with what they’re seeing. These guys are responding well to them, especially in this last half of the season when you need to be solid on special teams.”

Titans punter Brett Kern has punted 59 times. He’s pinned opponents inside the 20-yard-line 16 times and forced them to fair catch the ball 16 times.

“They do a great job with the directional punting,” Munchak said. “He’s done a nice job with that—limiting returns and the coverage has really helped all that, too.”

Kern, a native of Grand Island, N.Y., grew up a Bills fan and played high school football playoffs at Ralph Wilson Stadium. Sunday will be his first appearance at the stadium in a pro uniform.

“It’s always good to go home,” Kern said. “I’ve got some family coming, but obviously, it’s a business trip, first and foremost, but it’s also a plus when you can see some family as well.”

Kern said the ball doesn’t travel as far or as high when the weather gets colder, so technique, focus and punting where your coverage team expects the ball to go become even more important.

“If there’s a little bit of wind, it kind of magnifies the situation,” Kern said. “When it gets colder out, you’re just trying to hit a great punt, (have good) placement, and minimize the return. It’s definitely more important as the season goes on.”

Kern has also continued to work with former Titans punter Craig Hentrich on a special technique that causes the ball to behave similar to a knuckleball in baseball and perplex punt returners.

“I’ve been close to getting my first guy to fumble it,” Kern said. “I’ve had some good bounces and some bad bounces. Most importantly, I’m trying to set up field position to pin them deep, and the defense forces three-and-out.”

Munchak said kicker Rob Bironas has done well on kickoffs and field goals this season, too. Bironas has recorded 28 touchbacks on 53 kickoffs and has fired accurately on 17 of 20 field goals, including a 52-yarder against Tampa Bay on a cold and rainy day at LP Field.

“He’s been very honest with me as far as what distances he thought he could hit it with,” Munchak said. “For me, that’s huge because I really get a good feel.”

STEWART IMPROVING: Munchak said tackle David Stewart (calf) is showing progress and will be listed as questionable for Sunday.

“We split his reps,” Munchak said of Friday’s practice. “He’s a lot better than he was last week, so we’re assuming he’s going to be, unless he has some reaction from (Friday), we’re feeling he’s over the hump.”

Mike Otto started in place of Stewart against the Buccaneers and will get the call again if Stewart can’t return against the Bills.

RUUD OUT: Middle linebacker Barrett Ruud (groin) will miss his second straight game, with rookie Colin McCarthy expected to make his third career start.

From TitansOnline.com.

Titans players Jordan Babineaux, Rob Bironas, and Daniel Graham combined their financial contributions to make a difference in the lives of Nashville’s homeless, delivering turkeys to Country Music Artist Tracy Lawrence for use at his annual turkey fry.