Titans Owner Shoots Double Birds at Bills

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- On Sunday the Tennessee Titans beat the Buffalo Bills 41-17. The win was the Titans' third in a row after beginning 0-6, and the teams' 86-year-old owner, Bud Adams, was watching from his owner's suite with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. Halfway through the game, Adams was recognized on the jumbotron. Fans cheered. Adams smiled and waved from his open-air suite. Then, as he celebrated victory, Adams decided to shoot the bird at the opposing sideline. First, Adams went with the right hand bird. Then he went left hand with the bird. Finally, he pulled out the rare, and underrated, double bird.

Presumably, shooting the bird at opposing teams violates one of Roger Goodell's NFL rules. And now Goodell finds himself in the unique position of actually witnessing behavior that he might be required to fine. In the meantime, fans are left to wonder, what longstanding beef does Bud Adams have with the 91-year-old owner of the Buffalo Bills, Ralph Wilson? Or is this simply an old man move, is the double bird an old AFL pat on the back? Video after the jump.



If it's a feud, it's a feud between the two oldest owners in the NFL. Maybe both teams playing in their AFL throwback uniforms brought out the youthful vigor in Adams. Maybe he forget that cell phones can now take video and assumed that he could get away with a profane gesture from the owner's suite. Or maybe when you're 86, a billionaire, and your team just won a game after an awful start to the season, you're just looking to blow off a little steam.

The middle finger salute, by the way, traces its origins as an insult all the way back to the Romans. Referred to back then as the digitus impudicus (impudent finger), nowadays it's a gesture popular in the oil fields of Texas. And everywhere else where insult needs to be expressed.

Given that Terrell Owens was playing on the field, what odds would you have given that Bud Adams would be the one facing a fine from the league for a crude gesture? Regardless, for 50 years Adams and Wilson have been competing against one another at the helm of rival football teams. On Sunday the country got a taste of how testy that relationship can sometimes be.

In 1999, these two teams brought America the Music City Miracle. Ten years later, meet the Music City Salute.