Mularkey: Titans right fit for 3rd time as NFL coach

NASHVILLE — Coach Mike Mularkey warned the Tennessee Titans’ 10 draft picks.

They better study hard because he planned to call on them during a team meeting the next day to test their knowledge of the playbook and didn’t want any rookie embarrassed.

Sure enough, Mularkey brought the rookies in front of their teammates where he pulled a surprise by asking them to spell instead of questions about pass protections and quarterback blitzes.

A spelling bee in an NFL team meeting?

Titans defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau had never heard of such a thing in his 57 years in the league, but Mularkey got what he wanted.

The spelling bee left the Titans laughing for days, especially the memory of one rookie misspelling “physical,” while also ensuring Tennessee’s newest players pored over their playbooks.

“I think outside the box all the time of what can I do differently that will keep them constantly on edge and keep thinking,” Mularkey said.

Being hired as an NFL head coach even once isn’t easy.

And third chances are pretty rare, and Mularkey and his career 18-39 record has gotten just that in Tennessee after two seasons with Buffalo and one in Jacksonville.

Titans controlling owner Amy Adams Strunk saw enough of Mularkey as he finished the final nine games last season as interim coach to give him the job after interviewing a handful of coaches in January.

Her decision made Mularkey the 16th man hired as a permanent coach of three or more NFL teams since the NFL-AFL merger in 1970. He joined Seattle’s Pete Carroll and John Fox of Chicago as the league’s current coaches with their third different team. And both Carroll and Fox have coached in multiple Super Bowls.