The Tennessee Titans announced the hiring of new general manager Ran Carthon last Wednesday, but the 41-year-old executive didn’t make his first appearance in the building as GM until the next day.
Upon his arrival, which preceded his introductory press conference on Friday, Carthon was met with an incredible welcoming party that appeared to include every single member of the Titans’ organization.
Carthon was clearly blown away by the enormous group, which gave him a standing ovation once he stepped foot in the building. And, quite frankly, it gave me goosebumps just watching it.
At the time, I wondered if something like that was normal, but as Carthon told ESPN’s Adam Schefter, it certainly is not.
Quite a first day welcome for new #Titans GM Ran Carthon.
— Jim Wyatt (@jwyattsports) January 19, 2023
“First of all, can you believe that?” Carthon asked. “It’s unreal. My wife looked over at my agent and was like, ‘is this normal?’ And he’s like, ‘yeah, yeah, yeah.’ And I’m like, ‘no, it’s not normal.'”
Carthon called the welcome “unbelievable,” and said that alone added to his motivation to do the best job possible.
“It was just an unbelievable welcome, one that I’ll never forget. Maybe that’s my big draft moment, right? Maybe it wasn’t as a part of me doing it, but just being amongst the organization,” Carthon said.
“And more than anything, what I took from that is, how great the people are here, the organization as a whole,” he added. “And I’ve been telling people, more than anything of that welcome, it made me feel welcome, but more than anything, it added to my motivation of wanting to work my behind off for these people here. They deserve a winner, they deserve all good things, and I’m going to work as hard as I possibly can to do my part in making that come true.”
New Tennessee GM @RanCarthon recalls the moment last week when he walked into the Titans’ training facility:
🎧 https://t.co/MRCR7FQMGI pic.twitter.com/yF6I7KtsOo
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) January 25, 2023
With the introduction now behind him, Carthon is diving head-first into his new team’s offseason — and so much so that he won’t be attending the NFC Championship Game that features his former team, the San Francisco 49ers.
