NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Just 16 seconds earlier all had been lost. 

Steve Christie’s 41-yard field goal put the Bills ahead at Adelphia Coliseum, and the first-year Tennessee Titans dream season looked dead.

They were down 16-15 and fans were leaving.

Then… it happened. A last-ditch in-case-of-emergency kickoff return called Home Run Throwback. Lorenzo Neal., Frank Wycheck. Kevin Dyson. A 22-16 win.

In this Jan. 8, 2000, file photo, Tennessee Titans wide receiver Kevin Dyson (87) looks back as he returns a kickoff in the fourth quarter during an AFC wild card football game in Nashville, Tenn. Blocking for Dyson are Perry Phenix (35) and Greg Favors (51). Dyson sped 75 yards down the left sideline with a lateral from Frank Wycheck on a kickoff for the winning touchdown with 3 seconds remaining, lifting the Tennessee Titans to a 22-16 playoff victory over the stunned Buffalo Bills. (AP Photo/Wade Payne, File)
Kevin Dyson carries the Music City Miracle home on Jan. 8, 2000/ ASSOCIATED PRESS

Twenty-five years ago today the Music City Miracle unfolded, changed the upstart team’s fortunes and united Nashville like no sports moment – maybe no moment period – before or since.

Music City had never been so united.

I recently spoke with Neal, who fielded the squib kickoff and gave it to Wycheck, and Dyson, who ran 75 yards with Wycheck’s lateral, about how the play changed their lives. Wycheck passed away Dec. 9, 2023.

LORENZO NEAL

“We live in a world that’s constantly changing. If you can’t trust anyone, than what is life really about? You have to understand whether it’s family, whether it’s believing in a higher power, you have to have trust in someone or something. Because the world is a lonely and empty place if you don’t. If you don’t, what do you have? That’s one thing we had, coach (Jeff) Fisher and the coaching staff stressed, let’s trust this process, and even if it didn’t happen, we had trust in one another. 

“Me and Frank we talked about that on camera, off camera. We ended up talking about it after the game. That play was just so amazing, it was such a bonding moment for the team, the city. That was the first year of the stadium. I know they are building a new stadium. I went to the stadium this year, I was there for the 49ers game in the preseason and just walking around and seeing 25 years, how something that was like one of the best stadiums ever built and now it’s like, ‘Oh my God, like wow.’ Over time things break down. Just like our bodies break down and in life you go through a transition, you’re like, ‘Man, it doesn’t look the same.’ Twenty-five years later it’s lost its luster, it’s lost its swole. That’s a part of life.

Music City Miracle Reunion
Frank Wycheck, Kevin Dyson and Lorenzo Neal at a reunion appearance

“Life’s not about you, it’s about serving and other people. You think about those moments that we’re having now, it’s serving people. It’s letting people relive a moment. It wasn’t about me, about Wycheck, about Dyson. It was about a team, it was about a concept, it was about a belief. It was about a community that believed in us, that got to experience one of the legendary plays ever, in the history of the National Football League. People can’t say that. Every organization doesn’t have a play that goes down in history as top five, probably be top five now to infinity. 

“Just watching the crowd and hearing the noise and everything around. Sometimes something seems so final. Since then I’ve lost my father and the world seems a little bit smaller, it’s just different. It just makes you appreciate life, appreciate moments. Because prior to that moment, (special teams) coach (Alan) Lowry told a story, he said he heard a noise it was so quiet in the stadium he looked over and it was a mouse pissing on a sponge. 

“I started laughing when he told that story because of how quiet it was. People were leaving the stadium, it was over. Think about life. Sometimes we feel that it’s over, and we feel tapped out and we’re like, ‘Man, if something happens that gives you something to hold on to – but so many people are willing to close the door on life, close the door on relationships and just say it’s over, there is nothing else for me. But man, if you can just wait. Let the game happen and trust the process, it can get better. 

“That’s what the life lesson was on that play. I mean, shoot, it seemed grim. Seventy thousand people and all the people watching on TV and it was over, it was grim, there was nothing and they’re done, Buffalo is moving on in the playoffs and people walked away had to say, ‘What happened, what did I miss?’

“We’re so quick to close the door when the best is yet to come.”

KEVIN DYSON

“I’ve made some mistakes along the way, I’ve had some adversity. I’ve had to reshape and re-evaluate myself and grow. Even coming up a yard short (on the last play of Super Bowl XXXIV) I learned as much or more from that as the Music City Miracle, because that was something where I was in the progression, ball in my hands, biggest moment in your life, biggest stage of your life, and I came up short. 

Kevin Dyson Music City Miracle
Kevin Dyson's Music City Miracle game ball and gloves/ Courtesy Kevin Dyson

“In retrospect, on The Music City Miracle, I wasn’t supposed to be in the game, the play didn’t go as designed, and I ended up scoring and helping us move on to the next round. Those are the parallels to life, you know? Something happens unexpectedly, how do you navigate those? Even more so, how do you navigate the unexpected of the adverse times? And over 25 years, I have come to grips with my shortcomings of my football career and I think most people would say I shouldn’t have played in the NFL for six years.

“But I think most athletes when we get drafted we all have aspirations to be perennial Pro Bowlers, Hall of Famers and Super Bowl champions. Not the expectation that you’ll have to deal with injuries three years out Kevin Dyson Bookof your six years, fear career-threatening injuries half your time in the NFL. That wasn’t something I saw. But I dealt with it, I had a hard time with it for a time. Now I realize I put a lot of emphasis on the wrong things and here I am.”

“Over the years what I’ve recognized is. I didn’t have the ideal career of the career that I wanted, it didn’t pan out how I anticipated. I had a lot of injuries and a lot of setbacks. And throughout that I recognized that not all players are meant to be Hall of Famers, there are only (378) of those for a reason through 100-something years of football. Most guys who come through that league are role players, they helped the Hall of Famers be elite.

“But, at the same time, a lot of those role players like myself, they go unmentioned after their time is done. Or they are soon forgotten in a lot of respects, maybe not by their teammates, but by the casual fan. And to have something, or two things, that still keep me relevant 25 years later, still talked about, people still share their stories with me, people still want to hear about it, want to share their stories about where they were, to be able to have that considering how everything panned out for me from a football standpoint is special.

"And it’s something I don’t take for granted because there are a lot of people that have come and gone in the National Football League that people don’t remember and still 25 years later people talk about something I was part of.”

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