THOMPSON’S STATION, Tenn.
(AP) &151 leans forward and pops a compact disc into the player. Collins, a Tennessee Titans quarterback, listens intently to the country demo from someone who is hoping Collins will be a connection to music stardom.
With teams preparing for the coming season, keep up with all the off-season news on the Times’s pro football blog. The face of Nashville’s franchise, Collins is also becoming a player off the field in Music City &151 someone would-be singers and writers hope can help them break into the industry. The hopefuls all seem to have heard that Collins, a quarterback turned songwriter, is serious about music. “It’s something I didn’t foresee happening,” said Collins, who has found CDs stashed in his mailbox and has had people pass them to him after games. “I came to Nashville, I never even thought about writing songs and never even thought that that would be something I’d ever have the opportunity to do,” he said. “I started meeting people and had the opportunity to write with some great people, and it just kind of took off from there.” Collins, who majored in labor and industrial education at , has something crucial for any aspiring songwriter: life experience.
He has seen the highs and lows of football stardom. A top recruit out of high school, an all-American in college and a new N.F.L. franchise’s first draft pick, he has also been released by that team, struggled with alcoholism and gone from starter to backup and back again to a starting role.