The Tennessee Titans are a professional American football team based in Nashville, Tennessee. They are members of the South Division of the American Football Conference in the NFL. Previously known as the Houston Oilers, the Housten, Texas, team began pay in 1960 as a charter member of the American Football league. The Oilers won two AFL championships before joining the NFL as part of the AFL-NFL Merger. The team relocated from Houston to the state of Tennessee in 1997, first playing in Memphis for one season before moving to Nashville. For two seasons, the team was known as the Tennessee Oilers before changing its name to Titans in 1999. The year began with the Titans selecting chris Johnson out of East Carolina in the first round of the NFL draft, and subsequently acquered former Titan DE Jevon Kearse and former Falcons TE Alge Crumpler.