Lewan's Offseason Included a Visit from Lord Stanley

The NFL veteran relished the opportunity to spend some time with the trophy that has been awarded to the NHL champion for more than a century.

NASHVILLE – When the NHL Stanley Cup calls looking for a play date, you don’t dare say no.

That’s the path Titans left tackle Taylor Lewan chose a few weeks ago, leading to the Cup paying a visit to his Nashville home.

Lewan’s support for the NHL’s Nashville Predators is well known, launched into viral fame back during the team’s playoff run of 2018. He chugged a beer off the body of a catfish during one postseason contest, and then thrilled frenetic Bridgestone Arena fans by hoisting the mighty beast over his head.

Some background: There are actually two versions of the Stanley Cup, one that spends all of its time in the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto and another Cup the players hoist after the Stanley Cup Final.

The latter version of the Cup is also known to make house calls to influential hockey fans during the playoffs, always attended by one of its two full-time caretakers.

That’s what happened last month – days after the Predators were eliminated from the playoffs – when Lewan’s phone rang. The NHL was reaching out to Lewan as a way of thanking him for his support in publicizing the Predators’ Stadium Series game, which was played outdoors at Nissan Stadium on Feb. 26.

“So one time I chugged a beer off a catfish, and for some reason, that’s stapled in (Nashville) now,” Lewan said Tuesday after a Titans OTA session. “It’s outstanding. So they call me -- the Stanley Cup himself, calls me -- and he’s like, `Hey, can I come to your house?’ I go, `Yeah, you can come to my house.’

“And low key, I’m like, `Why are these people going to come to my house? It’s unbelievable. I was so excited. I had this idea of like taking pictures with it, cuddling with it in bed type of thing, doing like a whole bunch of stupid things with it.”

The Cup may well have made at least one previous stop in Nashville, according to Lewan, who – as the Cup was on its way to his house – got a mysterious message, very possibly from a famous local singer.

“I get a text -- some random number – (and it was) like, `Hey, the Cup was just at my house,’” Lewan said. “I’m like, `Who is this?’ (One of the Cup caretakers) is like, `Hey, Dierks Bentley asked for your number. I hope that’s okay’ So I’m not saying it was Dierks, but it might have been Dierks, you know?”

Lewan was surprised to learn the Cup is always accompanied by one of its attendants. But that didn’t stop the 6-foot-7, 309-pound Lewan and his family – wife Taylin, along with very young daughters Wynne and Willow – from having some backyard fun with the trophy. The Cup weighs 34.5 pounds and stands three feet tall, the bowl on top all but serving as an invitation to fill it with something.

“Yeah, there was a puppy in it, there was a chicken in it, we put a bunny rabbit in it, my daughter was in it,” Lewan said. “So it was a bit of a deal.”

The NHL filmed the Cup’s visit to Lewan’s house, sending it out in a well-received video.

“It was just cool,” Lewan said. “It was cool to be with the Cup. It was cool to do all that. Like, it’s just awesome to be a part of this, and just kind of being with the Preds guys in (Nashville), it’s been cool. It’s a lucky thing I’ve been able to do being here for so long.”

A hockey player as a youngster and a longtime fan of the sport, Lewan believes – as do many – that the 130-year-old Stanley Cup is the most impressive trophy among all the major sports.

The fact that every single player of every Cup-winning team gets his name engraved in a band at the base of the trophy makes it unique.

It would be hard for even the NFL’s Vince Lombardi Trophy – given to the Super-Bowl winning team – to measure up to that kind of tradition.

“(The Stanley Cup) is the coolest trophy,” Lewan said. “Lombardi’s dope but it’s like, you know, (the Stanley Cup has) the names etched in. You start etching the names on the Lombardi and it’s going to look cooler.”