Titans love their hands-free scooters

Michael Griffin speeds through the Titans locker room without lifting a leg.

The veteran safety smiles, spins, turns a corner, and he's gone.

Down the hall at Saint Thomas Sports Park, outside the room where the defensive backs study film, team employees snicker about the half dozen hands-free, Segway-like scooters lined up in a row, perhaps revealing the presence of a nerdy biker gang.

"We've got our own little valet right outside the meeting room," cornerback Perrish Cox said. "You'll find about seven of them parked right around the corner. We just pull up."

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About 25 percent of the players on the Titans roster, most of them on defense and nearly all in the secondary, have purchased one of these two-wheeled electric scooters, which are ridden like a skateboard, but front-to-back rather than side-to-side. They're marketed online as the PhunkeeDuck and IO Hawk and under perhaps a hundred different names, billed as the "next step in the evolution of transportation," reach speeds up to 12 mph and can allegedly carry a 300-pound man 10 miles on a single charge.

"With our profession, it's great," said linebacker Brian Orakpo, who unabashedly rides his in public. "It gets us off our feet. We're on the practice field a lot of hours throughout the day, and it gives us an opportunity to just kind of relax and just cruise to your meetings and your lunch. … This is the best invention for me. I'm not going to lie to you. It's almost like my personal golf cart, in a way."

The scooters come in numerous colors and design schemes, with rubber tires, and rely on gyroscopic sensors to remain upright.

Leaning forward moves it forward. Backward moves it backward. Motioning with the left foot makes it turn right and vice versa.

It takes some practice.

"The first time I almost killed myself," Griffin said. "It was during the offseason in Austin, in the club. Some girl had one and I tried to get on it and almost killed myself. But then once I got one here, it became a lot easier. But I almost killed myself in the club. That was probably the non-smartest thing I ever did."

"I think I fell on it about three days straight," Cox said, "so I just kept it at home until I could ride it around the house. It's a great help to me, though."

"I never fall, knock on wood," safety Daimion Stafford said. "You've just got to learn to balance it, pretty much. Once you get a hang of it, it's easy."

Did the players have to clear this with anyone on the Titans staff?

Nope.

"Right now everything is OK," coach Ken Whisenhunt said. "But things can change."

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Most of the Titans agree that linebacker Wesley Woodyard was the first to have one, having turned heads while riding his newfangled chariot into training camp.

"Like the first day he had his," Griffin said. "And after that, it just kind of blew up in here. Everybody started grabbing."

But Woodyard wasn't the first — that's either a misconception or a dirty lie — B.W. Webb protests.

"Not at all. I was," the cornerback said. "I just didn't bring it."

Webb points to his black "iWalk," heavily scuffed from falling off it during his initial attempts to ride it in the street, a well-worn outcast in a room full of shiny "PhunkeeDucks."

How long has he had it?

"Since before training camp started," Webb said. "I'm the 'OG' of it."

Cox shows off his cherry red model with flashing lights.

"That's my baby. That's one of the most expensive ones. I've got Bluetooth on that, so while you're riding you can jam, get your little stroll on," he boasts, then dances. "It's very handy. It takes a lot of pressure off your legs. … It's like going to Walmart and jumping in one of the little handicapped carts. I ain't never done it, but it's kind of like that, though."

Online, they range from about $600 to $1,800.

But Cox has the hook-up. His agent gets a deal by buying several at a time, straight from China.

Cox jokes he can't read a single word on the box.

Several of the Titans have used his connection, including rookie receiver Dorial Green-Beckham and practice squad safety Josh Aubrey.

"I would actually suggest all my teammates get one," Cox said. "It's just going to keep expanding, because I've got to order two or three more. A couple more receivers, they want one now, so I'm going to take care of the whole team if I can. They're about $800. I know that everybody has the money, so I'm not worried about that part.

"Around the league, you'll probably find about 10 to 12 people on every team that got one now."

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At least one player in the secondary isn't buying the hype.

"I guess I'm going to be late to that fad," said cornerback Blidi Wreh-Wilson, who missed most of training camp and the preseason with a high ankle sprain. "I had a cast on, so I didn't think it was the smartest thing for me to be on. Since then, I thought about getting my sister one. But I like my feet. I like being able to walk."

Walking is underrated.

"People forget about that sometimes," he said. "When you've been off of both feet, and you get back on both feet, you want to stay on them."

Reach Jason Wolf at 615-259-8220 and follow him on Twitter at @JasonWolf and on Instagram at TitansBeat.