Monday night, the Kansas City Chiefs improved to 8-0 in a tightly contested 30–24 overtime win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. DeAndre Hopkins had his coming out game, scoring his first and second touchdowns as a member of the Chiefs in his second contest with the team after being acquired in a trade with the Tennessee Titans.

Following his first score, Hopkins led an ensemble of his teammates emulating a dance from Remember the Titans, the 2000 film starring Denzel Washington.

Hopkins explained the reasoning for pulling out the dance on X (formerly Twitter) the morning after the win, making sure there was no room to interpret the dance as a dig at his time with the Titans.

"It was a shout to Tennessee, if u know me u know it’s nothing but love for Nashville. Ran and his crew are like family. Without them, I wouldn’t be here."

Hopkins spent all of last season with the Titans and the first six games this year. He racked up 1,230 receiving yards and eight touchdowns in 25 games. Hopkins is already looking more like his former All-Pro self catching passes from Patrick Mahomes, but clearly he has nothing but appreciation for Tennessee's part of his career arc.

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This article was originally published on www.si.com as DeAndre Hopkins Explains Titans Connection Behind TD Celebration.

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