"Cortland Finnegan's teammates joked about his rematch with Texans receiver Andre Johnson, calling Sunday's game Round 2 and a can't-miss showdown.

Finnegan even had a little fun with it Wednesday, borrowing a line from Terrell Owens.

"Get your popcorn ready,'' the Titans cornerback said with a smile. Then he did his best to quash the hype.

It's less than three weeks since Finnegan and Johnson fought in the fourth quarter of Houston's 20-0 win at Reliant Stadium. Both players were ejected, and the NFL fined them $25,000 each.

Finnegan plans to be a peacemaker before the rematch at LP Field. He's already apologized to Johnson through a third party, he said, and plans to seek him out prior to kickoff.

"Regardless if I'm right or wrong," he said, "I am going to apologize to get this off my heart.''

Might the feisty Finnegan be using the kill-him-with-kindness approach as a prelude to retaliation? After all, it was Johnson who threw all the punches — two landing on Finnegan's head after their helmets came off — in the one-sided fight.

"It's not going to happen,'' Finnegan said. "I am more concerned about us winning a football game than anything right now. We haven't done that in awhile, and that is one thing we need to get back to doing. Retaliation is for the birds.''

Johnson doesn't foresee a Rocky-esque sequel.

"It just shows that he has thought about what happened,'' Johnson said. "I regretted the whole situation, and I don't feel like that has changed the way I am. I know what type of player he is. He's a feisty guy who plays very hard. If you look at other games he's been in, he gets guys out of their games, and last time, he got me out of mine. That's just something that you, as a player, have to control, and I'll do that on Sunday.""