The Nashville Predators are a professional ice hockey team based in Nashville, Tennessee. They are members of the Central Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League (NHL). They play their home games at Bridgestone Arena.

Hockey first appeared in Middle Tennessee in 1962 in the form of the Eastern Hockey League's Dixie Flyers. One of the first tenants of the Municipal Auditorium, the Dixie Flyers played for nine seasons before folding in 1971. A decade later, Nashville Sounds owner Larry Schmittou made a second attempt at minor league hockey in Nashville when he brought the Nashville South Stars to town for the 1981-82 season. While featuring Bob Suter (Miracle on Ice team member and father of current Predator Ryan Suter) as well as several of the parent club Minnesota North Stars' prospects, the franchise folded after just two seasons. In 1989, the ECHL Nashville Knights, perhaps the most popular of the minor league franchises, came to town. Coached by Predators assistant Peter Horachek, the Knights featured a potent offense that in 1994 set an ECHL record with 16 goals in one game. The Knights moved to Florida to become the Pensacola Ice Pilots in 1996, but Nashville made one more attempt at a minor league franchise in the CHL from 1996 to 1998. The team was known as the Nashville Nighthawks in the 1996-97 season and changed monikers to the Ice Flyers in 1997-98, then folded when the Predators began play.

Shea Michael Weber (born August 14, 1985) is a Canadian professional ice hockey defenceman in the National Hockey League (NHL). An NHL All-Star and Olympic gold medalist, he is the captain of the Nashville Predators.

Drafted in the second round, 49th overall by the Predators in the 2003 NHL Entry Draft, Weber has spent his entire NHL career with the Predators. He had previously played for the Sicamous Eagles of the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League (KIJHL), the Kelowna Rockets of the Western Hockey League (WHL) and the Milwaukee Admirals of the American Hockey League (AHL).

Weber represented Canada at four International Ice Hockey Federation-sanctioned events, winning a World Junior Ice Hockey Championship gold medal in 2005, an Ice Hockey World Championships gold medal in 2007, and an Olympic gold medal in 2010.

Weber was born on August 14, 1985 in Sicamous, British Columbia. His mother, Tracy, was a hairdresser, and his father, James Weber, a sawmill worker. Weber first played organized ice hockey at the age of six. Growing up he played in the Sicamous and District Minor Hockey Association, a division of the British Columbia Amateur Hockey Association (BCAHA), often switching between forward and defenceman positions. In Weber's second year of bantam, he permanently switched to defence. He credits his father for convincing him to make the switch because he thought Weber would "have a better shot at a pro career as a defenceman". Between the ages of fourteen and fifteen, Weber grew 5 inches, from 5-foot-9 (1.75 metres) to 6-foot-2 (1.87 metres).

Seth G. Jones (born October 1972)^{[citation needed]} is a political scientist at the RAND Corporation specializing in counterinsurgency and counterterrorism, with a particular focus on Afghanistan, Pakistan, and al Qa'ida.

Seth G. Jones is presently senior political scientist at the RAND Corporation, where he worked from 2003 to 2009.

He served as the representative for the commander, U.S. Special Operations Command, to the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations in 2010, and in 2011, as a plans officer and advisor to the commanding general, U.S. Special Operations Forces, in Afghanistan (Combined Forces Special Operations Component Command–Afghanistan).

From 2002-2009, he was Adjunct Professor, Security Studies Program, Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University, where he taught classes on "Counterinsurgency" and "Stability Operations."

He has also served as Adjunct Professor, Center for Homeland Defense and Security, United States Naval Postgraduate School, since 2005.