I am not a lifelong Houstonian, but I got here as fast as I could. I moved here in 1994, in the midst of a season where the Oilers where losing enough to draft Steve McNair with the third overall pick, and, as it turns out, owner Bud Adams was securing a new stadium and a new life in Nashville for his team.
As we all know, the Oilers became the Tennessee Titans, the Houston Texans were born in 2002, and the two teams were put in the same division, likely with the NFL’s hope that a rivalry would bloom. Unfortunately, both teams have struggled to be relevant simultaneously, and thus, the two sides have rarely faced off with anything important on the line, and because of that, it’s really just a garden variety division rivalry, not one with deep roots and infinite animus.
However, of all things, laundry may have changed that, because the unveiling of the Titans’ decision to wear the old Oiler uniforms this season has unleashed the most Titan-specific anger among Houstonians since the team picked up and left a quarter of a century ago. That decision was announced on Sunday, and now the vitriol hits a fever pitch, because on Thursday morning, the Titans announced exactly which games were chosen for their players to sport the old Oiler garb:
I know many of you reading this, likely the older crowd that was alive for the existence of the actual Houston Oilers (and not the counterfeit, zombie Oilers that the Adams family will trouble out twice in front of the Nashville fans this season), are not happy with this development, and I totally understand. That said, I think this is tremendous.
The same way that the Astros-Rangers rivalry, which has been largely dormant since the Astros joined the American League in 2013, needed the beanball fireworks from Wednesday night to spice things up, so, too, did the Titans-Texans “rivalry” need something like this, especially this season, in which both teams are likely missing the playoffs, and play twice in December.
In other words, a game that is likely to be irrelevant in the standings, Texans versus Titans in Week 15, just got a nice dose of hot sauce on it, courtesy of Titans owner Amy Adams Strunk. She;’s the daughter of the late Bud Adams, and as we’ve learned in the past week, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
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This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2023.
