The Sins of the Titans: Stealing Houston’s Football Identity

Jorden

Before I start this I should probably put some disclaimer out there that I have no memory of the Oilers in any capacity. That makes sense, because they left Houston the year after I was born. If I had a better concept of ball at that age maybe I would be playing in the NFL instead of being relegated to blogging smut. I don’t hate the Titans like some Houstonians do. (I remember a sports radio host in Houston suggesting the entirety of NRG to moon Bud Adams). But I really love this city; I genuinely think it’s one of the most underrated cities in America. I also think that it’s weird to take away a city’s football identity and pretend like the Tennessee Titans have some sort of apostolic successionary right on the colors of a jersey.

I should also post a second disclaimer. This is going to be a very modern interpretation of the football culture of Houston. And you may completely disagree with me on this. You may think that I’m completely lost and am not tuned in at all to the football history and culture. But I genuinely think that the Oilers leaving left a void that the Texans are still trying to fill.

Love Ya Coogs?

This blog stems from the NFL and the Titans coming in and crushing UH’s Love Ya Blues throwback jerseys.

The jerseys are legitimately beautiful. I’m not a football jersey guy (I think they just fit weird on me), but I was ready and willing (maybe not able) to shell out the $100 I was probably going to have to spend on one. Now, there’s a conversation to be had about UH not pulling the trigger on selling the jerseys, but that’s a conversation for another day.

What I want to focus on is the lack of a football identity. Now, that may be crazy talk because this is Texas; this is high school football, God’s country. And yes, of course high school football is here, and there have been good college teams (the 80s and 90s Cougar teams, there was even a Heisman winner). But they all suffer from one thing: this is the third largest city in America.

No matter how big and how great those teams are (like the Katy teams now), they will always have to compete with the bigger stage. The smaller, amateur teams will always have to live up to the professionals. And that’s a good thing, especially for a bigger city. Because the city can coalesce around that larger football being; that larger identity. And that larger football-being can trickle down and seep into the teams and fans that feed it.

And on top of that, there was a football identity. And that identity was stolen. Not even stolen, forcibly taken away by an owner. I don’t think the city’s football identity has recovered from the morph of the Oilers to the Titans.

Texans Our Texans

I hate to give Dallas/Arlington any props, but you look at the Cowboys, and that city has a football identity. Most sports fans I see and know from Dallas have that ingrained love of the Cowboys; every year is Dem Boyz year. That doesn’t exist in Houston, at least not from what I’ve seen. And this isn’t a hit at the Texans; the Texans were birthed from identity tragedy. There isn’t that same fervor though. Maybe you can blame it on the fact the Texans haven’t been historically great. If anything they’ve been historically bad.

I remember a game from about 2011/2012 (maybe, I’m not looking it up) where the Texans played the Chargers (maybe again I’m running off a faint memory here). I also think it was either the first or second game of the season. And that was the first time I started to feel like the Texans were creating an identity in the city. JJ Watt scored a touchdown. Matt Schaub was in his Texans prime. Bill O’Brien hadn’t stuck his dumb butt chin into the Texans’ business.

Obviously we know how the story ended. The Texans are the Texans. Are we Stroud boys now? Maybe, but with the way Houston sports have gone (some Astros seasons are the exception) I’m not sure I have much hope.

But this all just goes back to the Titans. Even if the Texans were horrible, even all the annoying little things – like losing to Peyton Manning endlessly – would have the backdrop of a franchise. If the Oilers were still around we could still sing this song:

But we can’t, because the Texans aren’t the Oilers. They’re a creation out of loss. But the identity still isn’t there. The Texans are still trying to create something, anything to latch onto. Maybe a rebrand is in order, because the Texans logo and identity feels like it has been stuck in this noughties. Maybe it’s time to take back the colors that Bud Adams’ took to one of the most annoying cities in the nation.

Again, this may be completely crazy to some people. And maybe I’m asking for a history that just can’t be there. But it just feels like there is still this lack of football identity in the city. Compare the Texans and the gene se qua around the organization as compared to the Astros and the Rockets. Could it be because Cal McNair is too busy playing MarioKart? Of course.

The Actual Titans

I’ve alway found it a little weird that the Titans seemingly refuse to bring in any reference to the Titans, the Greek pre-Olympian Gods. There are Italian teams that have started embracing their Roman roots. Maybe the Titans should embrace the fact that the team ate it’s young.

In college, one of my friends had a Warren Moon jersey proudly hanging from his wall. He was willing to look past some of his sins to remember how great he was for the Oilers. The Houston Oilers, the team he played for. But if you look at the Texans, and their Hall of Fame, and the players that come back, he’s never one of them. None of the Oilers are one of those players the Texans honor. Because those players are not the Texans players. They’re the Titans players. Their succession is of the Titans, so the Titans get to honor them.

And old Oilers continue to come out in support of the Titans. Even Warren Moon thinks that the Titans should wear the throwback jerseys.

But when they’re standing on that Tennessee field, those fans are not the same fans that watched them growing up. Those aren’t the same fans whose parents introduced them to the team, took them to games, bough them jerseys. It’s a fake charade of a history stolen. It’s like the British Museum. Sure, it’s cool to see Iraqi artifacts, but it’s like a JROTC kid claiming the Veterans’ discount at Chilis.

Someone Play Diddy’s “Coming Home”

Maybe I’m completely off. Maybe there’s a football identity I’ve missed. And it’s not like the Texans haven’t had some great moments.

But it’s not the same. It’s a city that’s again searching for a football identity. I actually put a lot of blame on the McNair family and how I think they’ve done a poor job marketing the team and creating an identity. Again, maybe I’m asking for something that’s not possible anymore. Maybe I’m asking for an identity that’s so wrapped in nostalgia the two have become intertwined like a rope you can’t cut through.

It’s also why I’m so annoyed by the NFL coming for UH. Those may be the Titans “colors,” but they’re Houston’s historic colors. Like the orange that once again became synonymous with the Astros after years of red and black. That light blue is the color of the Oilers. It’s the color of a football tradition. It’s a stolen color.

I think some day I’ll write a blog about how I think the national media purposely downplays Houston, and the sports media works day and night to make sure the city never gets its props. But that’s another blog for another day. Now, I’d rather Love Ya Blues to stay in the city that created them.

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