Welcome to another blog where I publicly hate the Tennesse Titans organization. I’m sure Will Levis and Derrick Henry (I know, I’ll bring up his new team later) and Taylor Lewan are great guys. But holding a color hostage is one of the corniest and most disturbing things an organization can do. Like, I don’t love the fact that Tiffany Blue is forever controlled by a multinational conglomerate. And, right now, Oiler blue, a color synonymous with Houston and football, is held in the hands of an oil heiress with a vendetta. So, when UH announced it openly opposed the NFL and the Titans, it was the right thing to do.
UH and Intergenerational Vendettas
I wrote a blog last year about the Titans and stealing the footballing identity in Houston. This was around the time UH received that original cease-and-desist from the NFL (and from the Titans). I think I’ll recant a bit because I don’t think it was all the Titans/Bud Adams doing. There was a significant factor in the breakup of the SWC, and the non-addition of both UH and Rice. I’d still contend one of the larger aspects of that was Bud Adams’ decision to leave Houston.
The maybe medium-sized elephant in the room is my connection to the Oilers. In that, effectively, I have none. I am one of the first generations that has no memory of the Oilers in Houston; they left town when I was still freshly birthed. And, yet, I understand the hate that Bud Adams gets. I understand the hate that the Tennessee Titans hoist upon themselves every time they make a sly reference to the Oilers, thinking they’re getting away with something, like a three-year-old cussing and then glancing at their parent.
I remember listening to sports radio, maybe in 2012, and some radio host in Houston calling for a massive mooning of the Adams family. He wanted Bud Adams and the entire family to understand that Houstonians, who had their Oilers ripped away from them, still despise that pack. Even my mom, who has no interest in football, wanted the Texans to murder the Titans for that parade of blue uniforms the Titans were trotting out in. And just like Andre Johnson did all those years ago, sometimes you just have to shut them up.
And that’s where this feeling of anger stems from. It’s rubbing it all in the face of Houston. I don’t really remember hating the Titans growing up; I heard passings of this Oilers team, but it wasn’t flung in my face. But it feels like in the past couple of years, all of a sudden, the Titans have gone inflammatory. We even have Warren Moon supporting the Titans. It’s gone antagonistic. If Bud Adams had died and Sarah Adams had tried to put a little bow on the entire history, similar to the Browns, then we’d all be a little better off. Like I understand why Bud Adams hated Houston until he died – even if he did live here. He got into a dick-measuring contest with the other Houston owners and the city itself. His skin was literally in the game.
But not the new generation of Adams. This generation of Adams is antagonistic and wants to show Houston who really owns those rights. And, legally, they’re right. But it doesn’t make it right.
Rice got to use the Oiler Blues on a loophole. The Texans had to bargain with the Titans for the right to even include the colors in some throwback uniforms. And UH, when they use the colors, the NFL and the Titans threaten the force of the law. So excuse me for saying “good for them” as UH flippantly disregards the entirety of that legal brigade Roger and the boys were cooking up. Because as much as the Titans want to claim Houston’s history, you can’t erase nearly 40 years of a football legacy by moving to the new white girl capital of America. Look at the Dynamo; those first championships aren’t really even Houston’s.
At least the Ravens got to set up a Colts Hall of Fame. But not the Texans. The Texans know very well if they tried to do something similar, it wouldn’t be just a UH cease-and-desist. All of a sudden those roughing the passer calls would be pretty lopsided. And so UH has entered into this battle and just said, fuck it. This is the history of an actual city, and every UH team now has the opportunity to wear them.
Home of the Houston Oilers
After Bud Adams passed, KHOU in Houston interviewed former Oilers players about his death. Some were glowing, and some were mellow. The tone differed from interviewee to interviewee; there wasn’t the same boisterousness as given to Bum Phillips, who had preceded him in death by all but three days. There was one quote that stuck out so obviously among the others. Former Oilers offensive lineman David Carter put it succinctly: “I don’t have a home anymore. I don’t have a team.” Imagine the Texans move to Utah, and then JJ Watt and Andre Johnson are lost in some billionaire-fueled limbo.
I once contrasted my experience coming home from college to someone whose mom had gotten remarried while they were away. That person expressed the same sentiment about their coming home experience – “I don’t have a home anymore.” I know that’s very dramatic way to compare what Carter said to a real-life experience, but I think the sentiment is the same. Watching a place you call home disappear, and effectively, never return.
I don’t have a home anymore. I don’t have a team.
David Carter
That’s why I genuinely don’t think UH is doing anything wrong by continuing to use the Houston Oilers’ colors. It’s only kind of about the colors. The colors symbolize so much more than just a comforting uniform. The colors symbolize an idea. Those colors are not for me; I don’t have that connection to the Oilers. They’re not even for everyone else who has that strong connection to the Oilers, and who were here during that 36 stint. The colors are for Houston.
As I mentioned earlier, Chris Pezman claims UH has a story showing that Oiler Blue came way before Bud Adams could create a dastardly web of lies. Chris probably stumbled into the story as he stumbled into having Kelvin Sampson as his basketball coach. But, even if the story isn’t as airtight as claimed, it’s the principle of it all.
I know I should probably care about the IP law behind all this. But, as long as the Titans and the Adams dangle it in front of Houston like it’s some kind of powdered (Shipley’s) donut, and we some obese child (we are a fat city), I could care less. The color is Houston’s. And the Oilers are Houston’s.
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