LOL - thanks for the free psych eval. Who says Im holding onto anything by making an innocuous comment where these guys are patronizing Tennessee? JFC some of you blue blood super fans are quick on the trigger.
When you've had 25 years to establish an identity of your own and fail miserably. So, you just pretend the one from a better city, franchise and fan base was yours all along. I went to Warren Moon's Hall of Fame induction and checking out the Hall itself made me laugh out loud. Each team has an historical display consisting of photos and artifacts. Every single item in the "Titans" display was from the Oilers. Every. Single. One.
1. The Oilers are not coming back, for reasons 2. It is ****ing infuriating to see Nashville celebrate the Oilers' legacy
I just think Titans fans celebrate Oiler legacy to get on the nerves of Texans fans. They really don't care about it. They just love to rub it in the face of Houstonians. IMO, They can have that legacy because the Oilers never were champions. If they were Bud Adams would've easily found support for a new stadium and the Oilers would still be in Houston. Oiler legacy is really a legacy of disappointment and traumatic losses so Tennessee can celebrate that legacy of failure all they want. There's too many people looking back on the Oilers with rose-tinted glasses. The only thing cool about the OIlers were the name and uniform. But Texans have a cool logo and the name is grown on me over the years. I just wish they would get better uniforms.
Titans are the third least valuable franchise in the NFL. A direct correlation to the market they play in. The Adams family net worth would be a helluva lot higher had they kept the team here. They’ll never get that money back. Ironically, knowing how petty and short-sighted that family is… they’re probably more pissed about that than any Houston fan is pissed about the Oilers no longer being here. That’s why they’re tapping into nostalgia, its a potential revenue source for a small market franchise. The decision to move to Nashville was a colossal failure of a business decision. 25 years, no ability for the franchise value to go up in rank, a limited reach on the brand, and a now aging outdoor stadium.
People who say time for the Texans to "Rebrand" don't understand Marketing. The Oilers were not that popular after 1983. Even with the Moon era, they did "ok". The colors became popular as a "Retro" look, but Brand didn't do well in NFL Marketing. Nostalgia only goes so far. The Texans have helluva lot more brand recognition and awareness. There are more Texans' fans than there ever where Oilers fans. The Texans are 20 years old. You want to start judging their success, see what they do in the next 10 years. Most NFL teams didn't their most successful seasons until after 19 years in the league.
It is true. The Oilers were not popular outside of Houston. Cowboys were the team for the rest of Texas.
The Oilers had major national attention, and were one of the most popular teams in the league nation-wide, during the luv ya blu era. They had Cowboys-level attention... both within Texas and outside of Texas. And most importantly, the city was galvanized and obsessed with this team unlike any team Houston has ever had (including the championship era Rockets and championship era Astros). Anybody who denies that or has no recollection of that probably wasn't old enough to experience the height of the city's love affair... and probably isn't equipped to be in a discussion of what the Oilers once meant to the city. For pete's sake, even Joe Buck was a freakin Oilers fan growing up... and his lineage was engulfed in cardinals red (both baseball/football).
Did you not pay attention? After Luv ya Blue ( Bum was fired after the 80 season), the Oilers had NO profile. They sucked from 82-86. Glanville had a brief exposure…but the Oilers were probably, at best, middle of the pack popularity. Luv ya Blue was basically 75-80. After that, Bud Adams destroyed any of that popular that would have maintained that national profile.
Popularity of teams waxes/wanes based on success and a fan based attachment/perception on whether or not they can win it all. Neither the Texans nor the Titans have been as popular within their own cities as those Oilers teams were… and both have now existed long enough.
The Texans have more fans than the Oilers ever had. Simply because the Houston area is larger now. Also, Texans have made the effort to create fans around Texas. Oilers had a 5 years period.....that basically ended in 81. That was 40 years ago. TV and now the internet are much different. It has been 25 years since the Oilers left Houston. Get that. 25 year olds who never seen the Houston Oilers play. The Oilers are a logo and colors for many in Houston, Texas, and the US. Throwbacks to wear. There is no ground-swell of support for them.
And yet they’ve never owned the city like the other teams or the Oilers did. Minus a brief stint in 2011… and they could not capitalize on it. Unfortunately this is the low point for this franchise. They’re unlikely to get new fans (and will likely lose some old ones) during this extreme down period.
Maybe you already answered this, but do you work for the Texans in any capacity? Genuine question. (Just wondering if I'd seen you around the office while i was there.)
When fans are basically apathetic towards a team like this… they weren’t all that into them to begin with. Nobody gets angry at this level of embarrassment… because nobody had any reason to be attached to them other than because they play in Houston. The Oilers had generational fans because of luv ya blue. There was real heartbreak against Buffalo and KC. This website exists because of Hakeem and the 90’s Rockets. The Astros have made their push to have generational fans with this era, and they made plenty during the Biggio/Bagwell era. other than the Texans being a part of the NFL, they have not earned the same sort of connection. I figured it would take off when they finally got good in year 10, but it didn’t… and then the last 6 years plus the embarrassment of BOB/Easterby/Watson has essentially made the 25 years of fan building back to expansion era level interest without the novelty. they need to actually build something sustainable/lasting. With a real window of contention. And then not be a total farce soon after.
And you just explained why the Oilers didn’t have anything left in Houston when they left. Adams destroyed that. That’s why an Oilers rebrand was always a dumb idea. You underestimate the Texans’ brand. The Luv Ya Blue is a different era. Houston still had a smaller city feel. You have a totally different dynamic with the Texans. They don’t have the playoff run to galvanize yet. However, they do have a following. That’s following is still more than the Oilers ever had in terms of numbers.
