If your an oilers fan, you remember a dark day in the 90's when we gave up a tremendous lead to lose to the Bills in the playoffs.
Football died for my dad that day. He never cared as much about the game afterward. I still remember the house after that, quiet, still, and dark.
I wonder now if he wasn't lucky. He cut ties from his team sudden and sharp like a guillotine. I'm being murdered by the slow monotonous thousand cuts of a derange McNair agent. Cut me or waterboard me. It's still slow.
I remember a time when I worked the night shift in the first couple years of the franchise. I'd wake up after 2 hours of sleep to watch a game. Always. It didn't matter if we got our azz kicked or not. I was there.
Over the last 2 decades, I care a little bit less every year. I barely know who we play next week. I used to be hardcore enough on the draft I knew most every name till the 6th round. Now I barely know prospects in the 2nd round.
This team doesn't want your faith. It doesn't deserve it. They just want your $. We are a laughingstock of the nfl again. 2 decades of utter suckery have killed my love of the game.
I hope that changes but I don't see much chance of it for a couple years.
I feel your dad's pain. The little optimistic super fan in me died that day. I got excited the next year, but it was just another Houston Lucy-pulls-the-football moment.
After those years, I didn't care if Bud took his team away. Most of us felt that way. We were beaten down and never had anything but the fond memories of Luv Ya Blue to reflect on.
I tried to revive that little optimistic super fan in 2002. I really, really tried. Season tickets, tailgating, Texans flair out the wazoo, Texans hardhat and custom jerseys to every game. . .
. . .but, tbh, I could never rekindle that feeling I had as a kid when I was idealistic and delusional and it was just fun to be a fan of a winning team.
The reality is that, as a kid, I never watched the bad Oilers seasons. I had better things to do than watch bad football. lol
And that's where I'm at now. I just can't create the interest in me to watch bad football in order to see a glimmer of talent that may or may not manifest itself in the future.
And with regards to the Houston Texans, Inc., I agree with you. They have no way to create a marketing campaign to counter fan apathy. The only way out of that is winning, and none of us seeing that in our near future.