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It's days like this one where I really miss my Houston Oilers

spurstexanstros

Texans Rising
F the oilers, I quit them when they quit me, texans are more fun than any other h-town team
Amen..... at least with the Texans you dont spend 180 or 82 games for them to flame out at the end of the year.

the OP's rant on how much they missed the oilers....well part of it is on you fans in Houston. I know what bud did and i applaud you telling him to hit the road. It was a combination of bad ownership and bad fan support that led to the oilers exit.
The titans sucess is not because of Bud (mostly) resides in fischers hands. he has been consitant since the day he was hired. The Texans need consitancy and not change strides every 4 years. I am just as frustrated as you, but cmon....you should remeber what it was like with no football. i live in a city that would kill to have a team, even if it sucks.
I see you guys making the same mistake again and making the same accusations... I would really hate to see yall loose another team..cause it wont come back.
 
P

Polo

Guest
I couldn't put my finger on it last week after the loss to the Vikes...Couldn't put my finger on it after the loss to the Ravens....

After reading Herv's post I think I know what's been bugging me about the Texans...

I have very little interest in them at this point...I used to get excited about watching them on Sundays and then posting about it with you guys...but @ this point I would rather be in the NSZ...
 

Wolf

100% Texan
my problem is that I don't holler at the TV any more unless it is ******* or OH Sh*T ...


I don't have the confidence in the team the make the 3rd in one and they get the first or it is 3rd and 8 with the defense on the field and have that confidence that they will shut the offense down.. or it is 3rd and one and the DL will clog the middle up and stop the opposing team.

my emotion is very different than in 2002 on that first game...my feelings are now when I think the Texans can't do something stupid, they seem to suprise me with something new and I holler "I can't believe this sh*T"

It isn't that I won't be watching this sunday,but I am becoming "
uncomfortably numb" while watching them
 

Texans34Life

I BLEED TEXANS!
F the oilers, I quit them when they quit me, texans are more fun than any other h-town team
The Thunderbears (AFL team that doesn't exist in Houston anymore) are a more fun team than the Texans.

The Oilers were the team in Houston. When we lost them and got this team....it seems like the NFL dumped another version of the Detroit Lions on us.
 
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imatexan

All Pro
I feel very differently about the name "Oilers" and what it means. It's a name that every Houstonian can identify with and it belongs in the pantheon of classic NFL names like Packers, Cowboys, and Steelers. It doesn't just give us a tough sounding label, it describes the people of this region. It's what many of us (or our ancestors) have done for a living and it has genuine local significance. "Texans" in no way captures this. It's a generic corporate sell-out designed to maximize profits by appealing to an entire state as opposed to a single city. It's a careful play on your patriotism and pride done entirely to seperate you from your dollars. "Oilers" meant something but "Texans" doesn't mean a damned thing (and this is coming from a native Texan mind you). "Texans" is just our version of "Titans" if you ask me. It's a name that was picked from the bottom of an empty well after the rest of the NFL had picked what they want. It's the "Mr Irrellevent" of team names.



This is a great statement and I can respect that you feel this way. I too appreciate what Bob McNair did to get an NFL team but I understand that not everyone who can afford an NFL franchise is going to be good at running one and I've got a lifetime of experience watching the Detroit Lions and Cincinnati Bengals of the world dwell in the bottom of their respective divisions. That's a fate I'd wish on no fan and certainly not one who is as willing to embrace a team as you are. Again I'm conceding that you are far more passionate about the Texans than I will ever be. I've got no issue with your enthusiasm. I think you are a bit on the naive side if you think that Bob McNair isn't in this for the money. The Texans are from top to bottom entirely about the money as is the entire NFL today. The league I watched grow into the greatest in sports isn't anything like what I'm watching today. This league is cold and corporate and filled with unabashed greed.



I've never felt the need to define myself by what I'm a fan of. I'm a fan of Pecan pie but I don't get upset if all they have is Apple. I'm a fan of Pontiac muscle cars but I enjoyed driving my Mazda Protoge when that was all I could afford. I've hung around for years waiting to see progress and observed nothing but incompetence and frustration and I'm still drawn to the television set every Sunday to see if maybe this week a team worth investing my time and interest in might show up. I don't know if I'd call myself a "REAL fan" or not. I definitely have a disorder of some sort for still caring but I won't care forever. Why would I even consider doing that? The National Football League is "entertainment" and entertainment that doesn't entertain is kind of pointless isn't it? Entertainment that makes you angry most Sundays is not a good thing by any stretch of the imagination. I said I don't like this team and I meant it. How many of you guys "like" people who have let you down year after year after year? How many of you like music by musicians who always sell you lousy albums? How many of you enjoy films by directors who always make bad films?

Don't confuse criticism with hate. I don't hate the team. I just don't blindly support everything they do indefinitely (and I'm not saying you do so don't take it that way). If I didn't care I'd be silent, not bitching.



70 straight games sounds like a lot of money for Bob McNair if you ask me. I've gone to a few of those games myself over the years and I've got some observations from those trips. I'm not a season ticket holder. I've probably only bought tickets to 4-5 games in that time. I've gone to games at no cost many times because friends have asked me and they had seats that they either weren't using or they had access to seats that some corporation wasn't using. Sellouts are not filled stadiums and empty seats aren't hard to see. When Bob McNair got the team he was guaranteed 5 years of sellout games. That's not fan loyalty, that's a business deal. The deal is over but in that time the Texans have given us precious little to inspire our continued support.

I don't want to call you out about any of this but I don't agree with you and don't care very much that you find my words offensive. I don't find yours to be so.


We just have some disagreements, I am very passionate about the Texans as it seems you were the oilers.Good post my friend.
 

Marcus

Windmill cancer survivor
Contributor's Club
I have very little interest in them at this point...I used to get excited about watching them on Sundays and then posting about it with you guys...but @ this point I would rather be in the NSZ...
That's where I'd rather be, too.

On this forum, it's just a repeat of the same rehash, week, after week, after week, after week.

It's just downright boring reading.
 

Marcus

Windmill cancer survivor
Contributor's Club
And I'll just come out and say it,

I absolutely DO NOT :embarrass miss 'my' :embarrass Houston Oilers.

They broke my heart, and broke my heart, and broke my heart, and broke my heart. And then, when I thought I put a big enough wall up to guard against further heartbreaks, they up and stick that "Comeback" up my ass.

******* the Oilers! I'm glad they are dead. And THAT comes from the heart.
 

Vinny

shiny happy fan
I miss the Oilers and the Earl days....the Moon days, the playoffs year in, year out....the teams that hated to come to the astrodome to play that @#$! toughass team from Texas....miss them a ton. I miss Mike Holovak and a real NFL scouting department too.
 

TexansFight

Veteran
I miss the Oilers and the Earl days....the Moon days, the playoffs year in, year out....the teams that hated to come to the astrodome to play that @#$! toughass team from Texas....miss them a ton. I miss Mike Holovak and a real NFL scouting department too.
Agreed. The Dome was a place that teams did not like to come. I remember the House of Pain years with fondness. The NFL of 20 years ago which I grew up with as a kid and as a teenager was FAR SUPERIOR in almost every respect to the overly corporate game we have now.

I miss the rivalries the Oilers used to have with the Steelers and the other AFC Central teams. The late 80's-early 90's were an awesome time in the AFC Central. All of the teams were pretty good and ALL of those teams hated each other with a passion. I miss the attitude and spunk of Jerry Glanville. He reinstituted pride in our team and instead of having a doormat for Chuck Noll and the Steelers to walk all over we had a team that punched them in the mouth. That is why Noll dressed him down. Coming to Houston was no longer the picnic it was under Ed Biles or Hugh Campbell.

I hated the Cincinnati Bengals and Boomer ****ing Esiason with a passion of a hundred suns. Wyche hated Glanville and that game that they beat us like 61-7 and then rubbed in with a late field goal sucked. But you know what, those rivalries created games that I couldn't wait to see at the Dome or on TV. Seriously, whenever I see footage of the Dome during that era I get a little misty-eyed because damn it I LOVED the Oilers and their hold on me was great and they still to this day pull on the heart strings despite being dead for over 12 years.

Yes the Oilers choked in the playoffs but they were still HOUSTON'S TEAM in a way that the Texans have in no way been close to reaching. I know they weren't the Steelers or Cowboys in terms of history but I am still fond of the memories I have. The fans back then too were loyal, leather lunged regular folks. The NFL back then did not price out its traditional blue collar fan base. I would see the same people around me every game in our field box seats and these people had tickets for years. Now, I see a different group of people around me for the most part every game.

It KILLS ME that Earl's and Moon's records are in Possum Holler and not here in Houston where they belong. When I read that the Titans are thinking about wearing Oilers throwbacks next year for a couple of games, it made me sad. If I saw that I don't know how I would react because it sickens me that OUR TEAM was STOLEN AWAY from us. Do you realize that Fisher has been the coach there since JACK PARDEE got fired in the middle of the 1994 season. To think if Bud wasn't such an asshole and if Bob Lanier was not such a heartless **** we would still have him as our coach and would have enjoyed a Super Bowl and a 10-0 start.

I feel betrayed by the Texans. I intently followed the expansion process and was on the old LA Times message board back then with a small group of loyal Houstonians and we engaged in spirited battles with them over who should get the next team. A guy who I can't remember his name actually went to the NFL owner's meetings back in 1999 and reported back to us his findings. Dude actually spoke with various owners.

I was ECSTATIC when we were awarded another team. Didn't like the Texans name but loved the logo and unis. McNair seemed to be so on the ball and seemed to be the antithesis of Bud Adams. I thought Houston finally had a good owner and that the Texans would become a model franchise.

I never expected that the Texans would turn into a complete laughingstock franchise that for the better part of a decade has given the Bengals and Lions a run for their money in being the worst in football. I just don't get how this happened. I want to love the Texans but to get the love your team needs to EARN it by doing something on the field. That we still suck so bad and are really no closer to being a legit contender than our first couple of years as a franchise is demoralizing.
 

utahmark

markbeth
i dont miss their playoff choke's. denver, bufalo, kc.

you know it was the same type of attitude that a lot of you have toward our team now that ran our old team out of town. if you guys ever want a winning football team in this town again you better get behind this one and hope they one day turn things around. because im pretty confident if we let this one go we will not ever see another football team in houston.
 

TexansFight

Veteran
i dont miss their playoff choke's. denver, bufalo, kc.

you know it was the same type of attitude that a lot of you have toward our team now that ran our old team out of town. if you guys ever want a winning football team in this town again you better get behind this one and hope they one day turn things around. because im pretty confident if we let this one go we will not ever see another football team in houston.
Loyal Houston Oilers fans like Herv, Vinny, and myself are not why the Oilers left town. The Oilers had over 100% capacity during the Run n' Shoot years. Bud Adams didn't leave town because of a lack of fan support. He left because of his greed and that he wanted to get all the revenues from a stadium in which he was the primary tenant. At the Astrodome, he was Uncle Drayton's tenant and did not rake in the cash.

He proposed this dual use stadium with the Rockets downtown which was a bad idea and the Rockets later backed out. All of sudden during training camp in 1995 with literally no warning, the Oilers were negotiating with Nashville to move the team.

Bob Lanier was a bastard in not doing everything he could to keep the team in town unlike the mayor of Cleveland who raised holy hell. The fact is the Oilers did need a new stadium. However, Bud's timing was terrible coming off the Choke in Buffalo and because just SEVEN YEARS earlier he held the city hostage and threatened to move the team to Jacksonville to get renovations to the Dome (which resulted in the exploding scoreboard to be taken down).

Bud Adams was a pariah with no friends. What he wanted was politically unfeasible at the time but could have been worked out IMO if he didn't rush and grant Nashville exclusivity in negotiations.

REMEMBER ONE DAMN THING, HOUSON OILERS FANS WERE NEVER RESPONSIBLE FOR OUR TEAM BEING STOLEN FROM US!!! READ A DAMN BOOK OR ARTICLES FROM THAT TIME TO INFORM YOURSELF.
 

Vinny

shiny happy fan
I was ECSTATIC when we were awarded another team. Didn't like the Texans name but loved the logo and unis. McNair seemed to be so on the ball and seemed to be the antithesis of Bud Adams. I thought Houston finally had a good owner and that the Texans would become a model franchise.

I never expected that the Texans would turn into a complete laughingstock franchise that for the better part of a decade has given the Bengals and Lions a run for their money in being the worst in football. I just don't get how this happened. I want to love the Texans but to get the love your team needs to EARN it by doing something on the field. That we still suck so bad and are really no closer to being a legit contender than our first couple of years as a franchise is demoralizing.
I was too, and I'm still glad we have a replacement franchise all things considered but it is starting to feel like we are in that movie Invasion of the Body Snatchers. In this movie aliens came down and took over the world one body at a time...an exact replicant of the previous human. It's like we have aliens masquerading as a real NFL team.
 

El Tejano

Hall of Fame
Well I was the biggest Oiler fan ever in Austin. I was looking at the Dome as I was walking out of Reliant and was thinking ' We would've won this game if we were still over there'. However then I remembered the many years of tearing it up in the regular season and feeling all good only to be kicked in the nads later.

At least the Texans just kick you in the nads so you can hurry up in get over it.
 

utahmark

markbeth
Loyal Houston Oilers fans like Herv, Vinny, and myself are not why the Oilers left town. The Oilers had over 100% capacity during the Run n' Shoot years. Bud Adams didn't leave town because of a lack of fan support. He left because of his greed and that he wanted to get all the revenues from a stadium in which he was the primary tenant. At the Astrodome, he was Uncle Drayton's tenant and did not rake in the cash.

He proposed this dual use stadium with the Rockets downtown which was a bad idea and the Rockets later backed out. All of sudden during training camp in 1995 with literally no warning, the Oilers were negotiating with Nashville to move the team.

Bob Lanier was a bastard in not doing everything he could to keep the team in town unlike the mayor of Cleveland who raised holy hell. The fact is the Oilers did need a new stadium. However, Bud's timing was terrible coming off the Choke in Buffalo and because just SEVEN YEARS earlier he held the city hostage and threatened to move the team to Jacksonville to get renovations to the Dome (which resulted in the exploding scoreboard to be taken down).

Bud Adams was a pariah with no friends. What he wanted was politically unfeasible at the time but could have been worked out IMO if he didn't rush and grant Nashville exclusivity in negotiations.

REMEMBER ONE DAMN THING, HOUSON OILERS FANS WERE NEVER RESPONSIBLE FOR OUR TEAM BEING STOLEN FROM US!!! READ A DAMN BOOK OR ARTICLES FROM THAT TIME TO INFORM YOURSELF.
thanks for your insight. i dont have to read i remember it. bud wanted a stadium bob lanier told him no. the reason he could tell him no is because the oilers didnt have enough fan support to warrent a new stadium. bob lanier was a public official. the people of houston elected him. if enough people would of wanted the team here he would of put up a fight and tried to keep them here.

REMEMBER THIS! YOU SOUND LIKE A LITTLE KID WHO HAD HIS SUCKER TAKEN FROM HIM. our team being stolen from us, give me a freakin break. wasnt our team anyway, it was bud's. he proved that when he moved them.
 

Vinny

shiny happy fan
thanks for your insight. i dont have to read i remember it. bud wanted a stadium bob lanier told him no. the reason he could tell him no is because the oilers didnt have enough fan support to warrent a new stadium. bob lanier was a public official. the people of houston elected him. if enough people would of wanted the team here he would of put up a fight and tried to keep them here.

REMEMBER THIS! YOU SOUND LIKE A LITTLE KID WHO HAD HIS SUCKER TAKEN FROM HIM. our team being stolen from us, give me a freakin break. wasnt our team anyway, it was bud's. he proved that when he moved them.
sounds like you are the one who doesn't have the clue...we had plenty of fan support but once the team stated their intentions to move we stopped giving him our money. Sounds like you are too young to remember this right or wasn't paying attention or wasn't here when it went down.
 

utahmark

markbeth
sounds like you are the one who doesn't have the clue...we had plenty of fan support but once the team stated their intentions to move we stopped giving him our money. Sounds like you are too young to remember this right or wasn't paying attention or wasn't here when it went down.
i went to games back then, i know how much fan support we had. having enough die hard fans to mostly fill a stadium in an area with around 4 million people is not the same as having an entire city back you and having enough support to keep a team when things are going bad. the oilers lost the support of the majority of the city. thats why they lanier felt he could deny bud the stadium he wanted. im just hoping the texans never get to that point.

and i do know that bud was being unreasonable and we had just renovated the astrodome. but if the city would of still been behind the team something would of been worked out. funny just a few years later we were able to spend more money on a new franchise. the city still wanted football the majority of them just didnt want the oilers.
 

TexansFight

Veteran
thanks for your insight. i dont have to read i remember it. bud wanted a stadium bob lanier told him no. the reason he could tell him no is because the oilers didnt have enough fan support to warrent a new stadium. bob lanier was a public official. the people of houston elected him. if enough people would of wanted the team here he would of put up a fight and tried to keep them here.

REMEMBER THIS! YOU SOUND LIKE A LITTLE KID WHO HAD HIS SUCKER TAKEN FROM HIM. our team being stolen from us, give me a freakin break. wasnt our team anyway, it was bud's. he proved that when he moved them.
You are woefully ignorant on this topic. I suggest that you read the following books to get a clue.

http://www.amazon.com/Oiler-Blues-Story-Footballs-Frustrating/dp/1891422014/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1226356225&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.com/Loser-Takes-All-Football-Business/dp/1563524325/ref=pd_sim_b_1


Vinny, Herv, and I were around when this happened. You do not know the facts. Not to toot my own horn, but I wrote a 30 page research paper (which I got an A in) on this topic in my Sports Business class that I took at Wharton at the U. of Pennsylvania. If I can find it I will send it to you. Has a bunch of research and articles referenced.
 

utahmark

markbeth
You are woefully ignorant on this topic. I suggest that you read the following books to get a clue.

http://www.amazon.com/Oiler-Blues-Story-Footballs-Frustrating/dp/1891422014/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1226356225&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.com/Loser-Takes-All-Football-Business/dp/1563524325/ref=pd_sim_b_1


Vinny, Herv, and I were around when this happened. You do not know the facts. Not to toot my own horn, but I wrote a 30 page research paper (which I got an A in) on this topic in my Sports Business class that I took at Wharton at the U. of Pennsylvania. If I can find it I will send it to you. Has a bunch of research and articles referenced.
maybe i am wrong. im just going from the papers and what i remember. i did read and article not to long ago about how bob lanier felt no pressure to give the oilers a new stadium because there wouldnt be any backlash because most people had become indifferent to the team. if i can find that i will send it to you.

i dont mean to always give you a hard time but all ive heard from you since you started posting is negative. i really have a hard time believing that you were not bitching and complaing just as much about the "most frustating team in professional football" as you book points out. you are the guy who wanted to sue the texans their first year because of parking or some crap, right. the man bring us pro football and then we sue him, that would of been perfect. actually i maybe we should sue him now for what i have to watch every weekend.lol
 

Marcus

Windmill cancer survivor
Contributor's Club
Not to toot my own horn, but I wrote a 30 page research paper (which I got an A in) on this topic in my Sports Business class that I took at Wharton at the U. of Pennsylvania. If I can find it I will send it to you. Has a bunch of research and articles referenced.
Well, if you didn't include "the Comeback" planting the seed of apathy in a lot of fans' hearts and minds, then your paper would have been incomplete.

I've said this many times before, and I'll continue to say it, because I believe it with all my soul.

If the Oilers had won that game in Buffalo, they would still be here. The Tennessee Titans would not exist, and neither would the Houston Texans.
 

Hervoyel

BUENO!
i went to games back then, i know how much fan support we had. having enough die hard fans to mostly fill a stadium in an area with around 4 million people is not the same as having an entire city back you and having enough support to keep a team when things are going bad. the oilers lost the support of the majority of the city. thats why they lanier felt he could deny bud the stadium he wanted. im just hoping the texans never get to that point.

and i do know that bud was being unreasonable and we had just renovated the astrodome. but if the city would of still been behind the team something would of been worked out. funny just a few years later we were able to spend more money on a new franchise. the city still wanted football the majority of them just didnt want the oilers.

I think that you are correct in your assertion that a stadium full of die hard fans isn't the same as having 4 million taxpayers support your team. I get what you mean by that and agree that not having widespread support for the Oilers made it easy for Lanier to just say no to Bud Adams.

In short I think you're actually a lot closer to saying that the Oilers "fans" aren't to blame than TexansFight believes. You guys aren't that far apart.

The real problem to me today is that the Texans have never enjoyed the full support of those 4 million or so tax payers and they've pretty much wasted their 5 years of guaranteed sell out games with no real return. They have fewer die hard fans than Bud's Oilers enjoyed and a solid reputation as natural born losers to overcome to get any more. They started out with enormous good will from the people in this town who were ready for some football and they've lost attention and affection ever since.

The city was sold on the benefits from and the idea of football but many of them aren't going to go a step out of their way to accomodate the NFL. It just isn't that important to them. My wife is like that. My brother is like that and so is his wife. Neither of his kids have any interest in it. They don't care about the NFL and were fine with it gone. The way to get them into the stadium and in front of the TV is to win and Bob's team never has. Hell, maybe they never will.
 

Hervoyel

BUENO!
Well, if you didn't include "the Comeback" planting the seed of apathy in a lot of fans' hearts and minds, then your paper would have been incomplete.

I've said this many times before, and I'll continue to say it, because I believe it with all my soul.

If the Oilers had won that game in Buffalo, they would still be here. The Tennessee Titans would not exist, and neither would the Houston Texans.
I think you're absolutely right on that. It was "the big one" and the smaller choke against Kansas City in the year that followed was just a little follow up for anyone remaining who had any small iota of affection left for the team. That Buffalo game was a draining experience and had a hangover that lasted for years.
 

utahmark

markbeth
so i have a question. is it true that bud went to the mayor and asked for a new stadium right from the start? because if it is your gonna have a hard time convincing me that the loss of support in houston didnt have at least something to do with the team leaving. and if thats not true then a lot of newspapers and news stations flat out lied or had the wrong information.

http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/article/46911 thats just part of the article you have to pay for the rest. there is plenty more. just hard to find its been so long ago. but ive read articles like this all the time back when they were moving.
 

Marcus

Windmill cancer survivor
Contributor's Club
maybe i am wrong. im just going from the papers and what i remember. i did read and article not to long ago about how bob lanier felt no pressure to give the oilers a new stadium because there wouldnt be any backlash because most people had become indifferent to the team. if i can find that i will send it to you.

I remember that. It played a big role.

i dont mean to always give you a hard time but all ive heard from you since you started posting is negative. i really have a hard time believing that you were not bitching and complaing just as much about the "most frustating team in professional football" as you book points out. you are the guy who wanted to sue the texans their first year because of parking or some crap, right. the man bring us pro football and then we sue him, that would of been perfect. actually i maybe we should sue him now for what i have to watch every weekend.lol
hehe Yup. Remember that, too!
 

Texan_Bill

Hall of Fame
I think you're absolutely right on that. It was "the big one" and the smaller choke against Kansas City in the year that followed was just a little follow up for anyone remaining who had any small iota of affection left for the team. That Buffalo game was a draining experience and had a hangover that lasted for years.
Also the mini-choke job in Denver too... :foottap:

There were a several events that led up to the showdown between Bud and Mayor Bob. Fan's apathy was the result of the choke jobs, the previous time being held hostage with a threat to move to Jacksonville. There was the BS pre-season game that had to be canceled. There were complaints from players in how cheap Bud was with the training facilities. There was (insert any of your memories here), this, that and the other.
 

cuppacoffee

Resident Grouch
Agreed. The Dome was a place that teams did not like to come. I remember the House of Pain years with fondness. The NFL of 20 years ago which I grew up with as a kid and as a teenager was FAR SUPERIOR in almost every respect to the overly corporate game we have now.

I miss the rivalries the Oilers used to have with the Steelers and the other AFC Central teams. The late 80's-early 90's were an awesome time in the AFC Central. All of the teams were pretty good and ALL of those teams hated each other with a passion. I miss the attitude and spunk of Jerry Glanville. He reinstituted pride in our team and instead of having a doormat for Chuck Noll and the Steelers to walk all over we had a team that punched them in the mouth. That is why Noll dressed him down. Coming to Houston was no longer the picnic it was under Ed Biles or Hugh Campbell.

I hated the Cincinnati Bengals and Boomer ****ing Esiason with a passion of a hundred suns. Wyche hated Glanville and that game that they beat us like 61-7 and then rubbed in with a late field goal sucked. But you know what, those rivalries created games that I couldn't wait to see at the Dome or on TV. Seriously, whenever I see footage of the Dome during that era I get a little misty-eyed because damn it I LOVED the Oilers and their hold on me was great and they still to this day pull on the heart strings despite being dead for over 12 years.

Yes the Oilers choked in the playoffs but they were still HOUSTON'S TEAM in a way that the Texans have in no way been close to reaching. I know they weren't the Steelers or Cowboys in terms of history but I am still fond of the memories I have. The fans back then too were loyal, leather lunged regular folks. The NFL back then did not price out its traditional blue collar fan base. I would see the same people around me every game in our field box seats and these people had tickets for years. Now, I see a different group of people around me for the most part every game.

It KILLS ME that Earl's and Moon's records are in Possum Holler and not here in Houston where they belong. When I read that the Titans are thinking about wearing Oilers throwbacks next year for a couple of games, it made me sad. If I saw that I don't know how I would react because it sickens me that OUR TEAM was STOLEN AWAY from us. Do you realize that Fisher has been the coach there since JACK PARDEE got fired in the middle of the 1994 season. To think if Bud wasn't such an asshole and if Bob Lanier was not such a heartless **** we would still have him as our coach and would have enjoyed a Super Bowl and a 10-0 start.

I feel betrayed by the Texans. I intently followed the expansion process and was on the old LA Times message board back then with a small group of loyal Houstonians and we engaged in spirited battles with them over who should get the next team. A guy who I can't remember his name actually went to the NFL owner's meetings back in 1999 and reported back to us his findings. Dude actually spoke with various owners.

I was ECSTATIC when we were awarded another team. Didn't like the Texans name but loved the logo and unis. McNair seemed to be so on the ball and seemed to be the antithesis of Bud Adams. I thought Houston finally had a good owner and that the Texans would become a model franchise.

I never expected that the Texans would turn into a complete laughingstock franchise that for the better part of a decade has given the Bengals and Lions a run for their money in being the worst in football. I just don't get how this happened. I want to love the Texans but to get the love your team needs to EARN it by doing something on the field. That we still suck so bad and are really no closer to being a legit contender than our first couple of years as a franchise is demoralizing.

Even I could afford season tickets back then. Now I cannot even think about buying psls'.

Excellent post TF. Rep coming your way.


:coffee:
 

imatexan

All Pro
I think that you are correct in your assertion that a stadium full of die hard fans isn't the same as having 4 million taxpayers support your team. I get what you mean by that and agree that not having widespread support for the Oilers made it easy for Lanier to just say no to Bud Adams.

In short I think you're actually a lot closer to saying that the Oilers "fans" aren't to blame than TexansFight believes. You guys aren't that far apart.

The real problem to me today is that the Texans have never enjoyed the full support of those 4 million or so tax payers and they've pretty much wasted their 5 years of guaranteed sell out games with no real return. They have fewer die hard fans than Bud's Oilers enjoyed and a solid reputation as natural born losers to overcome to get any more. They started out with enormous good will from the people in this town who were ready for some football and they've lost attention and affection ever since.

The city was sold on the benefits from and the idea of football but many of them aren't going to go a step out of their way to accomodate the NFL. It just isn't that important to them. My wife is like that. My brother is like that and so is his wife. Neither of his kids have any interest in it. They don't care about the NFL and were fine with it gone. The way to get them into the stadium and in front of the TV is to win and Bob's team never has. Hell, maybe they never will.

In my case particular I have the complete opposite viewpoint. None of my famly or friends were Oilers ticket holders or big supporters. We are in Texas and almost all family/friends love football soo they would go to a game here and there but the passion seemed to be lost. I remember going to a Steelers/Oilers game in 96 and even though young was amazed my how many Steelers fans there were. I admired greatly Jerome Bettis and the Steelers, but thats another story.

When the Texans came to town at a game I would know around 20 people who attended and had season tickets. Everyone in my cirlce loved the Texans. I had never expierenced this with any other sports franchise in Houston(being a long time Rockets/Astros ticket holder as well). Of course the years have passes now and that number is down to about 6 but the first years up until that 05 season, I think the Eyes of Houston were upon The Texans
 

Texans_Chick

Utopian Dreamer
Also the mini-choke job in Denver too... :foottap:

There were a several events that led up to the showdown between Bud and Mayor Bob. Fan's apathy was the result of the choke jobs, the previous time being held hostage with a threat to move to Jacksonville. There was the BS pre-season game that had to be canceled. There were complaints from players in how cheap Bud was with the training facilities. There was (insert any of your memories here), this, that and the other.

It wasn't fan apathy. We loved our team but we hated our owner.

It was fan antipathy to Bud Adams. He is an uncouth, cheap, possum-headed vulgarian who repeatedly threatened the city to take his team elsewhere.

Houstonians are a friendly lot but we are prideful as well. We can work together to do amazing things, but we do not respond well to overt and repeated threats, my way or the highway thinking.

Yeah, Houstonians wanted the Oilers to stay. But by the time Bud let it be known that he was out of the city for sure, there was not a dang thing the fans could do. It was a done deal.

If Adams had any sense of diplomacy, timing or negotiation, maybe he could have got things done. But Houston was still paying for the dome renovations, and he had his plan for how he wanted his stadium and how he wanted it paid for.

Ultimately, no matter how successful the Titans are, the Texans may end up having more value as a franchise because of the size of the market. That doesn't matter to Bud because he does things on the cheap so he makes his share off of his team.
 
Loyal Houston Oilers fans like Herv, Vinny, and myself are not why the Oilers left town. The Oilers had over 100% capacity during the Run n' Shoot years. Bud Adams didn't leave town because of a lack of fan support. He left because of his greed and that he wanted to get all the revenues from a stadium in which he was the primary tenant. At the Astrodome, he was Uncle Drayton's tenant and did not rake in the cash.

He proposed this dual use stadium with the Rockets downtown which was a bad idea and the Rockets later backed out. All of sudden during training camp in 1995 with literally no warning, the Oilers were negotiating with Nashville to move the team.

Bob Lanier was a bastard in not doing everything he could to keep the team in town unlike the mayor of Cleveland who raised holy hell. The fact is the Oilers did need a new stadium. However, Bud's timing was terrible coming off the Choke in Buffalo and because just SEVEN YEARS earlier he held the city hostage and threatened to move the team to Jacksonville to get renovations to the Dome (which resulted in the exploding scoreboard to be taken down).

Bud Adams was a pariah with no friends. What he wanted was politically unfeasible at the time but could have been worked out IMO if he didn't rush and grant Nashville exclusivity in negotiations.

REMEMBER ONE DAMN THING, HOUSON OILERS FANS WERE NEVER RESPONSIBLE FOR OUR TEAM BEING STOLEN FROM US!!! READ A DAMN BOOK OR ARTICLES FROM THAT TIME TO INFORM YOURSELF.
You're exactly right. Bud was never accepted into the "inner circles" of Houston's illuminati. And it always got his goat. He also was one of the only owners that needed his franchise to live off. All the other guys had big cash. Bud was a "hanger-on". He treated his players and staff like crap. Back in the old days when the guys practiced by the bayou and balls would get thrown over down into the bayou, he'd make guys go down to the water and retrieve the balls. Kinda like dunkin' for golf balls in a water hazard. He'd also come into the training room and count tape rolls. The guy was a jerk and a penny-pincher and it kept him from rubbing elbows with all the rich folks he so idolized. Basically he thought he'd get even with all the Houston upper crust that snubbed him and never invited him to their parties. Like I said before, he took his "toys" and ran.

I'll always love my Oilers, but Bud Adams is a heartless scum.
 
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