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Titans / Oilers throwback jerseys leaked

Hookem Horns said:
Bob Lanier was somewhat of a relative of mine back then. My sister was married to his son and my nieces of nephew are his grandkids. While I had the chance a few times, I never met him. I was pretty good friends with my brother-in-law though. He was always a cool dude. He was a huge Oilers fan and but had zero pull with this dad in that sense. From day one, he was convinced that the "old man" as he called him, was not going to play ball with Bud. He was never optimistic that something was going to get done.

Ironically, I first found out about this while in Tennessee. I was visiting my brother in South Carolina and found out the Oilers were playing the Redskins in Knoxville, TN. It was just a couple of hours away and it was Steve McNair's first preseason game. I drove up there and saw all of these signs everywhere saying things like "Welcome Tennessee Oilers". I thought, well that's stupid. Where are the "Tennessee Redskins" signs?? Some guy sitting next to me told me the Oilers were moving there which I didn't believe at all. The next day at my brother's house I called my brother-in-law in Houston and he told me that the "old man" isn't going along with Bud's antics and "it doesn't look good". Apparently, Bud pulled something to force Lanier's hand and that p*ssed him off.

It was basically "agree to build my stadium now or I'm contractually obligated to leave for Nashville". Bud hedged his bet that Lanier would give in after reviewing that and not let them leave, well that didn't work out too well, so he was forced to leave. That's apparently why he had nowhere to go in Tennessee because he wasn't expecting to really go, hence why they were in no-man's land for a few seasons. The Tennessee thing was just a pawn. Bud Adams never really wanted to go there and was bitter about that until the day he died.

That's why he swore to never let the city of Houston have the name, colors, etc. It was basically a p*ssing match that Bud lost, and as a result all of the fans, including my brother-in-law were collateral damage. Him and my sister are no longer married, however my nephew got married last year and I saw him for the first time in years at the wedding. He's totally anti-NFL now. He's an Aggie so just good with that.

BTW, that's the Lanier side of story. I told John McClain all of that years ago and he said it was pretty close to what happened, however there's always another side of the story. JM was always a little fond of Bud Adams. Thanks to JM I did eventually meet Bud Adams along with Bum Phillips and some other Oilers legends. He wasn't what I was expecting, however he was almost 90 at that point. He spoke more like a fan than an owner. I had a Texans polo shirt on and he thought I worked for the team as this was an event mainly for team officials (JM pulled some strings to get myself and some other Texans fans from this board in there). BTW, I know JM gets a lot of flak on this board, but he's actually a very good dude. I was one of his biggest critics also. He does care about what people think about him and he does care about the game and the fans. He used to frequent this board BTW and always called me "Hook'em". Not sure now, I haven't spoken to him in years.

Anyway, that's a ton of water under the bridge for me now. However, seeing those Oilers uniforms brought a lot of that back to mind. It took me years to get over all of that mess, which as DB often points out is pretty silly when you think about it. We're just rooting for laundry. :)
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I love hearing your perspectives, man. We've talked in depth about this before. I met Bud back in the early 90's. Our warehouse would be rented out for Persian rug auctions, and we'd supply the labor. Once day a limo pulled up, and Bud gets out with a gigantic straw safari hat that had a built in fan. Me and my buds were all Oilers fans, so we all talked with him and he was very nice. He ended up buying over $60,000 in rugs (ironically we found out years later that the import company was a scam and most of them were fake). Bud needed labor to unload at his house in River Oaks, so my friends got hired to go there to help him (I had to stay behind to close the warehouse up). He ended up taking them all to his walk-in cooler and gave every one a case of beer. It was kind of a weird contrast to the Bud Adams that we'd heard and read about for so many years. He was actually cordial, grateful, and just a rich old man.

Years after he moved the Oilers, he was quoted as saying it was his biggest regret in life. He said he'd gotten played by Drayton McLane, owner of the Astros at the time. McLane was pushing the line in public that there was nothing wrong with the Astrodome. It wasn't until after the Oiler were gone that Drayton started his own power move and threatened to move the team, so they gave him the juice box. Bud realized he'd been had, and said Reliant should've been his stadium if he'd just been patient.

Looking back now, I'm glad we kept the Astros, all things considered. I'll gladly take the Astros two World Series championships over Oilers laundry and the Titans history of the past couple of decades.

We just need the Texans to do something to make us all forget about the Oilers. That's the missing puzzle piece in this story.
 
Double Barrel said:
I love hearing your perspectives, man. We've talked in depth about this before. I met Bud back in the early 90's. Our warehouse would be rented out for Persian rug auctions, and we'd supply the labor. Once day a limo pulled up, and Bud gets out with a gigantic straw safari hat that had a built in fan. Me and my buds were all Oilers fans, so we all talked with him and he was very nice. He ended up buying over $60,000 in rugs (ironically we found out years later that the import company was a scam and most of them were fake). Bud needed labor to unload at his house in River Oaks, so my friends got hired to go there to help him (I had to stay behind to close the warehouse up). He ended up taking them all to his walk-in cooler and gave every one a case of beer. It was kind of a weird contrast to the Bud Adams that we'd heard and read about for so many years. He was actually cordial, grateful, and just a rich old man.

Years after he moved the Oilers, he was quoted as saying it was his biggest regret in life. He said he'd gotten played by Drayton McLane, owner of the Astros at the time. McLane was pushing the line in public that there was nothing wrong with the Astrodome. It wasn't until after the Oiler were gone that Drayton started his own power move and threatened to move the team, so they gave him the juice box. Bud realized he'd been had, and said Reliant should've been his stadium if he'd just been patient.

Looking back now, I'm glad we kept the Astros, all things considered. I'll gladly take the Astros two World Series championships over Oilers laundry and the Titans history of the past couple of decades.

We just need the Texans to do something to make us all forget about the Oilers. That's the missing puzzle piece in this story.
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Cool story. That was my experience with Bud Adams also. If I were an Astros fan I would probably feel the same way. At least they've won something. I grew up a Dodgers fan though and the Astros were the only Houston team I never supported. Now I just support the local team (Rays), however not really into baseball like I was when I was a kid.

It's funny seeing many Titans fans claiming the Oilers history. That's like inheriting debt from a dead relative.

Seeing all this back and forth on social media between Titans fans and Houston folks started stirring up some old emotions on this subject. I'm totally over it though, however I too would love to see the Texans do something to outdo that organization. I was able to watch the first half last night on my flight back to Tampa from Texas. Tonight the Bucs play and I have a pass for the "creamsicle celebration" training camp day on Monday. Just glad football is back.
 
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