The Tennessee Titans donning Houston Oilers uniforms against the AFC South rival Houston Texans is the highest level of disrespect you will find from one team to another in this league
Don’t be fooled by claims of honoring the past, or commemorating history. That is merely a convenient, non-confrontational explanation to be petty.
Make no mistake, the Titans are doing this to give the Texans the middle finger. They are wearing Oilers uniforms in Nashville to add insult to the injury of packing up Houston’s pro football history and bailing.
Never forget how bitter the ending was for the Oilers here. It was so bad by the end of 1996, the NFL agreed to allow the franchise to move to Tennessee a year early, just to avoid the pitiful crowds that were showing up to the Astrodome at that point.
The gameday radio broadcasts were punting on the end of Oilers games in favor of Rockets preseason games, an unfathomable idea 27 years later.
Houston went five seasons without an NFL franchise before the Texans debuted in 2002. They have been a division rival of the Titans ever since, though this is their first time wearing Oilers uniforms against the newer Houston franchise.
On their ticket site, the Titans are even marketing this one as Texans vs. Oilers, further hammering home the point of them owning the history and uniforms in a foreign place. The disrespect!
o be clear, not every Texans fan is passionate about the Oilers. 27 years is a long time to get over an ex. 21 years is plenty of time to fall in love with something new. Despite that, the Venn diagram on Texans-Oilers/Titans fans only overlaps but so much.
Some Oilers fandom went with them to Tennessee and never looked back. Some Texans fans are either too young, or simply were not cheering for Houston professional football in the 1990s. But for where the overlap does exist, cringeworthy and frustrating can only begin to describe the feeling.
