The Tennessee Titans can trace their history back to when oil tycoon Bud Adams founded the team in 1959. Of course, the team he created was the Oilers, based in Houston, Texas, but they relocated to Tennessee in the late 1990s and renamed themselves the Titans.
Houston is a football town, so when the team moved to another state, it ruffled some feathers within the community. So much so that when the NFL expanded again in 2002, one of the new franchises was started in Houston. Fans of the city’s new team felt that their history had been taken from them by the Titans, but Oilers Hall of Fame linebacker Robert Brazile set the record straight ahead of Super Bowl LIX.
Brazile’s decisive words put into perspective the whole debate surrounding the two teams’ lineages. In reality, the Houston Oilers’ history truly belongs to its founders, who are now the Tennessee Titans.
The city of Houston will not forget the great times that the Oilers brought them, with iconic figures like the great Warren Moon, Earl Campbell, and of course, Brazile. But when these players return to alumni events, it is in Titans blue.
Because of the teams’ geographic proximity and AFC South rivalry, the tensions surrounding the issue are always heightened. But the Titans’ history starts in 1959 and the franchise’s best players know it.
