Last year, the NFL forced the University of Houston to ditch alternate uniforms that included Houston Oilers-style Columbia Blue. This year, the NFL and the Tennessee Titans gave the Houston Texans permission to use the color in an alternate uniform.
During a Tuesday appearance on SportsRadio 610 in Houston, Texans ownership explains that the two teams and the NFL worked out a compromise that returns Columbia Blue to the Houston NFL team’s color scheme.
“We worked with the NFL, and there was some push and shove and we came to where we . . . could get to with the NFL, giving us a compromise, and sort of a certain percentage in the uniform,” Cal McNair said. “And I think our fans would like more. And we’re probably in that same boat, but we’re working with the powers-that-be with the league and all that stuff to get to where we could get.”
“I think there was some talk,” Hannah McNair added, “I think even publicly we discussed that we were going to be able to use a different color than Columbia Blue, and so when that was released and we got approval to do that, that’s when we started getting pushback. . . . And then it got to a point where they just said, ‘No, you can’t,’ and then we compromised.”
The situation traces to the fact that, when the Oilers left Houston, Houston made no effort to retain the names or the logos or the colors (unlike Cleveland). So the Oilers took their logos and colors and ditched them for the Titans and now use the Oilers as a throwback, even though it makes zero geographic sense to think of the Oilers as a Tennessee property.
Frankly, Houston should own the Oilers name and logo. It’s good that a compromise was done. It would be better if the Texans had the Oilers option.
It would be best if Nike would quit cajoling teams into having umpteen uniforms. The ditching of the one-helmet rule has unlocked a new universe of combinations which will have multiple NFL teams looking like Oregon — all while having more jerseys and helmets to sell, sell, sell.