The Oilers are back!
Sorry, Houston. Not your Oilers.
The Tennessee Titans, who felt compelled to rebrand the franchise three seasons after leaving Texas, will wear the old-school Oilers uniforms for two home games this season. The games will be unveiled later this week.
The Titans actually wanted to be the Oilers three times this season.
“The organization inquired about wearing them for a road game in Miami as well, but it doesn’t appear that will come to fruition,” the article from Jim Wyatt of the team’s website explains.
At a time when folks in Houston will be understandably miffed at the move, the Titans have rubbed a little salt in the wound, inadvertently or otherwise, with this all-caps statement on the front page of the team’s Internet portal: “COLUMBIA BLUE AND RED HAVE RETURNED TO THEIR RIGHTFUL HOME.”
Houstonians would say their rightful home is not Nashville. And many non-Houstonians would concur.
Although Houston eventually got a team to replace the Oilers, most people in Houston and elsewhere identify the Oilers with Houston. Not Tennessee. Team founder Bud Adams could have (and arguably should have) continued to call the team the Oilers after it moved. After all, there might not be jazz in Utah or 10,000 lakes in L.A., but there’s definitely oil in Tennessee. The Titans gave up that name; the franchise in Houston should own it.
Meanwhile, it will be interesting to see whether this week’s announcement will be that the Titans transmogrify into the Oilers for Week 15, when Houston’s current team visits.
