Why Did the NFL's Oilers Abandon Houston?

[TMC]

The Oilers were one of the most beloved franchises in the NFL, but they ended up leaving Houston in the '90s. They moved to Tennessee to become the Tennessee Titans but left Houston without a football team. Why Did The Oilers Abandon Houston?

In this All Sports History video we'll look back at what happened to the Houston Oilers and how Bud Adams (the owner) and city never saw eye to eye on a new stadium deal (before the Oilers left Houston).

Here's what this "Houston Oilers History" video covers:

The Houston Oilers were a founding member of the American Football League, a rival of the NFL. The team would become an iconic part of sports culture in Houston. So what exactly led to the team leaving the city they called home for 36 years? In today’s video we’ll look back at how one man’s obsession with wanting to build a new stadium led to the team packing up and leaving for good.

We'll also look back at some Houston Oilers highlights throughout their history, such as how the name was influenced by Texas history. Then we'll go through playoff runs of the "Luv Ya Blue" era during the late 1970s through the early 1990s, featuring matchups like the Houston Oilers vs Pittsburgh Steelers, and the Houston Oilers vs Buffalo Bills. Finally, we'll see how the team's legacy has continued to this day with the Tennessee Titans honoring their Oilers past by inducting former players and wearing Houston Oilers throwback uniforms.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMg7K...e=emb_err_woyt

Houston 2021: All three of the cities sports teams are under a blanket of failure. The Astros are one of the most hated teams in baseball due to cheating to win the 2017 World Series. The Rockets have taken a nose dive and have been stripped down to nothing. But the Texans... The Texans are in much worse waters. And it all stems from the 2013 NFL season, and the Greatest Collapse in NFL history. But before we get to the Texans, we first have to go over why the Texans are even in the NFL in the first place: Bud Adams and the Houston Oilers. The Oilers were founded by Bud to form one of the founding teams of the American Football League, and were one of the most dominant teams in said league. But ever since the AFL-NFL merger, there has been nothing but failure after failure. And that failure led to the death of not just the Oilers, but the death of football in Houston. And Bud Adams was at the head of it all. And this would lead the way to the Houston Texans joining the league on the field of play in 2002 as an expansion franchise.

• 0:00 - The Modern Collapse
• 3:58 - Opening
• 5:30 - Prologue: Houston's Self Destruction
• 10:33 - Part 1: Bud Adams and The Houston Oilers
• 11:24 - The Beginning of Houston Football
• 13:49 - Luv Ya Blue
• 17:48 - Back to the Basement
• 19:08 - Moon landing
• 22:28 - The Ultimate Humiliation
• 24:03 - 12-4
• 26:03 - The Final Failure
• 29:47 - The Death of the Houston Oilers
• 34:46 - One Yard Short
• 36:54 - To be continued... The Return of Houston Football

Yes, Bud Adams. But the Astrodome was a dump [and still is], and Houston didn't fight to keep the team nickname, colors, or history. Blegh.

In 1995, the Houston Oilers were in a dangerous situation: The Astrodome, and its renovation ten years earlier, was ineffective at returning to being a good stadium. It was antiquated, dangerous, and lacked amenities that a professional football team desires. Bud Adams pulled a fast one to get the Astrodome upgraded less than ten years earlier, but now he desired something greater. Even if it meant leaving Houston behind, he would get what he wanted.

This video details what happened between the years of 1995-1999 for the Oilers organization. An Oil Crisis was once again on the way, and it would change the futures of many in its wake.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• 0:00 Introduction
• 0:59 Chapter One - A Scorned Ex
• 7:14 Chapter Two - Memphis Blues
• 13:13 Chapter Three - Rehabilitation

[Yong Fang]

I just saw that yesterday. It is one of a series of videos of why teams move.

Pretty simple, the owner, named Bud Adams (why would a grown ass man be named Bud?) wanted a new stadium given to him paid for by tax dollars, and the city already gave him funds to improve the existing stadium from noticeable increases in property taxes.

[TMC]

Originally Posted by Yong Fang

I just saw that yesterday. It is one of a series of videos of why teams move.

Pretty simple, the owner, named Bud Adams (why would a grown ass man be named Bud?) wanted a new stadium given to him paid for by tax dollars, and the city already gave him funds to improve the existing stadium from noticeable increases in property taxes.

Top 5 Reasons You Can't Blame Bud Adams for Moving the Houston Oilers to Tennessee

December 15, 1996: The Cincinnati Bengals defeat the Houston Oilers 21-13 at the Astrodome. It is the last home game the Oilers will ever play. With their move to Tennessee already announced, the attendance is a mere 15,131. I don't have video of this game.

The following Sunday, December 22, 1996, they played their final game as the Houston Oilers, beating the Ravens, 24-21 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Team owner Kenneth Stanley Adams Jr., a.k.a. Bud Adams, moved them to Memphis, playing as the Tennessee Oilers, expecting to play at the Liberty Bowl in Memphis for 2 seasons, while their new stadium in Nashville was being built.

But the people of Memphis, hating Nashville as both the State capital and as a rival for supremacy in the State, never took to the team, and the attendance was as bad as any team has had in the post-World War II era. So Adams cut a deal to share Vanderbilt University's stadium in Nashville for 1998. It seated only 41,000, but they weren't getting that in Memphis anyway, and it was only for 1 season. They became the Tennessee Titans when their new stadium in Nashville opened in 1999.

Bud Adams was an oil company executive from Bartlesville, Oklahoma, whose plane got stranded in a fogged-in Houston airport in 1946. He decided he liked the area, and stayed. When the American Football League was founded in 1960, he set up the Houston franchise, and won the 1st 2 AFL titles.

But the 1961 season remains the last in which the Oilers/Titans franchise has gone as far as the rules of the time allowed them to go. They would lose the AFL Championship Game in 1962 and 1967, and the American Football Conference Championship Game in 1978 and 1979 before the move, and Super Bowl XXXIV in early 2000 after it.

Adams died in 2013, the next-to-last of the original owners still involved. (Ralph Wilson of the Buffalo Bills was the last, and died the next year.)

[Yong Fang]

Me again. I’m from Memphis and yes, we hate Nashville. Although Memphis is in Tennessee, culturally and demographics we are closer to Mississippi really. Plus the fact that the NFL rejected Memphis’ bid to join the NFL (the year Jacksonville and Charlotte got teams) so there was no love lost of the NFL in the city (and really in the end, Memphis would not have been able to afford a team anyway, having to build a new stadium every twenty years and ticket prices).