Hello BRB faithful, just wanted to introduce myself. My name is Jake, which was a screen name taken on SB Nation, so I chose the name TransientTexan instead because I’m in the Marine Corps and therefore I’ve had to be a Texans fan from a distance. I joined BRB because where I live now I am the only Texans fan I know, so I love to get on the site and BS about our team. I posted a couple of FanPosts that I hope some of you have read and enjoyed, and recently Tim invited me to be a regular contributor. I was completely floored that he would ask me, and I’m absolutely psyched to be writing for the site.
I wasn’t going to introduce myself until my first article, which I am working on now, but something I just saw on NFL Network as I was writing galled me. Let me explain. I lived in Houston until I was 18, and my father raised me right, or in other words, I was an Oilers fan. It was a tradition for the two of us every Sunday to watch the games together. Then in 1997, the unthinkable happened, and Bud Adams moved the team to Tennessee. I was 15 at the time, so I didn’t understand all of the financial aspects of professional sports teams and I was shocked. I didn’t jump on the Dallas bandwagon as many of my friends did, so until the expansion franchise was awarded to Houston I was without a team. My father respected and rooted for the Texans, but I don’t think he ever really got over the loss of the Oilers.
A press conference was just held to declare the newest selections to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. I wish I could tell you who they were, but I have no idea. As I was watching, Rich Eisen announced that the Tennessee Titans and the Buffalo Bills will be playing in the annual Hall of Fame Game, which is a pre-season game held annually to coincide with the Hall of Fame inductions in Canton, OH. I didn't really take notice until he stated that the Titans will be wearing the uniforms of the HOUSTON OILERS.
This is one thing I’ve never understood. When Art Model and the old Cleveland Browns Franchise left for Baltimore in 1996, the city of Cleveland made sure that the Franchise records to include Hall of Fame players and uniforms would remain in Cleveland. When an expansion franchise was awarded to Cleveland, the new team automatically inherited said records. Why didn’t this happen in Houston? Does the NFL actually think that anyone in Tennessee deserves or cares about the Oilers' records?
I wish my first post could have been a more upbeat one, but this is unnerving. I guarantee that I will not watch that game, and even though the Titans fans or the players had nothing to do with this decision, it makes me hate the team that much more and I can’t wait to play them next season. At least we all know who the tradition of the Oilers belongs to--the City of Houston.