“We’re Not Houston”
Posted: November 27, 2005 @ 1:00 pm
Cowboys fans will remember that was Jimmy Johnson’s response to NBC announcer Jim Gray in a halftime interview during Super Bowl 27. The Cowboys had a big lead and Gray wondered aloud whether Buffalo could come back the way they had against Houston, when they erased a 35-3 Oilers lead in the divisional playoffs.
That line came to me watching TV a few minutes ago. I live in the Austin area. The CBS affiliate here has given us the Texans games religiously since they were formed. They’ve signed on to pregames and post-games and all forms of promos for that moribund team.
Today? The Texans are playing the Rams, but the CBS affiliate is showing Washington versus San Diego. The need of Cowboys fans to watch their rival apparently is greater than the need of the Austin-area Texans fans — all 187 of them — to watch their boring team.
Tex Schramm used to joke in the ’70s that the Cowboys were more popular in Houston than the Oilers (sorry, Oiler Troll). I can’t speak for Clutch City but it hasn’t taken long for the Texans to lose their Austin beachhead. With the Saints flirting around San Antonio, prospects can’t be hot for the Texans there either.
It’s good to be the king.
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From what I understand that is a large reason the Oilers migrated North in the first place. They weren’t the dominate team in Texas and therefore had a larger market in a state that was barren of Pro Football.
Yikes, in a few years maybe there will be the South Dakota Texans.
I know were getting a new state of the art stadium, which is long overdue, but watching the game thursday and the shots of the stadium from the air with all the patching on the roof that has gone on over the years, Jerry, since were getting that new stadium and not moving for four years, spend some money and get someone to paint the roof of texas stadium, its a disgrace to look at all that patch work on national TV.
well said about the roof, it does look a bit ‘low rent”.
i remember sitting next to part of the ceiling that had fallen on the seat next to me when i was at the nfl rushing record setting a.k.a emmitt ‘diamond among trash’ moment. i think jj spends as much money on texas stadium as on nick eatman.
Derrick,
Yeah, I noticed that too on the blimp shots. It’s unsightly, to say the least.
Yeah, I keep expecting them to throw some tires on top of Texas Stadium to complete that trailer park look it has going right now! Ha!
i went down there to see the cardinals game and looked out the window and seriously thought texas stadium was under construction or being renovated, its uglier than i remember
Oh…oh…oh…you did NOT just say that, did you? You did NOT just say that!
Hi Everybody!
Upon reading that headline and the post that followed, Oiler Troll did not know whether to laugh, cry, puke, spit or eat.
The mention of Jim Gray was the deciding factor - a good puke/spit combo (don’t blame Oiler Troll for being gross - this is the blog’s fault).
Now with that unpleasantness out of the system, Oiler Troll must say something - must you have brought up the biggest choke in all of football history to a scrub Maryland quarterback? Has Oiler Troll not been supportive of the Cowboys? Has Oiler Troll not been supportive of this site? Did Oiler Troll not feel pangs of sorrow and remorse this past Thursday over a friggin kicker named “Cundiff”? Has Oiler Troll not been pushing Taco Cabana to name a breakfast plate after Drew Bledsoe? Has Oiler Troll not done everything he could to get Salmita Hayek and Penelope Cruz on the field at Texas Stadium?
Yes, Oiler Troll remembers all too well having a good time at a Super Bowl Party (in Lubbock of all places) watching the Cowboys dismantle a team he hated with vigor, the Buffalo Bills - there was liquor, there were women (bored, but pretty women, which was nice but does not compare with having your team in the SB).
The game was going well…then Jimmy had to up and say that - Oiler Troll mumbled quietly, “Ah man, why’d he have to say that?” Oiler Troll proceeded to get drunk and then go outside to kick a soccer ball. The pretty girls left Oiler Troll alone, strangely enough…but then again they always did that…
And no, young Blair Leake, that is not why the team formerly known as the Houston Oilers left town. They left town because Bud Adams had finessed his way on to the NFL Expansion Committee and saw how lucrative it was to extort cities for stadiums. He saw Art Modell do it with Cleveland (also on that committee, so they both knew what proposals were on the table for stadium deals and other lures - it was amazing what Baltimore and Nashville were willing to do).
To Adams’ credit, he had roots in Houston and actually wanted to stay there. He demanded that Harris County and the Astrodome’s master tenant, the Houston Astros, do something about the dome for him. Because the county, the Astros, and the community in general told him they had already put in 10,000 extra seats, he may go take a hike. Bud went looking elsewhere and he wasn’t tactful about it (there was a lawsuit over the pre-season game cancelled for poor field conditions…which is how the football playing surface had been since 1968 when the Oilers first moved in). In any event, Nashville was courting…hard - guaranteed sellouts, parking, concessions, training facilities, nannies, call-girls, BBQ, whatever.
Houston fans, living in a city larger than Dallas but not in a larger media market, lived, breeathed and died with the Oilers, so understand that there was no lack of a fan base. It was very frustrating to see ESPN and others chastize the community for being poor sports fans and not supporting the team. it is strange to think of Bud having media savvy, but he effecitvely did by way of his position amongst the football owners (again, he had seniority so he was on a bunch of NFL committees and had unusual swat for an antagonistic fellow). So his media savvy manifested itself in turning people away from his team, his product, the Oilers, to make a stronger case for moving. The empty stadiums you may remember seeing were after Bud and Nashville committed to exclusive negotiations…and Chrystal Chandilier was leading the team at QB. Oddly enough, the almost made the playoffs.
What got things so screwed up were several factors:
1) Bud had the social skills of a tree stump, so even on the few occasions he was right, people and the local media took sides against him. He was always, wrong, greedy, and to hell with that guy. Consider the addage, crowds don’t think - they react. Houston was a big crowd that always reacted to Bud. The city chose not to think things through with Bud;
2) The local media was truly not professional in their understanding of football (think Skip Bayless x 10, and also think of Rafaels previous post about people complaining about “playcalling” vs “execution” but not really understanding what the team was trying to do). So now imagine these guys making their livings off of feeding the reactionary crowd that was the Houston fan base. It wasn’t pretty to watch, trust me; and last,
3) Complacency and lack of foresight - people thought, “Why would the Oilers ever go any place?” and “Why should we hand over our tax money to make a bratty Oil Executive Kid Pro Franchise owner richer?”
The Houston community failed to see the future - if you want to be a pro-sports town, you have to provide the stadium, the parking rights, the concessions, guaranteed sell-outs and just about every ounce of your soul to play with the big boys. After Houston made its mistake, the Astros got a nice new stadium (Arflon Field or something - some company the people there say never existed, a very curious thing).
The Rockets, for their part, after actually getting tremendous support in bringing the city not one but two titles, started making moving threats. It worked and they actually got a publicly financed stadium with a Japanese automaker name on the building, not the city’s. Very strange as this is Texas (as a side note, Toyota got special permission to put the “Go Texan” ag department marketing logo on their trucks made here. It surprised Oiler Troll to learn that the Texas urban cowboy favors Tokyo over Detroit).
Anyway, Houston effectively admitted its misjudment with Bud by putting together the Texans and Reliant Stadium. It was expensive but nobody complained …until now…because the team has no O-line and they are destroying Carr much the same way they destroyed a previous young gun QB from California named Pastorini. Carr at least does not get drubbed on concrete and astroturf. On the other hand, Carr didn’t marry a Playboy Playmate…
Why does this cautionary tale matter to you, Mr. Cowboys fan? Because there is a reason why the new stadium deal for Dallas went as smoothly as it did - Dallas got to stand aside and watch the mistakes of others. The Dallas Cowboys have been and continue to be a better and more professionally run outfit than most of their peers. Appreciate that. Jerry Jones may drive some people nuts, but there is usually a rhyme and reason to his actions…unlike the unlovable tragic figure that is Bud Adams, co-founder of the AFL. Bud Admas should be remembered as fondly as Lamar Hunt will be for being instrumental in improving the game of football…but he won’t be…he pissed off too many people along the way. There is your lesson.
To sum up:
The Cowboys are not a good organization just because they were nice uniforms and play good ball, but because they have been blessed with good leadership and an intelligent, receptive and forward thinking community (and Oiler Troll says that with a grain of salt as he knows that the Cowboys once travelled on seperate busses - one white, one black. Fortunately, those days are long gone).
The Texans need to get that Casserly-Redskins gene out of their DNA and put a better product on the field. They are simply boring to watch.
Now, please do not make Oiler Troll have to hurl/spit again with the double whammy references of both the 35-3 Buffalo lead AND Jim Gray.
Now if you will excuse Oiler Troll while he goes to get something to eat.
OT.
PS
Oiler Troll would pay money to see the “South Dakota Texans”…once….once.
OT
Just so you know, the Texans-Rams game was on Fox, not CBS.
Dangit, Pete,
I hate it when you’re right, and you’re right all the time.
THAT explains it. It didn’t register that the game was in Houston. I had seen in the paper that it was in St. Louis. Not seeing highlights, I didn’t put two and two together.
Darn. That means more moldy Texans games. Of well, I should be happy for the one weekend without them.
Hi Everybody!
Well, Pete makes a good point, but the local CBS affiliate may have noticed the overwhelming lack of complaints about not showing a Texans game.
“Moldy”?
I wouldn’t complain if the local (NYC) CBS affiliate would just quit showing Jets games and show Cowboys games instead. I mean the Jets are making the saying “This is why we play the games” null aand void.
hey, I live in PA, all I get is eagles games…waste of my time
city of irving gave the go-ahead to paint the roof at a cost of $540,000…..but the lease fine print says that it is the cowboys’ responsibility to maintain the stadium (incl. appearance)
http://www.quickdfw.com/news/citystate/stories/DN-cit–texasstadium_11ick.ART.State.Edition1.e0f4650.html
local bar always saves me from the local foreskins on TV. At least i get to watch the three times a year on regular tv……Turkey day and when the play washington twice.
Although I have always been a diehard Cowboys fan. Watching Earl Campbell run the football as a Houston Oiler was always fun to watch. They did not have much, and old Earl was one of the few guys I ever saw run out of his jersey. He was just pure power.
Houston Texans have fans? Who knew……..