Join us as Scott Perry returns to the podcast for a deep dive into the fascinating history of the Houston Oilers and Tennessee Titans. Scott argues that despite the move from Texas to Tennessee, the franchise possesses an unbroken identity that shapes everything we see on the field today. Scott frames the conversation around his book, NFL Since 1970, which provides a visual record of franchise standings.
We trace the journey from the pre-merger roots and early AFL glory days—including the costly release of George Blanda—through the turbulent post-merger decades. From the agonizing late-70s playoff battles against Pittsburgh and the high-flying Warren Moon era to the devastating 1993 Buffalo comeback and the magical run to Super Bowl XXXIV, every era has left its mark.
The conversation also covers modern milestones, such as the 2019 playoff upset in Foxborough that signaled the end of Tom Brady’s Patriots career, alongside the ongoing evolution of team culture, coaching, and aesthetics (including the beloved “Love You Blue” throwbacks).
Key Highlights
- Franchise Continuity: Why the Oilers and Titans story is one continuous, connected narrative.
- Historical Turning Points: Examining the impact of pivotal personnel choices like letting George Blanda go.
- Heartbreak and Triumph: Revisiting the highs of the Warren Moon years and Super Bowl XXXIV alongside the lows of the 1993 Buffalo collapse.
- Modern Eras: Breaking down the 2019 New England playoff stunner and recent shifts in team identity.
- Aesthetic Heritage: How modern uniform updates and helmet designs reconnect fans to the “Love You Blue” era.
- Featured Book: Scott introduces his comprehensive compendium, NFL Since 1970, which contextualizes these moments within the wider post-merger landscape.
Note: Check out the show notes below for links to Scott Perry’s book, NFL Since 1970, and archival artifacts mentioned in this episode!
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Transcript
Scott, welcome back to the Pig Pen.
Speaker B:Hey Darren, thanks for having me.
Speaker B:I just really appreciate being a semi regular on the program.
Speaker B:It's really, it's top notch entertainer.
Speaker B:So that's great.
Speaker B:Hey, I've got a topic today on the team.
Speaker B:So my book is all helmets because when I became a football fan back after watching NFL films on na, on Inside the NFL and hbo, I don't know what got into me, but I was instilled with becoming a purist right away.
Speaker B:So I just didn't like cities losing their teams.
Speaker B:So that's why this topic today of talking about the Tennessee Titans and I have the old helmet, the new helmet's a nice improvement going back a little bit more retro, but it's still not the Houston Oilers.
Speaker B:Love you blue.
Speaker B:But that's who we're talking about.
Speaker B:The Houston Oilers slash Tennessee Titans.
Speaker B:You know, when people ask me about how I correlated the teams in my book, it's just, it's, it's all based on the franchises.
Speaker B:There's no, there's no wackiness with, with Baltimore or Houston or, or any other organization.
Speaker B:It's just how it plays out.
Speaker A:So yeah, it's pretty, pretty clean cut from Houston to Tennessee.
Speaker A:That's, that's an easy one.
Speaker A:Much easier than the Ravens or like you said, the Texans.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker A:Go ahead.
Speaker A:What do you got today for us?
Speaker B:So you know, the Oilers are my Titan helmet.
Speaker B:We'll put it up here.
Speaker B:The, the Oilers won the first two championships in Bronco history.
Speaker B:It's all about Bronco history.
Speaker B:ions in their league were the:Speaker B:And then they played, they, they lost to Dallas who became the Chiefs next season.
Speaker B:So they had a really great start to their, to their NFL hit, to their AFL history in the, in the city of Houston by 67.
Speaker B:So we're going to talk about a couple things that frustrate me by this organization.
Speaker B:Not only moving but personnel positions that they, that they made that really there's teams that I dislike and when you help them out, I'm really going to get on their case.
Speaker B:So here's, here's, here's the case with the Houston Oilers.
Speaker B:So, so they were the champions early on and then they made a resurgence back in 67.
Speaker B:But the 67 season starts with the release of George Blanda.
Speaker B:He took him to, he won those championships.
Speaker B:I think he maybe won the 60 for sure.
Speaker B:And I can't remember the quarterback that won the 61 title.
Speaker B:But anyway, Blanda, what an amazing story.
Speaker B:If you've done a show on Bland before.
Speaker B:Darren.
Speaker A:Yeah, we, we've had some guests talk about Blanda.
Speaker A:Yeah, he's an amazing character.
Speaker B:Well, here it is.
Speaker B:The, the oil organization releases him.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:And a team picks him up and beats him in the game to go to the Super Bowl.
Speaker B:So the, the a AFL championship leading up to Super Bowl 2 was the Oilers playing the Raiders.
Speaker B:And Oilers did not do good defending against George Blanda who is now a Raider.
Speaker B:And he, I mean Blender was amazing and he just came through and took the Raiders to the super bowl as a result.
Speaker B:Now talking about, I mentioned in the past the what if Super Bowls had at the the Oilers won and had the, the Ice bowl been reversed, which I'm glad it wasn't.
Speaker B:But had that been the case, it would have been Houston versus Dallas again for another championship.
Speaker B:Back in 62 it was Dallas versus Houston, but it was the Texans versus the Oiler.
Speaker B:So anyway, frustrating.
Speaker B:As you know as a Bronco fan, I give talks to senior communities here and I have to find the older folks to know who the Bronco's biggest rival is.
Speaker B:And it is the Raiders.
Speaker B:And the Oilers gave the Raiders their only AFL championship by letting Blanding go.
Speaker B:And he was an amazing player.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker B:And then it went down from hill from there.
Speaker B:So the first two years in the NFL, 28 games, two wins for the Houston Oilers.
Speaker B:Well that's not true.
Speaker B:They won a couple this first year.
Speaker B:But I love the fact that the years that the back to back Dolphins won Super Bowls, Oilers managed to win a game a season.
Speaker B:So they were the polar opposite of the dolphins in 72 and 73.
Speaker B:And we go on to more Houston history and we talk about 78, 79 controversial AFC championship games where they lose to the Pittsburgh Steelers and it wasn't.
Speaker A:Controversial here in Western Pennsylvania.
Speaker A:We loved it.
Speaker B:You know what I'm talking about.
Speaker B:But the door didn't get kicked in, did it?
Speaker B:That's a bummer.
Speaker B:I mean I, I, you know my, I mentioned Earl Campbell on my what if Super Bowls because he didn't play.
Speaker B:I mentioned four guys and Earl was one of them guys that got to the conference title game but didn't get to go to play the Super Bowl.
Speaker B:So that's, that's pretty brutal.
Speaker B:rs play the buccaneers in the:Speaker B:So that's A big part of the team history.
Speaker B:And then you have to fast forward.
Speaker B:I have.
Speaker B:I don't know if you can see it, but I got Warren Moon in the corner up here.
Speaker B:But going.
Speaker B:Going to Buffalo in 93.
Speaker B:In fact, I might.
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker B:Warren was the quarterback in 93, I'm pretty sure.
Speaker B:Does that sound right?
Speaker A:Yeah, it does sound right.
Speaker A:I think that was the.
Speaker A:The run and shoot, the Mouse Davis offense going.
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker B:So they show up in Buffalo and they're leading 35 to 3 at halftime.
Speaker B:And.
Speaker B:And.
Speaker B:And Jim Kelly's not even playing.
Speaker B:It's Frank Wright, and it's not good.
Speaker B:So, anyway, that's the memory of a Buffalo playoff game for Oilers fans being up 35 to 3 and going home as the Bills go on to play another Dallas team and get beat in another Texas team and get beat in the championship.
Speaker B:So that's pretty brutal.
Speaker B:So now it's:Speaker B:The Oilers become the Tennessee Oilers.
Speaker B:And that's.
Speaker B:I mean, it's just the whole thing of.
Speaker B:I'm, you know, I really wish they would have stayed that way.
Speaker B:But 96 and 97 or 97 and 98, they finish 8 and 8, so they're 500 both.
Speaker B:And in those two years, my Denver Broncos are world champions.
Speaker B:But then LA retires, what happens?
Speaker B:19.
Speaker B:I just happen to have a. I had it.
Speaker B:I had a. I had a display of football cards I wanted to show you.
Speaker B:I have the receiver, Dyson.
Speaker B:It's:Speaker B:I love wacky facts.
Speaker B:The Titans beat the Jaguars both games.
Speaker B:They're in the same division in that year.
Speaker B:You remember that.
Speaker B:And then the Titans beat the Jaguars in the AFC championship game.
Speaker B:The Jaguars record that year was 14 and 3.
Speaker B:Every loss was to the Titans.
Speaker B:The Titans went on to their super bowl after winning the AFC Championship.
Speaker B:That's really wacky history you can't make up.
Speaker B:But anyway, so this helmet is worn for the first time at.
Speaker B:During the 99 season.
Speaker B:So Dyson puts that helmet on, he goes out and he catches the last pass of the season.
Speaker B:And he.
Speaker B:And in my mind, he's.
Speaker B:Well, he's going backwards, but I think I just saw a video where he's stretching as far as he can.
Speaker B:He's laying there, and he hears the gun go off.
Speaker B:The game's over.
Speaker B:He gets up and he sees he's one yard short of the end zone.
Speaker B:So that's.
Speaker B:That's not so great to be a 11 appearance.
Speaker B:One yard short.
Speaker B:win their first Super bowl in:Speaker B:,:Speaker B:So that's, that's a big deal.
Speaker B:And then we talked about Blanda being released adversely affecting them.
Speaker B:Okay, so let's go to the:Speaker B:Somebody's got a 14 and 2 record.
Speaker B:I can't remember which team it was but The Chiefs finished 12 and 4 and so did the Patriots.
Speaker B:So the Patriots lose the tiebreaker and they have to play the wild card at 12 and 4.
Speaker B:And here come the Titans to New England and there goes Tom Brady's career.
Speaker B:Mike Vrabel comes into New England and ends the Brady era by beating Belichick and Brady and rest is history.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:The Titans go on to beat the Ravens in Harbaugh.
Speaker B:That's another big deal.
Speaker B:But then they go on to lose to to Mahomes.
Speaker B:Okay, but.
Speaker B:And you know my frustration is just it's pretty big with the organization of Tennessee.
Speaker B:So they fire Bravel and what happens?
Speaker B:They pick them up.
Speaker B:The Patriots pick them up and they come to Denver this year and they beat us.
Speaker B:So I, you know I mentioned in my book that the debt, the dynasty is over.
Speaker B:I mean I 2, 3 and 14 seasons.
Speaker B:I mean that's it.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker B:er, but I call them the Ghost:Speaker B:So, so that's where they're at.
Speaker B:They have not.
Speaker B:They went back to it.
Speaker B:They changed colors back to the love you blue shade of blue.
Speaker B:And that's, that's a good step.
Speaker B:I know that the correction like St. Louis going back to LA probably isn't going to happen for either of these Tennessee Houston organizations.
Speaker B:But anyway that's good, that's, that's good coverage of that history and I hope you guys are, are more informed about the team when you see them.
Speaker B:And thank goodness I'm a big white helmet guy.
Speaker B:So we're back to white in Tennessee.
Speaker B:That's good.
Speaker A:Yeah, they people are loving the two tone blue.
Speaker A:So I know that's a big hallmark for them right now.
Speaker A:The fans are calling that out so that they love that too in Tennessee just like they did in the love of your blue era of the Houston Oilers.
Speaker A:from your book, you NFL since:Speaker A:Why don't you tell folks a little bit about the book and where they can get it?
Speaker B:Sure, yeah.
Speaker B:I appreciate you showing the COVID Darren, but it's just a book that I moved from from Rochester to Denver in junior high I graduated.
Speaker B:The number of playoff wins by my Broncos was zero after those five years.
Speaker B:So I sat down and I manually without a computer, in a cold January of 86, I added up every NFL game by every NFL team from kickoff 70 until that end of the 85 season, which was a frustrating season where The Broncos won 11 games and stayed home from the playoffs.
Speaker B:But I knew in the back of my mind that I had a 75% chance of watching the Broncos win in Mile High Stadium.
Speaker B:And when I did this statistic, 75% of the teams had a lesser winning percentage in regular season since the merger.
Speaker B:And I said, okay, not going to revert back to being a Bill span.
Speaker B:I'm keeping the Broncos number one.
Speaker B:And it's just the ultimate visual standings of what the teams look like each season.
Speaker B:And then the other page is the compilation and you manually flip it up when you own a virtual copy and you can watch your franchise go up and down based on ownership, head coach, quarterback.
Speaker B:And I have so many different stories to talk about the different quirky things that's happened in this book.
Speaker B:I know I'll.
Speaker B:I'll get to them with you, Darren, as our weeks go by here.
Speaker A:Yeah, but in the meantime, folks, if you want to get a copy of the book, we have links to it with our Amazon associate link in the show notes of both YouTube and the podcast.
Speaker A:You can get connected to Scott's book and get your own copy and find out what's going on with that.
Speaker A:So great stuff, Scott, and we would love to talk to you about some more football history next week.
Speaker B:Great.
Speaker B:Thanks for having me, Darren.
Speaker C:That's all the football history we have today, folks.
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