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We Chronicle the Oilers' Rise, Falls, and Enduring Legacy · Sports History Network

• 0:47
  Once again we are joined by Scott Perry, a great historian who's wrote a book, NFL Since 1970.
• 0:53
  Scott, welcome back to the Pig Pen.
• 0:55
  Hey Darren, thanks for having me.
• 0:56
  I just really appreciate being a semi regular on the program.
• 0:59
  It's really, it's top notch entertainer.
• 1:02
  So that's great.
• 1:04
  Hey, I've got a topic today on the team.
• 1:07
  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
• 1:20
  purist right away.
• 1:22
  So I just didn't like cities losing their teams.
• 1:26
  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.
• 1:36
  Love you blue.
• 1:37
  But that's who we're talking about.
• 1:39
  The Houston Oilers slash Tennessee Titans.
• 1:42
  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.
• 1:49
  There's no, there's no wackiness with, with Baltimore or Houston or, or any other organization.
• 1:56
  It's just how it plays out.
• 1:58
  So yeah, it's pretty, pretty clean cut from Houston to Tennessee.
• 2:01
  That's, that's an easy one.
• 2:03
  Much easier than the Ravens or like you said, the Texans.
• 2:06
  Right.
• 2:07
  So.
• 2:10
  Go ahead.
• 2:10
  What do you got today for us?
• 2:11
  So you know, the Oilers are my Titan helmet.
• 2:17
  We'll put it up here.
• 2:18
  The, the Oilers won the first two championships in Bronco history.
• 2:22
  It's all about Bronco history.
• 2:24
  So their first champions in their league were the 1960 and 61 Houston Oilers.
• 2:30
  And then they played, they, they lost to Dallas who became the Chiefs next season.
• 2:37
  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.
• 2:47
  So we're going to talk about a couple things that frustrate me by this organization.
• 2:50
  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.
• 3:00
  So here's, here's, here's the case with the Houston Oilers.
• 3:03
  So, so they were the champions early on and then they made a resurgence back in 67.
• 3:11
  But the 67 season starts with the release of George Blanda.
• 3:16
  He took him to, he won those championships.
• 3:18
  I think he maybe won the 60 for sure.
• 3:21
  And I can't remember the quarterback that won the 61 title.
• 3:25
  But anyway, Blanda, what an amazing story.
• 3:27
  If you've done a show on Bland before.
• 3:30
  Darren.
• 3:30
  Yeah, we, we've had some guests talk about Blanda.
• 3:33
  Yeah, he's an amazing character.
• 3:34
  Well, here it is.
• 3:35
  The, the oil organization releases him.
• 3:38
  Okay.
• 3:39
  And a team picks him up and beats him in the game to go to the Super Bowl.
• 3:46
  So the, the a AFL championship leading up to Super Bowl 2 was the Oilers playing the Raiders.
• 3:53
  And Oilers did not do good defending against George Blanda who is now a Raider.
• 4:00
  And he, I mean Blender was amazing and he just came through and took the Raiders to the super bowl as a result.
• 4:08
  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.
• 4:18
  But had that been the case, it would have been Houston versus Dallas again for another championship.
• 4:24
  Back in 62 it was Dallas versus Houston, but it was the Texans versus the Oiler.
• 4:32
  So anyway, frustrating.
• 4:34
  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.
• 4:42
  And it is the Raiders.
• 4:43
  And the Oilers gave the Raiders their only AFL championship by letting Blanding go.
• 4:50
  And he was an amazing player.
• 4:51
  So.
• 4:52
  And then it went down from hill from there.
• 4:54
  So the first two years in the NFL, 28 games, two wins for the Houston Oilers.
• 5:01
  Well that's not true.
• 5:02
  They won a couple this first year.
• 5:03
  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.
• 5:12
  So they were the polar opposite of the dolphins in 72 and 73.
• 5:16
  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.
• 5:30
  Controversial here in Western Pennsylvania.
• 5:31
  We loved it.
• 5:33
  You know what I'm talking about.
• 5:34
  But the door didn't get kicked in, did it?
• 5:37
  That's a bummer.
• 5:38
  I mean I, I, you know my, I mentioned Earl Campbell on my what if Super Bowls because he didn't play.
• 5:44
  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.
• 5:51
  So that's, that's pretty brutal.
• 5:53
  I mean I would have loved to see the Oilers play the buccaneers in the 1979 Super bowl, but, but that didn't happen.
• 6:00
  So that's A big part of the team history.
• 6:03
  And then you have to fast forward.
• 6:05
  I have.
• 6:06
  I don't know if you can see it, but I got Warren Moon in the corner up here.
• 6:10
  But going.
• 6:12
  Going to Buffalo in 93.
• 6:14
  In fact, I might.
• 6:15
  Yeah, yeah.
• 6:15
  Warren was the quarterback in 93, I'm pretty sure.
• 6:17
  Does that sound right?
• 6:19
  Yeah, it does sound right.
• 6:19
  I think that was the.
• 6:20
  The run and shoot, the Mouse Davis offense going.
• 6:23
  Yeah, yeah.
• 6:23
  So they show up in Buffalo and they're leading 35 to 3 at halftime.
• 6:27
  And.
• 6:28
  And.
• 6:28
  And Jim Kelly's not even playing.
• 6:30
  It's Frank Wright, and it's not good.
• 6:33
  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
• 6:48
  beat in the championship.
• 6:49
  So that's pretty brutal.
• 6:51
  So now it's 1996.
• 6:55
  The Oilers become the Tennessee Oilers.
• 6:58
  And that's.
• 6:58
  I mean, it's just the whole thing of.
• 7:00
  I'm, you know, I really wish they would have stayed that way.
• 7:02
  But 96 and 97 or 97 and 98, they finish 8 and 8, so they're 500 both.
• 7:11
  And in those two years, my Denver Broncos are world champions.
• 7:14
  But then LA retires, what happens?
• 7:17
  19.
• 7:17
  I just happen to have a.
• 7:21
  I had it.
• 7:22
  I had a.
• 7:22
  I had a display of football cards I wanted to show you.
• 7:25
  I have the receiver, Dyson.
• 7:28
  It's 1999, and it's the last game of the season for the Tennessee Titans.
• 7:34
  I love wacky facts.
• 7:37
  The Titans beat the Jaguars both games.
• 7:40
  They're in the same division in that year.
• 7:42
  You remember that.
• 7:45
  And then the Titans beat the Jaguars in the AFC championship game.
• 7:49
  The Jaguars record that year was 14 and 3.
• 7:52
  Every loss was to the Titans.
• 7:54
  The Titans went on to their super bowl after winning the AFC Championship.
• 7:58
  That's really wacky history you can't make up.
• 8:01
  But anyway, so this helmet is worn for the first time at.
• 8:07
  During the 99 season.
• 8:09
  So Dyson puts that helmet on, he goes out and he catches the last pass of the season.
• 8:15
  And he.
• 8:16
  And in my mind, he's.
• 8:17
  Well, he's going backwards, but I think I just saw a video where he's stretching as far as he can.
• 8:22
  He's laying there, and he hears the gun go off.
• 8:24
  The game's over.
• 8:25
  He gets up and he sees he's one yard short of the end zone.
• 8:29
  So that's.
• 8:30
  That's not so great to be a 11 appearance.
• 8:34
  One yard short.
• 8:35
  And the Rams go on to win their first Super bowl in 1990.
• 8:40
  1999, 2000 is the year in January.
• 8:43
  So that's, that's a big deal.
• 8:47
  And then we talked about Blanda being released adversely affecting them.
• 8:53
  Okay, so let's go to the 2019 season.
• 8:59
  Somebody's got a 14 and 2 record.
• 9:00
  I can't remember which team it was but The Chiefs finished 12 and 4 and so did the Patriots.
• 9:04
  So the Patriots lose the tiebreaker and they have to play the wild card at 12 and 4.
• 9:10
  And here come the Titans to New England and there goes Tom Brady's career.
• 9:18
  Mike Vrabel comes into New England and ends the Brady era by beating Belichick and Brady and rest is history.
• 9:28
  Right.
• 9:29
  The Titans go on to beat the Ravens in Harbaugh.
• 9:31
  That's another big deal.
• 9:32
  But then they go on to lose to to Mahomes.
• 9:35
  Okay, but.
• 9:37
  And you know my frustration is just it's pretty big with the organization of Tennessee.
• 9:43
  So they fire Bravel and what happens?
• 9:47
  They pick them up.
• 9:48
  The Patriots pick them up and they come to Denver this year and they beat us.
• 9:54
  So I, you know I mentioned in my book that the debt, the dynasty is over.
• 9:58
  I mean I 2, 3 and 14 seasons.
• 10:01
  I mean that's it.
• 10:01
  Right?
• 10:02
  So out of nowhere I call them, you know, I'm not a Patriot hater, but I call them the Ghost 2025 AFC Champions having, having not played my, my buddy Bo Nicks in the AFC championship game.
• 10:16
  So, so that's where they're at.
• 10:18
  They have not.
• 10:18
  They went back to it.
• 10:19
  They changed colors back to the love you blue shade of blue.
• 10:23
  And that's, that's a good step.
• 10:25
  I know that the correction like St.
• 10:28
  Louis going back to LA probably isn't going to happen for either of these Tennessee Houston organizations.
• 10:35
  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.
• 10:44
  And thank goodness I'm a big white helmet guy.
• 10:46
  So we're back to white in Tennessee.
• 10:48
  That's good.
• 10:49
  Yeah, they people are loving the two tone blue.
• 10:53
  So I know that's a big hallmark for them right now.
• 10:56
  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.
• 11:05
  So Scott, you're basing a lot of this here and we're showing scenes as you're talking about from your book, you NFL since 1970.
• 11:12
  Why don't you tell folks a little bit about the book and where they can get it?
• 11:15
  Sure, yeah.
• 11:17
  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.
• 11:25
  The number of playoff wins by my Broncos was zero after those five years.
• 11:30
  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
• 11:43
  season where The Broncos won 11 games and stayed home from the playoffs.
• 11:47
  But I knew in the back of my mind that I had a 75% chance of watching the Broncos win in Mile High Stadium.
• 11:53
  And when I did this statistic, 75% of the teams had a lesser winning percentage in regular season since the merger.
• 12:00
  And I said, okay, not going to revert back to being a Bill span.
• 12:03
  I'm keeping the Broncos number one.
• 12:05
  And it's just the ultimate visual standings of what the teams look like each season.
• 12:12
  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.
• 12:24
  And I have so many different stories to talk about the different quirky things that's happened in this book.
• 12:28
  I know I'll.
• 12:29
  I'll get to them with you, Darren, as our weeks go by here.
• 12:34
  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.
• 12:43
  You can get connected to Scott's book and get your own copy and find out what's going on with that.
• 12:48
  So great stuff, Scott, and we would love to talk to you about some more football history next week.
• 12:53
  Great.
• 12:54
  Thanks for having me, Darren.
• 12:57
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• 12:59
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• 13:38
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• 13:43
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