The Texans-Titans rivalry reached new heights this week.
Things were already tense between the two teams because of the competition in the AFC South as well as the original Houston Oilers leaving the city for Nashville, Tennessee.
Now, former Oilers and Hall of Fame quarterback Warren Moon effectively told the Texans to back off after Houston unveiled four new jerseys , including a blue one that has similar color schemes as the old Houston/Tennessee Oilers uniforms, Hall of Fame quarterback Warren Moon effectively told the Texans to back off.
"The Tennessee Titans own that uniform, they own the history of the Houston Oilers," Moon said Friday on Up & Adams . They had a chance to own it themselves and they didn't want that ownership, they wanted to create their own identity, which makes sense. They're the Houston Texans coming in, let's create out own identity.
"But now because the Houston Oilers uniforms became so popular coming up, they wanted it back. You can't have it both ways."
Moon played 10 years in Houston from 1984 to 1993, three years before the Oilers left Houston in 1996. He won Offensive Player of the Year in 1990, made six consecutive Pro Bowls from 1988 to 1993 and threw for 33,685 passing yards, 196 touchdowns and 166 interceptions in 141 games. The Oilers traded Moon to the Vikings in 1994, where he played three years before time with the Seahawks and Chiefs to finish out his 17-year career.
He finished as a nine-time Pro Bowler and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2006.
After the Oilers moved to Nashville in 1996, they were rebranded as the Tennessee Titans with new uniforms in 1999. Football returned to Houston in 2002 as the Texans but without the iconic blue uniforms
The Titans still wore throwback Oilers jerseys on occasion with the vintage candy paint blue originally popularized in Houston . The Titans wore those jerseys in 2023 against the Texans, but Houston got the last laugh with a big win and a bigger troll job on social media .
So now, after almost 30 years, the Texans are trying to reclaim the Oilers' colors in the team's new colorways. It's not a shot-for-shot remake, as the uniforms lean into the "H-Town" mantra of the city and only highly the blue color. But its close enough to make Moon upset.
"Why can't they just stay with what they had?" Moon added. "They had a really nice-looking uniform the first time. Why do they have to keep harping on that? I don't understand that, I really don't. Have your own identity. You have a really good football team right now that won a playoff game last year, they got a chance to maybe go to a Super Bowl this year, just create your own identity. Forget about the Houston Oilers, forget about the Tennessee Titans... I think if they weren't in the same division, this wouldn't be as big a deal."
The Texans and Titans play at least twice in 2024. We'll see if either wear their Oilers-inspired jerseys against each other.
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