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NFLN "A Football Life" tonight... 1993 Houston Oilers (1 Viewer)

Raider Nation

Raider Nation

Devil's Advocate
Can't wait for this. 9pm EST. One of the most fun teams in NFL history to watch.

:banned:

On Tuesday night, "Houston '93: A Football Life" airs on the NFL Network.

The episode chronicles the tumultuous 1993 season and features interviews with former Oilers coaches, players and front office staff.

For those Houston football fans who might not remember the 1993 season, it was filled with football, drama and more drama. It's a very-well done special on one of the most interesting seasons in NFL history.

The 1993 Oilers were a Super Bowl favorite but started the year in miserable fashion. They recovered but ultimately the season ended in heartbreak. In between, there was plenty of dysfunction, most of which swirled around new defensive coordinator Buddy Ryan.

Ryan eventually took a swing at offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride in the season finale, an event that gets its fair share of time during the show. Other events covered include the benching of Warren Moon and David Williams' decision to miss a game for the birth of his son.

Moon, Mike Munchak, Buddy Ryan, William Fuller and Gilbride are just a few of the people interviewed throughout the special.
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That year, I started 4 Oilers every week. Moon, Gary Brown and two of the WRs.... Givens and Jeffires.

I missed out on Slaughter and Duncan, or I may have started all six of them. :excited:

 
Near and dear to my heart.....THAT will always be my team and the inspiration for my username. Wont be able to watch it for a couple of days. Such a talented, talented team and Im sure my heart will break again. Babygate, a suicide, coaches fighting on national TV, a phenomenal win streak, etc. Damn dysfunctional fools but I love em. Plenty good enough but never got it done.....

Sigh.....

 
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The collapse against the Bills was one of the major reasons, IMO, why the Run 'n Shoot was destined to become extinct. All you heard after this game was "Run 'n Shoot teams cannot run the ball to close out games" and of course "Run 'n Shoot teams just aren't TOUGH enough." I dare anyone to walk up to Bruce Matthews or Mike Munchak and tell them they're not tough.

Once Mouse Davis and June Jones moved on, this version of the Run 'n Shoot was effectively dead.

Though what Manning runs in Denver is pretty damn close, only with a pass-catching threat at TE.

 
The Buffalo game was the season before and led to the hiring of Buddy Ryan. The 92 team had to fight to make the playoffs. The monumental collapse was a prelude to more drama...

 
This is really well done. Everyone knows about Buddy punching Gilbride, but I had no idea how many personality clashes this team had.

 
Riveting television.

Truth is definitely stranger than fiction.

If someone had made a movie before 1993 with this plot and these characters, it would have been laughed off as being "unrealistic".

 
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MoveToSkypager said:
I can't believe that Houston got a team back after running out the Oilers.
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We didnt run anyone out....we got tired of Bud Adams and his constant threats to move. He and Mayor Bob Lanier got into quite the pissing match after Bud got major Dome renovations when he threatened to move to Jacksonville
 
Then the documentary doesn't tell the whole story... Bud flirted with other cities on a few occasions and then lost a lot of supporters here....In all honesty it was probably time for a new stadium but by then a lot of people were sick of his act and Bob Lanier basically told him where to stick it.

I still feel like if those 90's teams could have broken through the Oilers still might be here though...

 
It would be cool if the Texans would bring back the Oilers name. Hell, they're already going through wholesale changes, why not top it off by bringing back the old name? That could bring alot of excitement back to the city and it's fan base. I miss alot of the old NFL and tradition should be preserved wherever possible. Since Tennessee became the Flaming Thumbtacks, would this even be possible? Is this ever brought up around Houston?

 
Yep that's one of the things Adams insisted on when they became the Titans. Paul Tagliabue agreed....kinda sucks because a lot of that history sits in limbo.

 
Hard to believe the Kevin Gilbride who ran that offense is the same guy with the Giants now. What the hell happened? Did he have a stroke?

 
I caught it today and was thoroughly entertained. This was before my time (I'm 24) and I came away feeling like Buddy Ryan is/was an old stubborn ##### bag. I don't understand the appeal.

 
The Oilers were in the playoffs every year from 1987 through 1993. They were a top-10 offense every single year, and they were top-7 every year from 1988-93. Their defenses were pretty good too, sometimes top-10, at worst around top-15. They never made it to a conference championship.

In 1994 they went 2-14.

In 1995 and 1996 they went 7-9 and 8-8, it's not like they were totally horrible, but still the people wanted them to leave. Bud Adams did not have a good relationship there, things were sour.

To give you an idea about Buddy Ryan, at some point he ordered a hit be put on a kicker.

 
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SameSongNDance said:
I caught it today and was thoroughly entertained. This was before my time (I'm 24) and I came away feeling like Buddy Ryan is/was an old stubborn ##### bag. I don't understand the appeal.
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The appeal is that he was a great defensive coach. He helped take three teams to Super Bowls (1968 Jets, 1976 Vikings, 1985 Bears).
 
Well Buddy was the D Coordinator of the nasty 85 Bears and had some tough defenses he crafted in Philly. The year before in the miserable Buffalo game Jim Eddy seemingly was incapable of making adjustments during the horrific comeback. This included Cris Dishman (our top CB) begging him to cover Andre Reed. Dishman always played outside so Buffalo moved Reed inside to the slot where he thoroughly abused Steve Jackson (I can still see #24 chasing and chasing, much like Brice McCain or Brandon Harris now). It was a thought among some we needed a strong defensive coordinator to help balance our prolific offense, so Bud went out and got Buddy. Guy was a heck of a defensive coach but a complete cancer to that team. Stuff like that never concerned Bud though...he figured that if he paid for it you better make it work.

 
What a shame that franchise is gone. Amazing uniforms. Now we have the ####ing Titans and Texans. Gross.

 
Managed to see it today.

Brings back memories of being a kid with my NFL bed sheets with all the teams names and helmets on my pillow, the Oilers name/helmet always caught my eye.

I agree, the uniforms were cool

 
These guys were fun to watch...and who had better touchdown celebrations and acrobatic catches than Ernest Givens??? Them and "Air Coryell" were amazing to watch back in the day.....good times.

 
I always hated Buddy Ryan, but have to give credit where credit is due. He was the architect of the 46 defense. This defense was the driving force behind the 85 Bears, the single best defensive team I've ever seen.

As.a Cowboys fan, the only AFC team I feared was the Oilers in the early 90's. I always felt that was the one AFC team that could stop the Cowboy running game and beat Dallas in the Super Bowl.

 
Ack88 said:
I always hated Buddy Ryan, but have to give credit where credit is due. He was the architect of the 46 defense. This defense was the driving force behind the 85 Bears, the single best defensive team I've ever seen.

As.a Cowboys fan, the only AFC team I feared was the Oilers in the early 90's. I always felt that was the one AFC team that could stop the Cowboy running game and beat Dallas in the Super Bowl.
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That would have been epic....too bad we never got to find out

 
SameSongNDance said:
I caught it today and was thoroughly entertained. This was before my time (I'm 24) and I came away feeling like Buddy Ryan is/was an old stubborn ##### bag. I don't understand the appeal.
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Go look up the '85 Bears and the Philly teams in the late 80s/early 90s, then report pack young padawan.

 
There really aren't guys as entertaining to watch on the sideline as Buddy Ryan any longer. Unfortunately, these characters are gone (Parcells, Ditka and Glanville were others) and we have mostly plastic coaches now.

The Buddy v Gilbride thing was a classic TV moment, and the great part is that it basically was a team issue which the team needed to address afterwards (or not).

If something like that happened in today's NFL, there would be an emergency meeting in New York the next day, and it would be Goodell himself, a coaches association lawyer and a group of Network executives from CBS, FOX and ESPN who would make the decisions about what should be done about two coaches from the same team throwing punches at each other on National TV. :no:

 
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Houston turmOiler said:
Then the documentary doesn't tell the whole story... Bud flirted with other cities on a few occasions and then lost a lot of supporters here....In all honesty it was probably time for a new stadium but by then a lot of people were sick of his act and Bob Lanier basically told him where to stick it.

I still feel like if those 90's teams could have broken through the Oilers still might be here though...
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Bud was a micromanager even worse than Jerry Jones and the nicest word I will use to describe his attitude towards money was "frugal." He's famous for having a policy where any expenses greater than $200 had to be personally reviewed by him. In '87 he threatened to move the team to Jacksonville unless the city totally paid to rennovate the Dome. The city issued like $70M in bonds to do that and those are still not paid off to this day. In '93 after "The Comeback," he issued an ultimatum of Super Bowl or bust and when they went 12-4, their best record ever but lost in the second round, he gutted the entire roster of a great team (traded Moon) and blew it all up resulting in the 2-14 season in '94.That's when he demanded that the city of Houston build him a brand new stadium and we said no. Nobody wanted the team to leave, but we weren't going to pay for a new stadium less than 10 years after a very expensive renovation and after he gutted the team to boot. So Bud secretly opened talks with other cities and made a surprise announcement midway thru the '95 season that he was moving the team to Nashville. That's when the fans decided to say "f him" and stopped showing up to games.

 
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Haven't seen the NFL Network show yet on this so not sure if the post season is covered or not, but the playoff game at the end of this season between the Chiefs and the Oilers (Montana v Moon) was an outstanding game, worth watching again. I belive someone put the entire game broadcast on YouTube, as I recall seeing a 3Hour+ youtube listing a while back with this game as the title.

 
The Bandit said:
Houston turmOiler said:
Then the documentary doesn't tell the whole story... Bud flirted with other cities on a few occasions and then lost a lot of supporters here....In all honesty it was probably time for a new stadium but by then a lot of people were sick of his act and Bob Lanier basically told him where to stick it.

I still feel like if those 90's teams could have broken through the Oilers still might be here though...
Click to expand...
Bud was a micromanager even worse than Jerry Jones and the nicest word I will use to describe his attitude towards money was "frugal." He's famous for having a policy where any expenses greater than $200 had to be personally reviewed by him. In '87 he threatened to move the team to Jacksonville unless the city totally paid to rennovate the Dome. The city issued like $70M in bonds to do that and those are still not paid off to this day. In '93 after "The Comeback," he issued an ultimatum of Super Bowl or bust and when they went 12-4, their best record ever but lost in the second round, he gutted the entire roster of a great team (traded Moon) and blew it all up resulting in the 2-14 season in '94.That's when he demanded that the city of Houston build him a brand new stadium and we said no. Nobody wanted the team to leave, but we weren't going to pay for a new stadium less than 10 years after a very expensive renovation and after he gutted the team to boot. So Bud secretly opened talks with other cities and made a surprise announcement midway thru the '95 season that he was moving the team to Nashville. That's when the fans decided to say "f him" and stopped showing up to games.
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Yeah that pretty much sums it up...... I miss the hell out of my team its colors and its records. Bud was a Grade A greaseball though and people were sick of him.

 
In essence, the Bills comeback in 92 destroyed the Houston Oilers. In part, because the franchise and the fans let it happen.

Comeback->Ryan->Dysfunction->blowup->losing seasons->Tennessee.

That was such a soul-scorching loss, that it ate away at the team and fan base and led to a psychology the caused the team to leave

 
The combo of a wimpy HC in Pardee with an unfiltered DC in Buddy was destined to fail. Based on player comments, sounded like Pardee wasn't respected by that team.

 
CoachJankySpanky said:
It would be cool if the Texans would bring back the Oilers name. Hell, they're already going through wholesale changes, why not top it off by bringing back the old name? That could bring alot of excitement back to the city and it's fan base. I miss alot of the old NFL and tradition should be preserved wherever possible. Since Tennessee became the Flaming Thumbtacks, would this even be possible? Is this ever brought up around Houston?
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It wouldn't be real fair to former fans of the Oilers who converted to Titan fans to have that name brought back.

 
The Bills loss was sandwiched between the already mentioned loss to Montana and KC and the blown 4th quarter lead to Denver the year before the Bills fiasco. I've always believed it was the cumulative effect of those three playoff disappointments which took the heart out of that fanbase,

 
Area51Inhabitant said:
The Bills loss was sandwiched between the already mentioned loss to Montana and KC and the blown 4th quarter lead to Denver the year before the Bills fiasco. I've always believed it was the cumulative effect of those three playoff disappointments which took the heart out of that fanbase,
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Yep...that combined with Bud's dalliance with other cities and then gutting the team sealed the Oilers' fate
 
NREC34 said:
CoachJankySpanky said:
It would be cool if the Texans would bring back the Oilers name. Hell, they're already going through wholesale changes, why not top it off by bringing back the old name? That could bring alot of excitement back to the city and it's fan base. I miss alot of the old NFL and tradition should be preserved wherever possible. Since Tennessee became the Flaming Thumbtacks, would this even be possible? Is this ever brought up around Houston?
Click to expand...
It wouldn't be real fair to former fans of the Oilers who converted to Titan fans to have that name brought back.
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I am a former Oiler fan who converted to the Titans and would fully approve of bringing back the Oiler name and/or converting the records to the Texans but I am a (former) Houstonian, so take that for it is worth (but I doubt that there are many Oiler/Titan converts that did not live in Houston at some time, as the Cowboys have most of the state outside of Houston). I think it would be great if Earl Cambell were the leading rusher in Texans history (or Billy 'White Shoes' Johnson, George Blanda, or whatever)

That all being said, I would like to note that the defensive players on the '85 Bears carried Buddy Ryan off the field just as the offensive players carried Didka off. The Bear's defense felt like they and Buddy won the SB despite the offense. Buddy Ryan has a history of animosity between offense and defense. It is part of his schtick.

I don't think Bud micromanaged as much as he was cheap. That is just my recollection, though.

Titan

 
Okaaaayyyy, why would Earl Campbell being on the Texans leaderboard make any sense?

He played for the Oilers and that franchise moved to Tennessee and is now known as the Titans. The records and history moved to Tennessee as well.

If you want a Houston sports hall of fame museum, then you could lump Oilers stats with Texans stats.

 
The only thing that would have made sense was to do what Cleveland did.....keep the team name and records, and then have the expansion team pick up where they left off. Its far too late for that now....

 
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