This is the second and final part of my analysis concerning the smallest (revenue) university currently participating in the NCAA’s top athletics division (BCS). 

As mentioned in the previous post, it was reported last week that the University of Louisiana at Monroe posted total athletic revenues of $15,568,952 while its expenses amounted to $16,927,856, resulting in a deficit of $1,358,904 from July, 2018 through June, 2019.

With UL-Monroe already at the

bottom of the revenue charts for the 130 schools competing in the upper tier of

college athletics, it might be a good time to pause and reflect on matters

going forward. 

The ULM Warhawks moved up into the NCAA’s equivalent of the big leagues (formerly Division 1 – now known as the BCS) in 1994.  The football program proudly points to a 21-14 victory over a Nick Saban-coached Alabama Crimson Tide in Tuscaloosa in November, 2007.  For the next year, billboards adorned Interstate 20 in northern Louisiana to celebrate the Warhawks’ signature football win. 

Alas, in the 26 years since moving into the upper ranks, the school’s football program has fielded just one winning season (8-4 in 2012) and one bowl game appearance during that time.

The football-loving state of Louisiana has ten public universities which field college football teams. One other (Tulane University) is a private school and has been omitted from this analysis. 

Louisiana State University, the newly-crowned BCS champions of college football, raked in nearly $158 million in athletics revenue and usually posts a healthy annual profit.  The college football program financially supports all other sports teams (men and women) at LSU with the exception of men’s basketball and baseball.  All other sports at the school lose money if measured on their own.

At UL-Monroe, the annual athletics revenues are just 10% of LSU’s sports budget and must be tightly managed just to break-even on a year-to-year basis. 

A review of the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics for the year 2017 showed that LSU fielded 21 athletic teams with 465 student athletes.  In comparison, ULM supported 17 athletic teams with 358 student athletes participating in 2017. 

With LSU’s 10:1 revenue advantage over ULM, let’s look inside the reasons for that huge financial edge. 

LSU’s undergraduate student body of over 25,000 is more than three times larger than UL-Monroe (about 8,000).  However, the average LSU home football game attracts nearly 100,000 fans per home game (almost 400% the size of the school’s undergrads).  ULM’s home games averaged slightly less than 10,000 fans per game (or just 110% of the undergrad total). 

Revenues from LSU’s large number of private athletic donors generated a whopping 23% of LSU’s annual revenues, while ULM’s sports donors contributed just 7% to the university’s significantly-smaller athletics budget. 

There is no doubt LSU’s ability to deliver football success and a unique fan experience at those games have combined to create a powerful magnet for attracting ticket buyers to football games and thousands of private donors to the athletic program.   A long track record of success gives a distinct advantage to the Tigers from Baton Rouge. 

Let’s now examine the expense side of the ledger:

For UL-Monroe, the percentage of expenses attributable to athlet...

With 130 large universities participating in the NCAA’s top athletics division (the BCS), the University of Louisiana at Monroe has the smallest athletics budget and annual revenue within the entire upper tier group.

To its credit, ULM fields

competitive teams in most major sports and has done an amazing job when

considering its fiscal disadvantage in comparison to most other universities.

In Louisiana, the King Kong of college athletics is certainly Louisiana State University.  The LSU Tigers just won the BCS college football championship, and its college football program fuels and financially supports most of the other sports on campus.    

How big is the fiscal disparity

between the athletics budget of LSU and ULM? 

According a recent report from the state of Louisiana’s Legislative Auditor, ULM reported total athletic revenues of $15,568,952 while its expenses amounted to $16,927,856, coming out to a deficit of $1,358,904 from July 1, 2018 to June 30, 2019.

In comparison, it was recently reported that the LSU athletics revenue totaled a whopping $157.8 million over the same period. 

We don’t need a calculator to see that LSU generated ten times the annual revenue from its college athletics program than their friends on the Bayou in northeast Louisiana at UL-Monroe. 

LSU is the state of Louisiana’s flagship university for several important programs and has over 25,000 undergraduate students.  By comparison, ULM is home of the state’s nationally-recognized public Professional Pharmacy program.  But the Fightin’ Pharmacists and ULM’s 8,000 undergrad students in Monroe won’t be able to compete at the same fiscal playing field with LSU’s athletics program  anytime soon – if ever. 

The state of Louisiana makes no bones about its love affair with football.  The NFL’s New Orleans Saints are cherished and beloved within the state and the Gulf South region. 

Louisiana’s high school football programs have long been known as fertile recruiting grounds for major college football programs around the country.   The last two ACC “Offensive Player of the Year” awards have gone to running back Travis Etienne of Clemson.  He is from Jennings, Louisiana (just 94 miles west of the LSU campus in Baton Rouge). 

The Bayou State is the 25th most populous of the 50 states with over 4.6 million residents.  For a state of its size, Louisiana boasts an abundance of college football teams within its large number of state universities, too.

The Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics has compiled a very interesting and thorough compilation of statistics regarding the financial revenues and expenses for the majority of college athletics programs for America’s public universities. 

Let’s take a closer look at how the Louisiana state schools’ college athletics programs fared for the most recently published year in 2017:

Excluding private school Tulane, there are four Louisiana public universities currently competing in the 130-team upper division of co...

This Sunday evening at 5:30 PM Central time, millions of Americans and a worldwide audience will tune their television sets to watch the NFL’s final football game of the season. 

The AFC Champion Kansas City Chiefs will appear in the 2020 “Big Game” for the first time in fifty years and play the NFC Champion San Francisco 49ers.

Though you and your friends may go ahead and call this event “Super”, this is a friendly reminder to you (and your business or church) to do so at your own peril.  The very wealthy NFL has their very hungry lawyers on 24/7 alert this week in the unfortunate event that you name your business sale or even something which includes the word “Super” and charge money for a product or admission to the event.    

Yes, even churches! 

Back in 2008, a Baptist church

in Indianapolis attempted to charge a small admission for a church-sponsored “Super”

party for families at their facilities.  The

NFL’s lawyers intervened, and the church was advised that they should cease and

desist using the term “Super” for their event.

In 1969, the National Football League has trademarked the names “Super Bowl”, “Super Sunday” and their graphic Super Shield. *

*Note to NFL – I apologize in advance for this one-time unauthorized use for illustrative and educational purposes only.  

If you hear an advertiser (such as a national beer company) utilizing the word “Super”, you can be sure that they are paying the NFL for that precious right. 

Creative businesses resorted

to producing television and radio commercials which are now referring to the

game on Sunday as “The Big Game”.  

The NFL tried (but failed) to

grab that moniker, too!  A few college

football teams had already been referring to their annual match-ups as “The Big

Game”, so the NFL doesn’t own that name (yet). 

I think it’s a super idea for us to expand our vocabulary to find another way to refer to Sunday as something other than “The Big Game”.   Let’s turn to the dictionary and identify other names we should start to use.

A used car dealer might try this.  “Come on down to Mr. Haney’s AutoMart and check out our Sensational Sunday car line-up and pick up a superb deal prior to kick-off this weekend!”

A local pub could try another tact.  “Hey, everybody!  Moe’s Bar is featuring a Magnificent Sunday special!  Come in to watch this outstanding football game on our 100 televisions with topnotch half-price food and drinks!”

Here’s something else to

consider for this Sunday’s NFL football finale.

Did you know that the halftime entertainment for the first 25 of these football games did not involve an entire halftime filled with headline-grabbing, big-name entertainers?

Yes, those of us who are old enough to remember 1967 (the very first Big contest), it wasn’t until 1991 when pop group New Kids on the Block became the first headliner musical act to be featured as the primary halftime entertainment for the game.

Before that, halftime shows included an assortment of talented college marching bands, precision drill teams, a singing and dancing group called “Up with People”, and a few well-known entertainers also made appearances as a minor part of halftime festivities.

In 1960, the Washington Senators of Major League Baseball left town and now play ball in Minneapolis as the Minnesota Twins. 

Though the nation’s capital

eventually landed another baseball team, you might notice that they’re called

the Washington Nationals today. 

Perhaps the nickname “Senators” didn’t exactly inspire fans to cheer and rejoice?

This week, I have learned that there are exactly 100 jobs in this country that I really wouldn’t want.

Yes, I know there are a few television

shows about so-called “Dirty Jobs” that feature people working in rather vile

and miserable conditions.

One website published a list of the top five U.S. jobs which are, on average, the hardest to fill. 

A podiatrist makes an average

salary of nearly $130,000, but you must go to college for years and then work

on people’s feet – every day – for a living. 

P.U.!

Bad Job #3 on that list was a Gastroenterologist.  Like the Podiatrist, this job requires endless years of college education with your life filled with years of looking into well – uh – you know!

This week, though, I have now

found a job which seems worse than any of the others on that Top Five

list. 

It’s a U.S. Senator!  Talk about a hard job!

The pay isn’t bad for this six-year gig.  The 2019 listed salary for rank-and-file members of the U.S. Senate was $174,000 per year.

Then

again, you have to live in the Washington, D.C. area where the cost of living

is quite expensive, too. 

Beginning

this week, the 100 men and women of the U.S. Senate are earning their pay in a

way which I doubt any of us would want to do. 

During

the current Impeachment trial now being conducted in the Senate, the term “Sitting

Senator” takes on a special meaning. 

Beginning this week, these 100 Senators are being forced to sit (no cellphones or gadgets to play with) and listen to endless hours of oral arguments from their colleagues (or arch-enemies, depending on which Senator you ask) in the U.S. House of Representatives as to why they believe the President of the United States should be removed from office.

You may hear the term “solemn duty” from television commentators the next few weeks when referring to the job being performed by these 100 men and women in the Senate.

No.  This event is more like being locked in the U.S. Senate’s version of Hades!

Let’s

go to the rule book, and I will convince you that being a Senator during an

Impeachment trial may be the worst job in America this week.

According to Riddick’s Senate Procedures, these 100 pour souls comprising the U.S. Senate must follow a specific set of rules whenever they are charged with making the final decision as to whether the Impeachment resolutions brought over to them by their former friends in the House of Representatives are to be enforced or rejected.

It’s making more sense to me why those House Impeachment managers were slow-walking their Articles of Impeachment into the Senat...

Intrastate college basketball rivals Kansas State and the University of Kansas squared off in a conference men’s basketball game Tuesday night at KU’s legendary Phog Allen Fieldhouse.

By the game’s end, they

literally squared-off!

Kansas fans were happy that

their home court Jayhawks (now 15-3 on the season) were about to dispatch their

in-state rival, Kansas State, 81-60. 

With less than ten seconds

left in the game, a Kansas State player stole the ball at midcourt and was

heading for a relatively meaningless last second “garbage time” basket right

before the closing buzzer.  Kansas

already led by 20 points, so this game was effectively over.

Then, Kansas junior forward, Silvio De Sousa, came flying down the court and attempted to block that last second shot by rival Kansas State.  After he blocked the shot, De Sousa then taunted the opposing player by standing over him and shouting something (use your imagination).    

The Kansas State bench (closer

to this action) bolted to the rescue on behalf of their downed teammate. 

You can guess what happened.   A massive basket-brawl ensued for over a minute

afterwards.    

For Silvio De Sousa, it was

bad enough that he violently attacked an opposing player with just seconds

remaining in a blow-out win for his team.  

Once the fight broke out, the instigator of this ugly incident went

full-fledged WWE.

De Sousa actually grabbed a

folding chair and had it raised and ready to strike someone!

Fortunately, someone else

pulled it out of his hands as the brawl started to simmer down.

It may have been late

January, but a totally different type of March Madness was on display in

Lawrence, Kansas last night. 

Today, Silvio De Sousa was indefinitely suspended from the Kansas Jayhawks men’s basketball team.  The player was averaging just over two points and eight minutes per game, so it’s unlikely that he will be missed from the court for the third-ranked Jayhawks. 

Kansas hoops coach Bill Self said today:  “I have suspended Silvio De Sousa indefinitely pending the final outcome of the review by KU and the Big 12 Conference. As I said last night, we are disappointed in his actions and there is no place in the game for that behavior.”

As for me, I can somehow picture

Silvio De Sousa back in uniform and on the court for the Jayhawks before NCAA

tournament time rolls around in several weeks. 

This isn’t the first problem

which Silvio DeSousa has been involved in at Kansas.  Two years ago, the young man was handed a

two-year ban by the NCAA after an Adidas representative testified in an FBI

trial involving college basketball that he had paid $2,500 to De Sousa’s

guardian during De Sousa’s recruitment into college.  

After the two year ban was

announced, Kansas basketball coach Bill Self angrily complained about the NCAA’s

decision to ban De Sousa. 

Self said, “In my 30-plus years of coaching college

basketball, I have never witnessed such a mean-spirited and vindictive

punishment against a young man who did nothing wrong”.

He added, “To take away his opportunity to play college

The Super Bowl is coming in

two weeks!  After Sunday’s AFC and NFC

Championship games, this year’s professional football finale will be notable in

a number of ways.

The biggest one is the list of long-time NFL quarterbacks who will not be in the line-up when the AFC’s Kansas City Chiefs kick-off against the NFC Champion San Francisco 49ers.

Coming up in two weeks at this

year’s Super Bowl, casual fans will not find such NFL mainstays such as Tom

Brady (age 42), Aaron Rodgers (36), Drew Brees (41), Eli Manning (39), or Big

Ben Roethlisberger (37) at the helm of either football team.

Things are changing quickly in

the NFL this post-season. 

Perennial Super Bowl star Tom Brady’s New England Patriots lost in the first round this year to the Tennessee Titans.  Likewise, Drew Brees and the New Orleans Saints lost in the first round to the Minnesota Vikings.  Eli Manning and Big Ben’s teams didn’t even make the post season.  At least Aaron Rodgers and Green Bay made it to the NFC Championship game.

Sadly for Packers’ fans, the “real”

Aaron Rodgers didn’t show up until the second half on Sunday afternoon after

the 49ers had seized control of the game in the first half leading 27-0 going

into halftime.

Though Aaron Rodgers still

has a lot of talent, his uninspired play in 2019 has been hard to watch.  He appears sleepy and lethargic both in the huddle

and on the sidelines.  He wasn’t exactly

a fiery leader in his younger days, but Packer fans may wonder if their

quarterback spends too much time these days doing insurance commercials instead

of working on his game. 

Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers (now 14-4) were blasted back to winter in Wisconsin by a 15-3 San Francisco 49er team that finished 4-12 just one year ago! 

How did this happen?

For San Francisco, you have

to give much of the credit to a new management team which has quietly drafted

and developed a group of solid young players. 

San Francisco’s current General Manager is former NFL defensive back John Lynch.  Lynch went to college at Stanford and then enjoyed a long career playing defense for Tampa Bay (11 years including one Super Bowl win) and Denver (4 seasons).  After he retired, John Lynch (whose father founded a San Diego sports radio station) became a color analyst with Fox Sports covering NFL games. 

It’s rather unusual to move

immediately from the broadcast booth to running an NFL franchise, but that’s what

happened next for John Lynch in January, 2017.

Nearly all of Lynch’s NFL

draft picks in the past two seasons are either starting or contributing to the

49ers on the field.  San Francisco has

added an assortment of talented free agents including quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo

(from New England) and safety Richard Sherman (from Seattle).   

Then John Lynch’s San Francisco team picked-up an assortment of relatively unknown free agents.  On Sunday against Green Bay, running back Raheem Mostert ran the football for four touchdown and 220 yards – the second highest single game rushing total in NFL playoff history. 

Just who is Raheem

Mostert?  After playing college football

at Purdue in the Big Ten, Mostert went undrafted in 2015.  He signed and was cut by the Philadelphia

Eagles, Miami Dolphins, Baltimore Ravens, Cleveland Browns, New York Jets, and Chicago

Bears in just his first two professional seasons!

It hasn’t been the greatest

sports week in Houston.

The Texans blew a 24-point

first quarter lead in their NFL playoff game at Kansas City and were ousted

51-31 on Sunday.

On Monday, the Houston

Cougars’ star quarterback, D’Eriq King, said “Adios” to the school and is

planning to transfer away from the team after promising he would stay in 2020.

But the biggest bombshell in

Houston sports also arrived on Monday. 

The 2017 World Series Champion Houston Astros were taken to the proverbial woodshed by Major League Baseball as punishment for their incredibly juvenile and foolish attempts to steal signals from opposing teams during home games. 

Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred issued a nine-page letter which succinctly details what the Astros players (and others) were doing in order to tip the batter about the next pitch coming from the opposing pitcher. 

You don’t have to read the

entire letter.  I’ll summarize it for you

by providing a little “play-by-play” from audio of the bottom of the 8th

inning in Houston’s home game against the Chicago White Sox from September 22,

2017.  The Astros are trailing 3-1 at

this point in the game.

Astros PA Announcer:  Coming to plate for the Astros  –  #11 –

Evan Gattis!  (Cheers from the sparse

Houston crowd). 

Chicago White Sox pitcher,

Danny Farquhar, looks to the catcher for the sign.

Before the pitch, you hear an

audible “BOOM” coming from somewhere

inside the stadium.

The pitch is a curve ball out

of the strike zone for Ball 1.

The pitcher gets his sign

from the catcher and readies to deliver his second pitch. 

This time, no sounds are heard.

The pitch is a fastball at which Gattis swings and foul

tips for Strike #1.

The pitcher gets his sign

from the catcher and is ready to deliver the third pitch.

This time, a very noticeable “BOOM BOOM” can be heard just before the

pitch is delivered.

The batter watches the ball

delivered low and away for Ball #2.  The

count is 2-1.

The catcher sends the sign to

the pitcher and his fourth pitch is ready to deliver.

No sounds

this time.

The pitch is a fast ball which is fouled out of

play.  The count is now 2-2.

The catcher gives the pitcher

a sign for the next pitch.  The pitcher

acknowledges.

“BOOM BOOM” can be heard right before the pitch is delivered low and

away but fouled by Gattis as the count remains at 2-2.

The sixth pitch is next.  Catcher flashes the sign.  Pitcher readies.

Again, no sound is heard as another fastball

is fouled off the keep the count at 2-2.

Now the fun starts.  As the catcher sends a signal calling the

seventh pitch to the pitcher, a “BOOM

BOOM” is heard again.

This time, the pitcher

signals for a timeout and calls the catcher to the mound.  This particular pitcher, Danny Farquhar,

apparently has discovered that someone is tipping the batter to the pitch

sequence.

The catcher and pitcher

change signs.

With all of the discussion about the LSU vs. Clemson game on Monday and NFL playoff games playing every weekend, a story oozed under the door this week about a former quarterback with the University of Houston declaring that he was entering the NCAA’s so-called Transfer Portal. 

D’Eriq King had a terrific junior season as the starting quarterback for the Houston Cougars back in 2018.  He passed for nearly 3,000 yards and 36 touchdowns.  He ran the ball for another 674 yards and 14 touchdowns. 

Before the 2019 season began, King was considered a potential Heisman Trophy candidate for the University of Houston.

Then “things happened”. 

Despite King’s impressive personal statistics in 2018, the University of Houston dismissed their head football coach, Major Applewhite, after just two seasons.  UH went 8-5 in 2018 but lost their bowl game to Army by an embarrassing 70-14 score. 

The Cougars’ big money boosters (see also “Tillman Fertitta”) put pressure on the school to dump Applewhite and hire a big name football coach to bring the school back into the national spotlight.    

So, Coach Applewhite was

fired. 

In his place, the school hired West Virginia’s head football coach, Dana Holgorsen.   According to sources, Holgorsen’s contract will pay him $20 million over five seasons.  The departed Applewhite would have earned “only” $1.75 million this year had he been retained.

So, how well did this new coach

perform in his first year at Houston?

How about 4-8?

What happened to the Houston Cougars football team?

D’Eriq King, the senior Heisman quarterback candidate, started the first four games for the Cougars this fall in 2019.  The team went a disappointing 1-3, and King’s personal statistics were not impressive, either.  He passed for less than 170 yards/game during that 1-3 start of the season. 

King’s Heisman hopes were

completely dashed by then, and now his NFL draft stock was probably dropping

like a rock, too.

In one of the oddest mid-season moves I’ve ever seen, the University of Houston announced that King (along with one of the team’s best receivers) had elected to stop playing football after Game 4 of the 2019 season and was utilizing a one-time option to “redshirt” (which allows the player to practice with the team but save a year of eligibility for another season). 

That meant that D’Eriq King would begin his one-season “do-over” in 2020 and be eligible to play college football as fifth year senior or graduate student. 

This fall, both King and UH

Coach Holgorsen steadfastly insisted that the senior quarterback was planning

to return to the Cougars football team in 2020 to finish his college football career

in Houston.

On September 24, D’Eriq King said: “I’m staying here. I’m here. If I wanted to

leave Houston and go somewhere else, I could have. I think me being here is

what I want to do and it’s the best opportunity for me. I don’t think anybody

will reach out to me. Even if they do, they should know I’m staying here.”

There wasn’t very much

information provided to the public this fall to suggest just WHY the apparently

healthy starting quarterback was bailing out on his team just four games into

his senior season. 

Can just one play in a season

be the spark that transforms a good football team into a great one?

The 15-0 LSU Tigers won this year’s NCAA college football national championship game last night in New Orleans with a convincing 42-25 win over the very tough defending champions from Clemson.    

LSU found itself trailing by

17-7 early in this game, but there was no sign of panic on the Bayou Bengals

sideline Monday night. 

After all, this team had gained

an element of confidence during the final minutes of their second game of the

season.  There was one play which transformed

the LSU of old into the LS-New team

of 2019.

Let’s set the stage.

In week two of the season, #6

LSU was on the road playing a nationally televised prime-time game against the

#9-rated Texas Longhorns in Austin.  LSU

grabbed a 20-7 first half lead, but the Horns mounted a second half comeback

against the Tigers. 

With LSU’s lead down to seven points with about four minutes remaining in the game, the Tigers faced a third down and 17 yards to go play call at their own 39-yard line.  About 100,000 rowdy Texas fans sensed a chance to get the ball back and tie the football game with one more touchdown in the closing minutes.

Besides, it’s third down and

17 yards to go for LSU, right?

Everyone in the stadium and

watching on television knew that LSU ALWAYS plays conservatively coming down

the stretch in a tight football game.  It

was in their DNA. 

In the long and proud history of LSU football, past teams guided by head coaches like Charley McClendon, Nick Saban, and Les Miles were known as “ground and pound” football squads which could win games with smash-mouth running plays on offense and a rugged defense ready to make key stops in order to preserve the team’s hard fought victories.   

So, on this early September night in Texas, the odds were heavy that LSU (now coached by Louisiana native Ed Orgeron) would opt for a conservative play to run the clock on third down and 17 yards to go with just four minutes left to play in the game. 

Yes, the history of the visitors

from Baton Rouge suggested that LSU would likely try some type of running play or

short pass play.  The Tigers offense

would hope for the best, and, if needed, punt the ball back to the Longhorns and

hope their defense would preserve the victory. 

But tonight would be oh so different for this team of 2019

LSU Tigers.    

On this night in Austin, LSU’s transfer quarterback from Ohio State, Joe Burrow, was having a career-best game up to this point.  The Tigers were passing the ball all over the field against Texas that night.  Joe Burrow would finish the game with an amazing (by LSU standards) 471 yards passing and four touchdowns. 

But, with third down and 17 late

in the fourth quarter and the ball on their own side of the field, LSU fans

were conditioned to expect a conservative call in this situation. 

Then something amazing

happened right before our eyes.

That purple and gold ground-based

LSU caterpillar suddenly transformed. 

That simple creature, known

for staying close to the ground all its life, sprouted wings late in the game against

After Sunday’s epic meltdown (again) by a Houston professional football team, it’s time to address another case of “H-town Depression”.  The Houston Texans lost a 24-0 first quarter advantage and then got spanked 51-31 by the Kansas City Chiefs yesterday.

The team gave up 51 points in

just three quarters against the Chiefs!

It’s not the first time that the city of Houston’s NFL football team has been linked with the word “Choke”.   It was 27 years ago when the Warren Moon’s Houston Oilers went to Buffalo and let a 32-point second half lead disappear before losing in overtime.

I know that Houston’s professional football fans are both upset and depressed today.  For those old enough to remember that 1993 game against the Buffalo Bills, the H-Town pro football depression has set-in again for you. 

Though I am not a licensed Psychologist (but I have stayed more than a few Holiday Inn Express locations in my traveling days), it’s time for the city of Houston to vent a little anger out and start to heal.

Before we start, though, let’s

clear the air about a few items.

It’s time for the Houston

Texans’ ownership to take some of the blame for this team’s continued lack of

post-season success. 

The facts are quite ugly.  Since coming into the league in 2002, the

Houston Texans have won the AFC South six times – all within the past nine

seasons.  That’s a record that most teams

would love to have.

However…

The Houston Texans’ record in

the post-season is only 4-6.  The team

has never made it into the AFC Championship game or, of course, the Super Bowl,

either.

Prior to the Texans, though, the city fell in love with its Houston Oilers.  Once Oilers’ team owner “Bottom Line” Bud Adams finally made good on his threat to take his football team to Nashville (via Memphis) in 1996, the Houston Oilers then became the Tennessee Titans.  And, sadly for Houston’s pro football fans, those now-Tennessee Titans have played in two AFC Championship games (winning one) and lost in their lone Super Bowl appearance in 1999 to the Curt Warner-led St. Louis Rams.

Professional football first

appeared in Houston back in 1960.  The Houston

Oilers were one of the original teams in the now-defunct American Football

League.  In fact, those Oilers won the

first two league championships! 

Once the Oilers became a part

of the NFL as a result of the merger in 1970, the city of Houston went to the

NFL playoffs ten times over 26 years and never made it into the Super Bowl

(until after the team left for Tennessee).

The Pittsburgh Steelers of the 1970’s had a lot to do with that frustrating streak as the “Luv’ ya Blue” Houston Oilers kept knocking on the door, but the Steel Curtain in Pittsburgh kept them from making it to the Super Bowl in both 1978 and 1979.

The Oilers remained a quite popular

team in Houston during the 1980’s and early 1990’s, but the city of Houston

refused to build the owner a bigger stadium than the 50,000 seat

Astrodome.  Adams annually threatened to

move the team to Jacksonville (more than once) and Tennessee. 

While still in Houston, the Oilers

went to Buffalo in January, 1993 to play the two-time defending AFC champion Bills

in the first round of the playoffs.  Led

by Hall-of-Fame quarterback Warren Moon, Houston surprised Buffalo in the first

half and led 28-3.