Who Impacts Whether Titans “Give” the Oilers Legacy to Houston? The Tennessee Titans organization – Not the fans, not the players and not even the mighty NFL.
When the Oilers decided to make a name change to the Titans, Commissioner Paul Tagliabue agreed to retire the Oilers nickname, preventing any future Houston franchise from using the name. Why is that important? It signifies that the owner (Bud Adams) of the Titans franchise wanted to maintain the Oiler legacy, the NFL was on board with that decision and that city of Houston had no future rights to that legacy.