Tennessee Titans

The Tennessee Titans began life in the AFL as the Houston Oilers, then joined the NFL as part of the league merger of 1970. While the Oilers had won two AFL titles in their first two seasons (1960, 1961), they struggled to catch fire in the new league, missing the playoffs in their first eight straight seasons. The team finally found its rhythm for a time in the late 1970s, losing out in consecutive AFC Championships to the Pittsburgh Steelers by margins of 34-5 in 1978 and 27-13 in 1979. The Oilers saw the best period of their tenure in Houston under superstar quarterback Warren Moon (Moon actually began his professional career in Canada with the CFL’s Eskimos in Edmonton, a city that is also home to an NHL team called the Oilers…). Moon led the Oilers on seven straight playoff runs between 1987-1993, though the team never made it further than the AFC Divisional Playoffs, where they suffered three heartbreaking close-run defeats: 17-10 to the Buffalo Bills in 1988, 26-24 to the Denver Broncos in 1991, and 28-20 to the Kansas City Chiefs in 1993. Moon left the team the following year and the Oilers went 2-14 in the 1994 regular season. Financial struggles led to a relocation to Nashville, Tennessee, where the team played as the Tennessee Oilers for two seasons before renaming itself the Tennessee Titans (in one of those bizarre turns of fate, or business, so particular to the NFL, Houston was awarded a new franchise, the Texans, who joined the league in 2002). Whether it was the name change that inspired the Titans or not, no one will ever know, but the franchise came out in 1999 with all guns blazing. After registering a 13-3 regular season record, the Titans embarked on a memorable playoff run where they defeated the Bills, Indianapolis Colts, and Jacksonville Jaguars en route to an appearance in Super Bowl XXXIV against the St. Louis Rams. The Titans came as close to winning a Super Bowl as anyone ever has (without actually winning) when, with no time left on the clock, Mike Jones took down Kevin Dyson just one yard short of the Rams goal line (the moment has forever since been immortalized under the sobriquets “One Yard Short” or “The Tackle”). Since this dramatic (traumatic?) moment, the Titans have been in and out of the playoffs, coming closest to another chance at the Super Bowl in 2002 and 2019, when they faltered in the AFC Championship. Legions of fans across Tennessee will be hoping that the Titans will soon take them back to the Big Show for one more try (and hopefully, next time, one more yard).