Beginning of rivalry in offing?
Upcoming AFC South clashes could generate some overdue bad blood
For the first time in the history of the AFC South, the Texans and Tennessee Titans have a chance to build the kind of rivalry that’s been almost nonexistent since the division was formulated in 2002.
On Sunday in Nashville, the Texans and Titans play for sole possession of first place in the division. Then they play two weeks later at NRG Stadium in a regular-season finale that’s expected to determine the AFC South champion. And it’s not out of the question they could play for the third time in four weeks in the wild-card round of the playoffs.
If that kind of schedule with so much at stake doesn’t generate bad blood between the players and fan
bases, nothing will.
This should have been a natural rivalry long ago — not because of geographic boundaries but because of history.
The Titans were the Houston Oilers from 19601996 — the first team to arrive in Texas a couple of months ahead of the Dallas Cowboys. Six years after owner Bud Adams moved his franchise to Tennessee, Bob McNair’s expansion team debuted in 2002 in the newly created AFC South.
For the most part, the Texans and Titans have been playing nice, and their fans have a healthy respect for each other and love to visit the opposing city once a season. That’s not what a true rivalry is all about.
The Texans don’t like Indianapolis and Jacksonville — the Colts because they’ve played important games against them and the Jaguars because, well, they’re the Jaguars, a team they’ve mostly dominated.
The problem with developing a rivalry with the Titans is the two teams haven’t been good at the
same time, competing for the division championship or a wild-card berth or both, as they are this season.
The Texans didn’t have a winning record until their eighth season. When they won back-to-back division titles under Gary Kubiak in 2011 and 2012, the Titans missed the playoffs with former Oilers Hall of Fame guard Mike Munchak as their head coach.
Now, who could work up a good lather watching Kubiak and Munchak — two of the nicest guys to play and coach in the NFL — on opposite sidelines? Nobody.
After the Titans made the playoffs in 2008 under Jeff Fisher, they didn’t reach the postseason for the next eight seasons. They had two winning records, 9-7 both times, during that period.
When the Titans finally returned to the playoffs in 2017 and won a wild-card game at Kansas City, coach Mike Mularkey was fired. Bill O’Brien finished 4-12 in that injury-plagued season, and McNair gave him a fouryear contract extension.
There have been a few times when this rivalry should have taken off.
In 2006, when Vince
Young was drafted third overall coming off a national championship at the University of Texas — “V.Y. is my guy,” Adams proclaimed — the quarterback made his first appearance in his hometown. He ran for a 40yard touchdown to give the Titans an overtime victory at NRG Stadium.
But the Texans finished 6-10 in Kubiak’s first season, and Young couldn’t get the Titans beyond 8-8.
Fast-forward to 2009. The Texans played in Nashville in the second game of the season and escaped with a hard-fought 34-31 victory that was loaded with controversy — fights, ejections and fines.
The problem with that game was neither team followed with a playoff appearance. The Texans finished 9-7 and the Titans 8-8.
A year later, the Titans came to NRG Stadium and got shut out 20-0. An otherwise boring game was energized when receiver Andre Johnson got fed up with cornerback Cortland Finnegan’s shenanigans and used him as a punching bag.
Ho hum. Both teams finished 6-10.
So what has to happen the rest of the season to create
the kind of rivalry that causes coaches, players and fans to froth at the mouth at the mere mention of the other team?
We’ll have to get past the good relationship O’Brien and Titans coach Mike Vrabel have. There’s a mutual respect because O’Brien gave Vrabel his first NFL coaching job in 2014 before the latter left for Tennessee after the 2017 season.
Nobody’s going to confuse O’Brien with Kubiak and Vrabel with Munchak, but they’ll chat on the field before the game, and they won’t ignore each other afterward, even though one will be incensed and distraught but will try to hide it during the postgame handshake.
It’s got to be the players who fashion this rivalry into what it should be. It’s not going to happen after one game in Nashville, but when Dec. 29 arrives and the Texans and Titans are playing for the AFC South title at NRG Stadium, watch out.
I just wish McNair and Adams could be around to witness it.
john.mcclain@chron.com twitter.com/mcclain_on_nfl