McNairs talk blue ‘compromise’ with Titans

The new Houston Texans uniforms feature a touch of what the team calls “H-Town Blue” with it being used as an accent color on the alternate color rush uniforms, including a light blue “H” on the helmet and “HTown” stitched in the same color across the front of the jersey.

Texans owner Cal McNair and his wife Hannah, who also is vice president of the Houston Texans Foundation, made it clear they wanted to use the color even more prominently, but were limited by the NFL and the Tennessee Titans. When Bud Adams moved the Oilers from Houston to Tennessee after the 1996 season, he took his Oilers intellectual property with him, including the team name, oil derrick logo, record books and the Columbia Blue.

With the Titans, who had the NFL send a cease-and-desist letter to the University of Houston for allowing its football team to wear uniforms that were similar to the Oilers, keeping a close eye on the Texans’ redesign process, Hannah McNair called the end result, “Definitely a compromise.”

“We heard that loud and clear from our fans: They wanted HTown Blue represented. They wanted Houston represented,” Cal McNair said while appearing with Hannah on SportsRadio 610’s In the Loop on Tuesday. “So, we worked with the NFL, and there was some push and shove and we came to where we could get to with the NFL, giving us a compromise, sort of a certain percentage in the uniform. I think our fans would like more, and we’re probably in that same boat, but we’re working with the powers that be with the league and all that stuff to get to where we could get.”

Hannah said the team initially was given permission to use a slightly different color blue more prominently, but that changed as news of their plans began to spread around the league.

“I think there was some talk, I think even publicly we discussed that we were going to be able to use a different color than Columbia Blue, so when that was released and we got approval to do that, that’s when we started getting some pushback,” Hannah said. “And then it got to a point where they just said no you can’t, and then we compromised.”

When Hannah was asked for the reason of the pushback, she bluntly replied, “What do you think?”

The uniform talk between the Texans and Titans always has been a touchy subject because of the Oilers’ connection to the two cities, but things got a bit more personal last year when the Titans wore their Oilers throwback uniforms against the Texans in a game Houston won in overtime, spurring Texans’ radio color commentator Andre Ware to yell, “Get out of here! Put those uniforms back in the trunk!”

As for the uniform battle between the two franchises, Hannah, who says she’s heard people saying she’s been particularly salty about the Titans, posed a question Tuesday.

“Who started it, wearing it against us?” she said. “And if anyone was at (last year’s game in Tennessee), their in-house PA was instigating it. It was unbelievable, but also wonderful because we finished the story, OK? So, I mean, who’s salty here?”

Then, Hannah delivered the walk-off when asked if the Titans, who have lost to the Texans three straight times, including a sweep last season, are the Texans’ biggest rival.

“Well, first they need to beat us,” she said.