Dear Ms. Adams-Strunk,

On behalf of the City of Houston, I'd like to ask that you return the Oilers franchise history and uniforms back to their rightful owners: Houston sports fans.

We understand why you might want to hang onto them. There were incredible memories, including the 1960 and 1961 AFL Championships, Hall of Fame careers from players like Warren Moon, Earl Campbell and Robert Brazile and legendary coaches like Bum Phillips, Jack Pardee, Wally Lemm and Lou Rymkus. There's a tradition of excellence, and class, and who wouldn't want to call that tradition theirs?

But here's the thing: it's not yours. None of that was possible without the support, interest, dollars and stage that the city of Houston provided. If not for the fans of the team, the emotional stakeholders who filled the seats and funded the operation, the Oilers brand would've been something that, quite frankly, you wouldn't even want.

The Oilers WERE Houston. If not for Houston, there is no "Oilers."

I mean, doesn't it feel "weird" that a franchise called the "Oilers" now resides in Nashville? I don't know if you're aware, but Tennessee produces, on average, the fifth-fewest barrels of oil in this country. Maybe if the team was called the "Marshalls," or something generic, it would be a little different. But saying the history of a team called the "Oilers" belongs in Nashville would be like calling one of the teams that just moved to Los Angeles the "Steelers" or "Cowboys." It's "strange."

Speaking of "weird" and "strange," that's how the greatest player in your franchise history feels about it. Remember in 2006, when you retired Warren Moon's jersey?

In case you don't, here's a refresher of what he said afterward:

“Strange,” Moon called the moment. "I’m standing there with my family and thanking everybody, but except for them seeing me on television, they probably never saw me play in person. So it’s kind of a weird feeling. But that’s just kind of what we live in in today’s society. When franchises move, all the history from that franchise usually moves along with that team. And all my history and everybody else who played for the Oilers were in the same boat. It all moved to Tennessee.”

If even Moon feels like moving the history is “strange” and "weird," maybe it is.

And sure, in many cases, when a team moves, so does everything else. But it's not like returning it is without precedent. When the Browns left Cleveland for Baltimore in 1996, they originally intended on bringing everything with them. But later that year, the NFL, the club and local leaders from both cities reached a settlement that ensured that the legacy of the Browns would stay with the city it was created in.

So it makes sense on any one of a number of levels, including intellectual and emotional, that you return the Oilers to the city that helped create their identity.

Even financially. You don't stand to gain from the Oilers history. We're all well-aware that the NFL is, first and foremost, a business, and every owner is entitled to profit off their team and its likeness however possible. But as I'm sure you're aware, per the NFL's revenue-sharing rules, any money generated from the sale of jerseys or memorabilia or anything else gets distributed evenly between member clubs. In other words: turning over the Oilers doesn't take a dollar out of your family's pocket.

We say all that to say this: we can't make you give the history back, but we do hope that at some point you have a moment of intellectual honesty and realize how little sense it makes for the Oilers to stay in Nashville, and return them back to Houston.

You know, their true home.

Thanks,
Matt Hammond