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Just As I Am Shirt
“That second one, there were so many people on the freeway that the buses couldn’t get through and Pastorini and some of the other guys jumped on the cops’ motorcycles,” said Trupiano, who was working for the Red Sox when they won the 2004 World Series but never saw fans celebrate after a loss. “I don’t know anywhere else where that would happen.”
Bethea, an eight-time Pro Bowler, told the crowd he had been devastated by the loss and had decided to retire. After seeing the crowd’s response, though, he said he changed his mind. He would end up playing three more seasons.
Schnitzer, the cheerleader, rode around the floor of the Astrodome on top of a concrete truck and said the ground was shaking like earthquake tremors.
“The place literally was vibrating with the people in the stands yelling, clapping, stomping their feet,” she said. “You couldn’t hear anything until Bum came in and wanted to talk. Then it was just silence.”
Bum was so moved by the spectacle, he wiped away tears, took the microphone and addressed the crowd about how he hoped to get the Oilers over the hump and to the Super Bowl in 1980.
“One year ago, we knocked on the door,” he said slowly. “This year, we beat on the door. Next year, we’re going to kick the son of a b—- in.”
“After that, it went from a tremor to a 5.0 earthquake,” Schnitzer said.
The 73-year-old Wade Phillips, who has coached for 10 different NFL teams over 44 years, said he’s never had another experience that rivaled these rallies.
“We won the Super Bowl in Denver [in the 2015 season when he was defensive coordinator],” Wade said. “We had a parade and all that stuff. But [the fans] wouldn’ta been there if we wouldn’ta won it.
“There’s only one champion. That’s the problem,” he said. “But those teams ended up champions to the people here. That’s a once-in-a-lifetime deal.”
The end of Luv Ya Blue
After the 1979 season, Pastorini and Bum agreed that it was time for a change. Pastorini, a Californian, wanted to go back to the West Coast, so Bum sent him to Oakland for Stabler.
In 1980, the Oilers eliminated the Steelers from the playoffs with a 6-0 win in Week 14 but finished second in the division to the Cleveland Browns. Stabler threw 28 interceptions to 13 touchdowns, and the Oilers’ offensive struggles continued in a 27-7 loss to the Raiders in the wild-card round as they fell short of another championship game appearance.
The Oilers didn’t get to kick that door down. Instead, Bum got kicked while he was down.
Less than 24 hours after the loss, on Dec. 31, 1980, Adams fired Bum, citing Bum’s resistance to name an offensive coordinator instead of splitting duties among three coaches. Just like that, in one 15-minute meeting, the Luv Ya Blue era was over. Just As I Am Shirt
After Bum was fired, Wade Phillips and the other assistants were still under contract. Adams promoted defensive coordinator Ed Biles to head coach, and Biles asked Wade to stick around and take over as coordinator. Wade recalled recently just how incredulous he was.
“You didn’t just fire my head coach, you fired my dad!” he said of Adams wanting him to return. “I’m not staying here.”
Another Houston oilman, Saints owner John Mecom Jr., paid Bum $600,000 a year to take over as coach and general manager in New Orleans. Several Oilers joined Bum there, but those left behind saw their team crumble, going 7-9 in 1981, including a massive upset loss to Bum and the Saints. Biles resigned midway through the 1983 season after losing 13 straight games. The Oilers were once again at rock bottom.
Houston’s original football heartbreak was the beginning of a fractured relationship with Adams, who could never get support for a new stadium to replace the aging Astrodome. He took the Oilers to Memphis in 1997 before eventually resettling and rebranding as the Titans in Nashville.
Pastorini, who regretted ever leaving Houston, returned after retiring in 1983 and was decreed an official Texan by the state legislature that year. He said the demise of the Oilers left him without a hometown team, just a family full of former teammates. Just As I Am Shirt
“We’re an anomaly. We don’t have a loyalty to a team anymore,” he said. “Our team is Luv Ya Blue, and what’s good about Luv Ya Blue is that it’s remembered and it’s appreciated. I’m still getting fan mail. Every time I walk down the street or go to the store, somebody inevitably will come up to me and just want to shake my hand and thank me for the years that we had in Luv Ya Blue, and everybody kind of gets this faraway look in their eye.”
When Bum died in 2013, Campbell, who lives in Austin, grieved along with Houston.
“I came down when Bum passed away and did like two hours on the radio,” Campbell told the Houston Chronicle in 2016. “People called me and told me that because of the way the Oilers played, that brought the city together and made those people feel like they were family. It was just playing football on a Sunday, walking out of the Astrodome, fans being able to run over and get an autograph. Everything was just country like Bum Phillips liked it.”
The Texans may never capture the city’s hearts the same way. Just As I Am Shirt
“I don’t think it could be that again,” Schnitzer said. “I think a lot of it was lost when Bum was fired. The whole morale of Houston changed.”
There won’t be an NFL coach like Bum Phillips again — and certainly not one who dresses like him.
“Not until Nike starts selling cowboy hats,” Wade Phillips said.
There will always be one title he’s proud that Bum and his Oilers claimed.
“Like my dad always said, the Cowboys may have been America’s Team,” said Wade Phillips, who still lives in Houston. “But we were Texas’ team.”
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