Growing up in Houston, Texas, can have a profound impact on your relationship with the game of football. The

former-Houston-Oilers-now-Tennessee-Titans had a devious way of making an entire city leap on the proverbial

bandwagon in anticipation of a championship and then stomping upon the heart of every single individual who ever shouted, “Luv Ya Blue.” Year after year, my older brother and I would start wearing only periwinkle and white (much to my father’s dismay and confusion) towards the end of each season, hoping that our terrible fashion faux pax would be viewed as a heartfelt offering to the football playoff gods.

In those days, we had a talented corps of Pro Bowlers who were all capable of taking us to the big game.

Warren Moon, Cris Dishman, Ray Childress, Mike Munchak, Bruce Matthewsall nationally recognized players whose immense talent was surpassed only by their desire to bring home a championship. But after zooming effortlessly through the competition during the regular season, the Oilers always sputtered come playoff time, with fumbles, missed field goals and poor blocking forcing their loyal fans to become increasingly jaded as each playoff season approached.

Broncos 26, Oilers 24. Bills 17, Oilers 10. And of course—the game that remains a taboo subject of

conversation in Houston—Bills 41, Oilers 38, OT.

All were playoff games in which the Oilers led by a comfortable margin. And all of which the Oilers lost.

And with each loss, Houstonians began to put up an emotional wall between themselves and their love of their

hapless home team.

So even though Texas is a place where Friday night football and homecoming games reign supreme, Houston is a city that remains seriously scarred by its former professional football team. Most Houstonians try not to call any team their own simply because they fear that cheering for the home team will only result in dashed hopes and bitter disappointment.

I continued to hold my skeptical attitude towards football when I arrived at Harvard. While I do not

intend this column to be counted as one of the thousands that have already berated Harvard students for their

apathy towards college athletics, I was disappointed by the lack of support that the football team received. I