American football has grown an enormous worldwide fan base since the American Expert Football Association was formed in 1920, with the very first game being played on October 3rd of that year. From that day on the sport has grown to be what it’s today with a larger fan base in America than Baseball, and a fan base that follows each and every season of American Football avidly from each and every corner from the globe. The NFL was born out from the APFL two years later in 1922 and eventually became the Major League of American Football.

In 1997, Houston’s many football fans were suddenly left without a hometown team to cheer on for the first time since 1959. Their previous team, the Oilers, were taken by team owner Bud Adams to their new location in Tennessee (where they were renamed the Titans), and Houston fans faced the gloomy prospect of being without professional football for many years into the future. After all, the National Football League gave every indication clear that there were no expansion plans in the offing. Soon thereafter, however, the fateful decision was made to return pro football to the city of Cleveland, which would then be the thirty-first franchise in the NFL. The League’s preference for an even number of teams presented Houston with the opportunity to pursue a new franchise, which they subsequently won.