Oct. 6, 1999: Two years after the Houston Oilers left the Texas city for Tennessee to become the Titans, businessman Bob McNair successfully lured a new National Football League team back with a record $700 million bid. In 1997, McNair prepared an offer for an NFL expansion team almost two months before the Oilers received legal clearance to leave the city. Interestingly, the NFL franchise was not McNair's first choice. He had originally sought a National Hockey League team for the city, but lost the bidding in 1997. From the beginning, McNair's bid seemed like a long shot as he faced a potent bidding rival in Hollywood power broker Michael Ovitz, who sought to return the game to Los Angeles. While Ovitz locked up exclusive talks with the league in 1998, McNair continued to build his group and financing. Ovitz's failure to secure definitive financing deep-sixed his bid. As soon as Ovitz's exclusivity agreement expired in September 1999, commissioner Paul Tagliabue contacted McNair about his plans. At the NFL owners meeting in October, 29 of the 31 teams — the Arizona Cardinals and St. Louis Rams abstained from voting — chose McNair's $700 million bid over Ovitz's $550 million offer. Upon winning, McNair immediately set about building a team. In 2000, the group announced the team's formal name, the Texans, and finally broke ground on a 69,400-seat stadium that would become Reliant Stadium. Finally, on Sept. 8, 2002, the team took to the field at Reliant Stadium to face off against intrastate rival the Dallas Cowboys in its first regular season game becoming the first expansion team to win its debut. Unfortunately, it has been downhill from there for the franchise, which has had a spotty record ever since. —Matthew Wurtzel
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