George Foreman: A theory on the lack of sizable Houston Sports success

Validating the theory

Houston Heartbreak

We’re looking into the period between 1978-94. The era between Foreman’s first retirement to Foreman’s title win against Moorer. In that time, we saw the following events take place.

• 1978 – In their first trip to the AFC Title game, the Houston Oilers get spanked by the Pittsburgh Steelers 34-5. The Steelers win their third Super Bowl title.
• 1979 – The Oilers return to the AFC Championship game one year later against Pittsburgh. Despite putting up a better fight this time around, a controversial call denies Houston a game-tying touchdown and Pittsburgh beats them again.
• 1980 – The Astros lead 5-2 in the eighth inning of Game 5 of the 1980 NLCS to the Phillies and our six outs away from victory. Philadelphia scores five runs to lead 7-5 that inning. The game goes to extra innings where the Astros lose 8-7 in 10 innings to the eventual champions.
• 1981 – In the franchise’s first-ever NLDS, the Astros have a 2-0 series lead against the Dodgers needing one more win to advance to the NLCS. They never got that win as L.A. came back to win three straight and ultimately, the World Series.
• 1981 – The Houston Rockets pull off a miraculous run to reach the NBA Finals as a sixth seed. They ran into a Boston Celtics team with Larry Bird, who beat them in six games to win the 14th NBA title for Boston.
• 1982 – The University of Houston men’s basketball team reaches the final four of the 1982 NCAA Tournament. But they came up short to a North Carolina team led by James Worthy, Sam Perkins, and some freshman named Michael Jordan. The Tar Heels go on to win the championship.
• 1983 – Phi Slamma Jamma returns to the final four and knocks off Louisville. Yet, somehow, the Cougars lost to N.C. State of all teams at the buzzer in the title game.
• 1984 – Phi Slamma Jamma brings themselves to the NCAA Title game. But Patrick Ewing and Georgetown steal the crown, ending Hakeem Olajuwon’s title quest.
• 1986 – The Houston Rockets upset the Lakers and get back to the NBA Finals, where they lose in six games to the Boston Celtics, who won 67 games and only lost one home game all season long.
• 1986 – Three outs away from Game 7 in the NLCS with Mike Scott set to defeat the Mets, Houston’s 3-0 lead is evaporated and the game goes into extra innings. It’s a hard defeat to take as the Astros lose 7-6 in 16 innings.
• 1987-88 – The Rockets’ chances to win a title in the 80’s are dethroned by drug-related suspensions and injuries to Ralph Sampson.
• 1991 – The Oilers can’t prevent the game-winning drive by John Elway and the Denver Broncos in the AFC Wild Card Game.
• 1992 – Houston blows a 35-3 lead to the two-time AFC champion Buffalo Bills in the 1992 AFC Wild Card Game.
• 1994 – The Oilers lose a 20-7 lead to the Kansas City Chiefs in their first and only playoff game in the 1993 playoffs.
• 1994 – The Houston Rockets blow two 20-point leads in the fourth quarter against the Phoenix Suns in the NBA Playoffs. Choke City is written.
• 1994 – The Houston Astros’ chances of winning the World Series end prematurely when Major League Baseball goes on strike.

So a lot went wrong for Houston sports during the 17 years Foreman was not on top of the world. It might be easy for people to look at Foreman and say that if he were still fighting, then Houston would have more titles. Plus, we wouldn’t have to worry about surrounding ourselves with people taking jabs at us for not being successful enough. If Foreman fights in this stretch, the Oilers win a Super Bowl, the Rockets beat the Michael Jordan-led Bulls, the Astros get a World Series. Houston would be the most famous city in Texas to the outside public, not Dallas.

But with no success until 1994, Foreman should be blamed for retiring early.

Consensus Thought!

Every one of y’all will read this entry, if you get this far, and will ponder about this theory. Y’all will spend countless hours trying to see if this is accurate or not and maybe start to change your opinions here. You could look at this and think that this guy has a point. At the end of the day, you will have all the information taken into account and you will look at this author in the eyes and say…

“You are one crazy fool.”

You know what? I couldn’t agree with you more.

This is just a stupid way of trying to come up with excuses for a lack of Houston success. I think this is more of a coincidental situation than correlated right here.  This is where the theory, though fun to examine, is totally wrong.