1996 Houston Oilers

The 1996 Houston Oilers season was the 37th season overall and 27th with the league and their final season in Houston. The team bested their previous season's output of 7–9, but failed to qualify for the playoffs for the third consecutive season.

Houston had already established itself as a lame duck franchise; the league had approved the team's relocation to Nashville, Tennessee, although it was not originally scheduled to take place until 1998. With the team having given up on Houston, the city responded in kind: fan support and attendance dropped to negligible levels for the 1996 season, the team's radio network was all but disbanded, and the local broadcasts were being cut off in favor of preseason NBA basketball. The Oilers, unwilling to continue in Houston after such a debacle, quickly moved to Memphis, Tennessee's Liberty Bowl in 1997, becoming the Tennessee Oilers (Memphis, too, would reject the "temporary" housing of the Oilers, forcing the team to move to tiny Vanderbilt Stadium in Nashville until the new Nashville stadium was finished).