How I Became a Houston Texans' Fan; From Lovable Losers To Contenders

HOUSTON—The question of the day is, “What turned you into a fan of the team you’d like to cover?”  What's not to like about the Houston Texans?  In 2002, they were the brand new National Football League franchise in my hometown and they were playing in a brand new, multi-million dollar, state-of-the-art facility named Reliant Stadium next door to the beloved Astrodome. 

Houston, the nation's 4th largest city, had been without an NFL Franchise since 1996 and everyone in the city should have been overjoyed to have professional football here once again. 

Some agreed with that sentiment and were instant fans of the Texans.  I wasn't one of them and let me tell you why.

They weren't The Houston Oilers, the team I grew up with.  My team was ripped away from me in 1996 by their heartless owner, Bud Adams and moved to Nashville, The Music City. 

There was no more music in Houston; no more symphonies of the clacks of pads, thuds of bodies hitting one another and hitting the ground nor the low murmurs and loud roars of the crowd. 

There were no more footballs being carried or arcing beautifully through the air and no more cheers of "Luv Ya Blue". What was this new franchise? Who are these people? Is it trying to take the place of my beloved Houston Oilers? 

I don't think so! Those of you who’ve had their teams taken away from them can relate.  I also feel for those of you who have not gotten another team to fill that void.   

I was living in Dallas when the Oilers left so, I didn’t feel the pain as deeply as those who were living in Houston at that time. I could see professional football in Dallas if I wanted to but, the Houston fans had nothing. 

As much as I hated Bud Adams for taking the Houston Oilers to Tennessee, I was still attached to the franchise and so were many others. We loved them from afar.  It was much like someone that you love leaving you for someone else, but in some strange, twisted way, you still care for them. 

Wait, this is a sports story, not a romance novel. 

Let me get back on track! I still liked the Tennessee Oilers, later the Titans and adopted them as my NFL team so, when Houston was awarded an NFL team, my loyalty still lay with the Titans. I actually had a disdain for the Texans and it started with the choice of the franchise's nickname.

When Houstonwas awarded the franchise and the mass hysteria began, owner Robert "Bob" McNair asked the fans' help in naming the new team. That peaked my interest and I thought of some names that would be fitting. 

Why not name the team The Houston Oilers and get back to the way things used to be. Nah, that would bring back old memories and surely McNair didn't want his new team to be cast in the shadow of Bud Adams’ negative regime. 

Houstonians are creative and surely they would come up with a catchy name that would represent their new team. 

How about naming them after critters that are endemic to Houston?  How about the Houston Cockroaches? Growing up in Houston, cockroaches struck fear into the hearts of everyone at sundown. 

My mother would run screaming when she would see one because they would fly after her. It was a sight to behold; a huge insect taking flight and chasing a hysterical woman around her home. 

They were formidable pests who wouldn’t die, they would multiply. What about The Houston Mosquitoes? It is said that after the mockingbird, the mosquito should be the state bird of Texas because they are HUGE!

Once, a friend of mine was carried away by one. They later found his lifeless, drawn up corpse drained of all its blood. It was grisly. That myth would scare any opponent. 

What about the following: the Opossums, Squirrels, Razors, Hurricanes, Humidity, Hawks, Hornets, Raccoons, Storm Surge, Elements, Natural Gas, Yellowjackets, Marauders, Scorpions, Water Moccasins, Rhinos?

Sadly, they didn’t select any of those names. They chose a name that was ridiculed both locally and nationally.

It’s like some dork was sitting in front of a map and they asked him, “Where is Houston?”  He says, “Duhhh, Texas.”  “What do you think we should name our new football team?”  “Duhhh, lemme see.  Duh team is in Houston…..and duhhh, Houston is in Texas.  Whadda you guys in Texas call yerselves?”  “We call ourselves, Texans”.  “Uhhh, denn you should name um duh Texans!!!” 

That’s exactly what they did and I was completely outdone. That faux pas helped me remain loyal to the Tennessee Titans and I felt disdain for the new Houston franchise who chose the boring name, “Texans” as their nickname. 

To me and many other people, that showed no imagination or creativity.

In 2002, the Texans’ inaugural season, the fans came out in droves to see the first NFL game played in Houston in nearly six years. The Texans played their new intrastate rival, The Dallas Cowboys at Reliant Stadium and the house was packed. 

Believe it or not, the Texans defeated the hated Cowboys, 19-10.

That was the highlight of the season and the team played gallantly but, showed their inexperience under Dom Capers and finished the season 4-12. The team didn’t have any marquee players and had a rookie, pretty-boy quarterback named David Carr who was a victim of baptism by fire. 

He was sacked 76 times and the team floundered. 

I respected the fact that despite being pounded each and every Sunday, Carr displayed toughness and resolve and played all 16 games. His heroism in the face of defeat reminded me of the strength that the Texan Army showed at The Alamo, Goliad and finally San Jacinto during Texas’ fight for independence from Mexico. 

Suddenly, the franchise name “Texans” wasn’t so bad after all. I was born in this state and I’m a Texan and proud of it. We’re strong and resilient and so was this team.

In 2003, their sophomore season, the Texans finished with one more win than the year before with a record of 5-11. 

The modest success of the Texans made me appreciate the effort they made each week. They drafted Andre’ Johnson from The University of Miami and he made an immediate impact on the offense and gave them some big-play potential. 

He scored 4 touchdowns and was exciting to watch. The emergence of a decent offense with Johnson being a deep threat and Domanick Davis, who later changed his last name to “Williams”, as a rushing and pass-receiving specialist made me root for them on Sundays. 

The true test of my feelings about them would come when they played against the Tennessee Titans. I could feel my change of heart and a shift of my allegiance from the Titans to the Texans. I was finally sure that I had accepted the Houston Texans as MY TEAM. 

By 2004, my love affair with the Tennessee Titans was over and I decided that “If you can’t be with the one you love, you gotta love the one you’re with.” The Texans were getting progressively better and finished just below .500 with a 7-9 record. 

Perhaps the next year would be their breakthrough season and we would see playoff football in Houston for the first time in nearly a decade. When I utter the word, “playoffs”, I can still hear Jim Mora’s press conference rant. Oh, the hilarity! 

That rant would be so appropriate only ten months later.

In 2005, everything fell apart and it seemed like a bad dream. Nothing went right as the team finished with a 2-14 record and were painful to watch. 

By midseason, there was already talk of the Texans being in the running for the No. 1 draft pick and talk of “The ‘Bush’ Bowl” ensued. When I speak of Bush, I don’t mean “George W.” Bush.  Being that this is Texas, I need to clarify that point. 

Political chants of “No More Bush” were replaced by renewed, positive sentiments for the Bush surname which were manifested with increasing whispers of “reggie, Reggie, REGGIE!” 

Reggie Bush, the star running back from USC, was expected to be the No. 1 pick in the 2006 NFL Draft and the Texans were playing badly enough to qualify for the chance to select him. 

They sure as heck weren’t going to qualify for the playoffs, PLAYOFFS, PLAYOFFS?  LOL!  Some fans and pundits around the league and in sports circles actually suggested that the Texans throw the rest of their games so they could get the 1st overall pick. 

Surely, they wouldn’t do that, would they? At the end of the season, they fired head coach Dom Capers and hired Gary Kubiak. A new era in Texans’ history was about to begin.

Having won only two games in 2005, the Texans qualified for the No. 1 Draft Pick! Never had any team been happier for playing so badly! The city was abuzz over seeing Reggie Bush in a Texans’ jersey and I got excited about the prospects of what he would bring to the offense. 

Bush jerseys had been printed up and were in some stores and I even contemplated buying a PSL and season tickets. The Texans were finally on their way! Others didn’t want Bush. 

They wanted the hometown hero, Vince Young who had made good at The University of Texas and had just lead them to the 2006 NCAA Championship over Reggie Bush’s USC Trojans.  What a storyline that would be! 

I didn’t agree and nor did the Texans because they signed then quarterback David Carr to a new, lucrative contract so, they wouldn’t need a quarterback anytime soon. 

The stage was set for Reggie Bush to be a Houston Texan!

On April 29, 2006, I awakened to the nightmare of then Texans’ General Manager, Charlie Casserly’s ESPN press conference where he said they were going to draft DE Mario Williams from North Carolina State as their first pick, not Reggie Bush. 

I thought I was still asleep and that I was dreaming.  I was actually awake and this wasn’t a dream! 

I couldn’t believe it and I sat up in my bed and proceeded to use words that would have horrified my mother.  She would have definitely washed my mouth out with soap. 

“Both players, Reggie Bush and Mario Williams, are going to, I think, be great pros. We made the decision to go with defense,” Casserly said. 

No way! 

All anyone in Houston had been talking about was Reggie Bush. They were selling more season tickets by dangling the possibility of drafting Reggie Bush. 

“I think if people had just listened to what we had said, they would have seen that we were serious about Mario Williams,"Casserly said arrogantly. I lit into him and cursed the organization!

What a slap in the face of all the Texan fans after enduring such a horrible season and not reaping the benefit of their humiliation!  It was like being a great kid all year long only to wake up to a lump of coal in your stocking and no presents under the tree!  I was outdone and felt like I had been lied to and misled and my love for the Texans was tested once again. 

At the end of the 2006 season, the Texans won only 6 games and Mario Williams didn’t prove himself to the naysayers and seemed to be a bust. The fans were calling for the head of Charlie Casserly and whoever else’s who had fumbled the No. 1 draft pick in 2007 and the sacrificial lamb ended up being franchise QB bust, David Carr. 

Personally, I would have liked to skewer Casserly and roast him over an open fire! After unloading Carr, the Texans picked up unproven quarterback, Matt Schaub from the Atlanta Falcons and signed him to an 8-year, $48 million dollar contract. 

Perhaps this was a new beginning and my heart had healed somewhat.

In 2007, the Texans finished 6-10 but, the offense looked pretty good and they actually resembled a real, live NFL offense. They scored points and the kicking game was stellar.  Mario Williams, the previous years’ much talked about No. 1 draft pick, was beginning to show some promise with 14 sacks which led the team including 3.5 sacks in the Texans’ first-ever prime-time game. 

He was also a second-team All-Pro selection. Second-round draft pick, LB DeMeco Ryans, surprised everyone with his stellar play and was awarded the Defensive Rookie of the Year.  Unfortunately, the defense wasn’t very reliable. 

But overall, the team was more respected in the league and the expansion tag had worn off. I began to puff my chest out and really expect the Texans to have a chance to, if not win every Sunday.

In 2008, the team drafted RB, Steve Slaton from West Virginia and he was quite a pleasant surprise to the City of Houston and the Texans’ organization. He added a dimension to the offense much like Domanick “Davis” Williams did and made the Texans much more explosive and exciting to watch. 

As a rookie, Slaton rushed for 1,282 yards with a 4.8 yard average per carry and registered 377 receiving yards. When Matt Schaub was in the lineup, they were quite productive and he passed for more than 3,000 yards. 

Andre Johnson was Andre Johnson and when he was healthy, he produced. Sage Rosenfels was as consistent as he was inconsistent so, his performances were a wash. 

Mario Williams had his first Pro-Bowl Season and silenced his critics for the time being.  DeMeco Ryans was a steady performer again and the defense seemed to be coming together. 

Now all they needed was a big hitter in the secondary. With those key components in place, the team “broke even” and finished 8-8.

At the beginning of the 2008 season, Hurricane Ike ripped a part of the roof off Reliant Stadium and the rest of the season was played with the roof open. This year, I think the Texans’ play alone will blow the roof off!  It will be a breakout year for the franchise and I look forward to them vying for a division title. 

Indianapolis is in transition, we own Jacksonville but, Tennessee is our best competition for the division title. If we hold serve at home and beat one or two of those teams on the road, it could happen. 

We play the NFC West this year and they are the weakest division in the NFC so, we shouldn’t have much trouble with them except for Arizona. The Super Bowl Runners-Up will definitely be a challenge for the Texans. 

With that being said, beware, there may be football playoff fever in Houston, Texas in 2009.

All this talk about football is fine and I like what my team does on the field but, the organization did something that solidified my loyalty to them forever. The trend of giving back to the community separates any organization from its peers and recently, the Houston Texans made a commitment to their community. 

Not just any community; to the community where I grew up. They are building a YMCA in my neighborhood, where my mother still lives, to provide a place of recreation and refuge to the children and wayward men in my community. 

My neighborhood has only one park and no other serious places for youth to blow off steam or to get constructively involved with one another. That single act of philanthropy may rejuvenate and revitalize a community that has been wrecked by urban rot and wasting. 

On the corner of Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard and Griggs Road sometime before the Summer of 2010, there will be a big piece of the Texans’ generosity paving an even bigger road to the overall welfare of those who idolize and look up to them. 

That, more than anything they could ever do on a football field, is one of their bigger wins in the Texans’ franchise history. They have definitely won me over and I AM A TEXAN AND I LOVE MY TEAM!