NFL Lockout: Why It Would Hurt the Houston Texans More Than Most

The owners locking the players out for the 2011 season would be bad for everyone involved. The owners come off as the bad guys, the players go a year without playing or getting paid, and the teams lose a year of revenue from ticket and merchandise sales.

Some teams, though, stand to lose more than others if a lockout occurs. The Texans are one of those teams.

After nine years of accomplishing nothing, the relationship the Texans have with their fanbase can be described as tenuous at best. The unpopular decision to retain head coach Gary Kubiak isn't doing anything to help the tension there either. 

In short, a lockout is the last thing Texans management needs or wants. Not only will it put a bad taste in the fans' mouths, but it puts the Texans out of the minds of football fans in Houston. As the cliché goes, out of sight, out of mind. If the Texans spend a year away from the front pages of the newspaper and the lead story on nightly sportscasts, will fans be so quick to return when football is played again?

Who knows? After a season away, thousands of Houstonians might decide that they don't need the frustration of another Texans season.

A lockout wouldn't do the Texans any favors on the field either.

I'm not suggesting that the Texans are an aging team or that their window of opportunity is closing, but almost two years from now, that might be changing.

By that time, Andre Johnson, Matt Schaub and Kevin Walter will all be on the wrong side of 30, Antonio Smith will be almost 32, and Owen Daniels and Joel Dreessen alongside offensive line stalwarts Chris Myers and Eric Winston will be either 30 or knocking on the door of being 30.

With many college players hesitant to jump to the NFL thanks to the labor unrest, the usual excitement about the possibility of adding a game-changer through the draft is missing.

Granted, aging a year when you aren't playing football is not the same as aging a year while getting beat up by NFL opponents, but it's a year nonetheless.

By the start of the 2012 season, the Texans may very well find themselves terribly devoid of dynamic young talent. That's very hard to predict, so I would say at the very least, the Texans core will be aging at that point.

If you were one of the fans that wanted Gary Kubiak canned after last season, a lockout is likely the last thing you want to see.

Let's assume the 2011 season is gone thanks to a lockout and that in 2012, Kubiak and the Texans have another mediocre season. That means that it will be 2013 before we see a change of regime in Houston. 2013! That's just about an eternity for football fans.

As a matter of fact, just one year can feel like an eternity. Particularly if that's a year without football. That possible year without football is a year that the Texans may not be able to afford as a franchise.