Not-so-fair-weather fans
Sep 10, 2007 2007 Season, Fatty Starbucks, National Media, Preseason 2007
(Some of this was discussed in the comments to the previous posts, but I think this deserves a post.)
For most of the past five years, we have been nothing if not a laughingstock. From the offensive line to the Mario draft pick, non-Texans fans have used Houston as an NFL punchline at every opportunity.
Something strange happened over the last nine or ten months, though. The trade for The Savior Known As Schaub and the removal of the Carr-shaped tumor, coupled the back-to-back wins at the end of the 2006 campaign had people whispering the words “Texans” and “sleeper” in the same sentence. (At the height of this, I even wrote a post about how people needed to stop picking us or I would have nothing to be angry about.)
So, the preseason rolls around. We should’ve beaten Chicago. We throttled Arizona and Dallas. We lost to Tampa playing only our scrubs. People are singing the praises of Schaub and Jacoby (though still deriding Mario) and talking about how we might have turned the corner.
Given all of that, you would assume that we would get some sort of recognition for the all-out decimation of the Kansas City Chiefs, right? Nope. Now that the season has started, it seems like the national media are afraid to give us any credit, lest we revert to our losing ways and make them look (more) stupid. Fatty Starbucks (aka Peter King) went so far as to rank teams who lost in week 1 ahead of us in his fine fifteen. Teams like Buffalo. BUFFALO! I honestly cannot come up with an argument for how Buffalo is better than us as of this instant. Or how about Jacksonville? Their strength was to be their defense… and that got shredded for nearly 300 rushing yards. So they are better than us?
Now, look… I know the whole thing about having to show some track record of success before you are given any sort of respect. I get that. I don’t even disagree. My anger–or, more accurately, righteous indignation–at the whole situation stems from the disingenuous approach of the writers. If you honestly thought we were improved or a sleeper or turning the corner or anything else positive prior to the start of the season, you can’t jump off that wagon after seeing the Texans rip the collective heart out of the Chiefs. It makes no sense. If anything, that win should have given the random myopic sportswriter fodder to point at his preseason predictions and scream about how smart he is. You know they all love to do that.
(Random side note: I should’ve linked to this weeks ago, but Gregg Easterbrook can eat my crack.)
Anyway, in the end, I suppose I am glad that we are back to being off the national radar. That will make it all the more sweet when we rack up our 9 (or more) wins in a “keep my name out of your mouth” sort of way. I just get irritated at the hypocrisy of the national media.
You’d think I’d be used to it by now.
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September 10th, 2007 at 7:53 pm
Thanks for that link Matt. I am now just a little bit dumber for reading it.
Seriously? Now we’re taking shit for passing on Quinn & Ginn, also? Pardon my Spanish, but Fuck You gregg easterbrook. (see how I left his name lowercase, just to add more insult?)
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September 10th, 2007 at 10:15 pm
Since I live, move and have my being (mosly, though I weekends I drive two and a half hours to go home JUST to see the Texans) in Dallas for school, I checked the Dallas Morning News Power rankings this morning. They had us at 25, but last week (after beating the living crap out of the ‘Girls, no less!), we were ranked THIRTY-ONE!
Something else you will love by another self-appointed draft expert, http://www.nfldraftcountdown.com/sub/mockdraft.html. The second to last record in the NFL? Are you freaking kidding me? What a nimrod.
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September 10th, 2007 at 10:31 pm
“If you honestly thought we were improved or a sleeper or turning the corner or anything else positive prior to the start of the season, you can’t jump off that wagon after seeing the Texans rip the collective heart out of the Chiefs. It makes no sense.”
The media heads are hedging their bets. They always will. The best we can do is wait for the bandwagon to arrive (and it will). Then, we can all hold up our old, faded caps we bought way back in year one and say to them all , “get to the back of the line, homie, we’re leadin’ this here parade!”
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September 11th, 2007 at 1:31 am
The next time I take anything that shit-for-brians easterbrook says seriously will be the first. Go get fired by ESPN again, greggy.
On the plus side, Chris Mortensen gave the Texans some love on PTI on Monday. But let’s hope everyone else sleeps on the Texans. I want to sneak up on some bitches!
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September 11th, 2007 at 1:32 am
Brains, not brians. Oops. Maybe he has shit for brians too. I don’t know what kind of brians easterbrook has.
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September 11th, 2007 at 5:17 am
I’ve got my custom Texans jersey with my last name and the number 02 on it (as in, the Texans first year). I will be wearing it with pride in January, watching Houston in the playoffs!
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September 11th, 2007 at 8:11 am
Bouj,
I hear his brians are shitty, too. Plus, he’s a fucker.
Triple,
That draft is retarded. Beyond retarded. If it suddenly caught the retard, it would be smarter.
Jeff,
I’m torn on what jersey to get this season. I’m leaning toward the DeMeco Battle Red, but I kind of want to go with Mario just to show support.
Robert,
Good point.
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September 11th, 2007 at 10:08 am
I did see Trey Wingo pick Mario as his player of the week. He also mentioned that the Texans “may have something with the former number one pick” or something of that nature.
Also..I highly recomend the DeMeco battle red, that what I’m rockin since battle red day last year.
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September 11th, 2007 at 7:00 pm
someone should research where all of the espn guys grew up. I bet 80% are from dallas and new york. Its not a fair world when it comes to media coverage . . .that being said, lots of work to do. KC is bad. we win this week, chatter will happen. We havent been over .500 in 14 years. 14 years… thats a lot of rust for the bandwagon.