[Chron]Texans still flying well under NFL radar

[b0ng]

Wow. You guys took this thread places, way to go. As much as I dislike the sportswriters at the chron as well, they still are the major news media IN Houston. I liked this article, and not everybody has to, but it's just filler for the offseason.

My parents and I do not like the sportswriters for the Chronicle, but for different reasons. I think the new generation (Meagan-Raley, Manful, others that have not been there for more than 5 years) sucks, and it does not look like it will improve at all. They don't like McClain because he's always been a lazy sportswriter who is full of himself. I hate that I have to listen to McClain sound like perverted old man who can barely breathe through his mouth, just to get some Texans news on the radio. They hate having to read his garbage to get news, or that he leaves and goes on vacation right at draft time and whatnot.

LZ is pretty good, but he's looking more like the exception than the rule.

I still liked this article

[Sal Rosenberg]

JEROME SOLOMON is terrible.

[beerlover]

man this is bad & its the off season. everyone now take a break

[False Start]

All of the Chronic sports writers are whack IMO, especially Dick and fatty McClain . That was a cool piece though. If I ever wanna know something Texans related, I stop by this joint .

[mexican_texan]

Originally Posted by False Start On # 69

All of the Chronic sports writers are whack IMO, especially Dick and fatty McClain . That was a cool piece though. If I ever wanna know something Texans related, I stop by this joint .

My Lord, I am immature.

[Texans_Chick]

Originally Posted by Mailman

Is that a fair comparison? NFL teams are far more guarded about injuries than NBA teams, for obvious reasons.

There's plenty of criticism to heap on the Chron, "the General" and Justice in particular, but I think it's a bit of a stretch to blame the national coverage of the Texans on the Chronicle. IMO Megan Manful does a fair job of covering the team and assessing its strengths and weaknesses, but the reality is the national sports media adopted a narrative about the Houston Texans that can only be shed by the team defying the stereotypical, simplistic expectations. I don't want to defend the Chronicle's coverage because I agree that it's subpar, but that unnamed national writer's excuse won't fly, either.

Relying on the Chronicle to form an accurate impression of the team is just flat-out laziness. Watch a game and form your own impressions accordingly.

The Chronicle knew what knee it was, they just didn't report it when the news originally was out. All that was reported originally was knee sprain.

Then it was reported publicly that he had a sprained MCL/PCL. The club didn't talk too much about the recovery. At this point, maybe if the Chronicle took the Texans coverage seriously, they would have talked to docs to find out about the nature of this injury.

One national columnist asked me what the deal was with the Chronicle writing the "Matt Schaub is a leader" article over and over again. And then he gave me a WTF about the Big Bad Schaub video. I had to explain that McClain was not the Texans beat writer, that he was an NFL writer and that he has got to the point in his career what he doesn't care what people think about what he does.

Most papers have at least one go to columnist who knows everything there is to know about the team and writes everything a fan needs to know in both facts and analysis of the team. They don't really have that person. Manfull writes basic factual information but is not a columnist. McClain knows the most about the short history of the Texans, but he isn't focused on writing just about the team. Justice, Solomon and Campbell dabble in it as generalist writers often do. Often what they write is so generalized that it is pretty much filler (or has inaccuracies in it).

[Vinny]

Originally Posted by Texans_Chick

Most papers have at least one go to columnist who knows everything there is to know about the team and writes everything a fan needs to know in both facts and analysis of the team. They don't really have that person. Manfull writes basic factual information but is not a columnist. McClain knows the most about the short history of the Texans, but he isn't focused on writing just about the team. Justice, Solomon and Campbell dabble in it as generalist writers often do. Often what they write is so generalized that it is pretty much filler (or has inaccuracies in it).

agreed on Manfull, and imo McClain's best work is when he gathers opinions from other insiders and not when he gives his personal insight. Justice & Solomon dive too deeply into blog style rants to take them too seriously sometimes. It's like they are more worried about reaction than content.

[Texans_Chick]

Originally Posted by b0ng

Wow. You guys took this thread places, way to go. As much as I dislike the sportswriters at the chron as well, they still are the major news media IN Houston. I liked this article, and not everybody has to, but it's just filler for the offseason.

My parents and I do not like the sportswriters for the Chronicle, but for different reasons. I think the new generation (Meagan-Raley, Manful, others that have not been there for more than 5 years) sucks, and it does not look like it will improve at all. They don't like McClain because he's always been a lazy sportswriter who is full of himself. I hate that I have to listen to McClain sound like perverted old man who can barely breathe through his mouth, just to get some Texans news on the radio. They hate having to read his garbage to get news, or that he leaves and goes on vacation right at draft time and whatnot.

LZ is pretty good, but he's looking more like the exception than the rule.

I still liked this article

Meh on the article.

THE harsh, slap-in-the-face reality is that America doesn't think much of Bob McNair's little NFL team.

No offense intended, you can almost certainly rest assured. The Texans, after all, have mustered up less offense in their six-season existence than the local soccer team did in unveiling the name Houston 1836.

I guess he didn't watch the Texans offense at all last season. It was actually the defense that had bigger issues. But don't let that get in the way of a really lame joke.

Mario Williams isn't Stupor Mario anymore; he's Super Mario all the way, with 11 sacks in his past nine games.

He was only "Stupor Mario" because the Chronicle wanted to gloss him that because they wanted someone else picked. Mario Williams, playing through a painful foot problem his rookie year that eventually required him to receive two injections a game, is the only member of the line his rookie year that started all 16 games. The only one. That ain't showing up in a Chronicle article.

The Chronicle have written variations of this article before. There are a million different more relevant articles that could be written about the team. Things that say more than the rest of the world doesn't think much about the Texans.

Actually, most of the national articles this year seem to say things along the lines of man, the Texans are building something good, too bad they play in the AFC South. But why would he write something like that because he wouldn't be able to bust out his futility humor?

The article was recycled garbage and a waste of space. The line in Vegas is not what Vegas thinks will happen. It is what they believe will move people to bet.

The reality is that the majority of Houstonians only get their Texans news from the Chronicle. Not from HT.com or here or national sources. From the Chronicle. It's too bad that they waste their column space on stuff like this.

[SheTexan]

After this coming season I bet we see them ALL start fighting over who's gonna be the "go to" writer. All we need is a really good season for all those knucklehead's to get their act together. IMHO, they should all be ashamed of themselves for the subpar crap they have written for some of the best football fans in the country to read!! It's an insult to all of us for them to think they can just cover the surface and not get down to the nitty gritty!! We are smarter than that!!

WE DESERVE BETTER!!!!!!!!!

[Texans_Chick]

LZ is pretty good, but he's looking more like the exception than the rule.

I wanted to add that LZ is the only one that treats covering the Texans like all NFL teams should be covered. I might not always agree on his analysis, but he tries finding out information, and talks about strengths and weaknesses. If he jokes about the team, it isn't lame punchline humor, it is more specific to what are issues with the team--like the propaganda machine with Texans Pravda, or the time he clowned the way the Texans were making the defensive linemen run in and out of games at the beginning of the 2006 season.

But LZ, is just a blogger for the Chronicle and contributes to the fantasy football stuff in the real paper. What the Chronicle doesn't get is that there are a bunch of national people who follow the Texans, if just for fantasy information. Writing puffy right brained pieces about the team isn't filling that information gap.

[Vinny]

I'm a big fan of LZ and it's a shame that he does the best job of critical analysis (not supposed to be a backhanded compliment Lance)....I mean, he's the starving unpaid intern amongst that group.

[beerlover]

Originally Posted by Vinny

I'm a big fan of LZ and it's a shame that he does the best job of critical analysis (not supposed to be a backhanded compliment Lance)....I mean, he's the starving unpaid intern amongst that group.

I'm a big LZ fan he also posts here adding intelligence & insight into the Texans, Draft & generally all things NFL. :mshadows:

[nunusguy]

Originally Posted by Vinny

I'm a big fan of LZ and it's a shame that he does the best job of critical analysis (not supposed to be a backhanded compliment Lance)....I mean, he's the starving unpaid intern amongst that group.

My sentiments exactly. Isn't there a more prominent place for LZ in the local
hierarchy of NFL media members ? I dunno what he makes, but is a greater
compensation opportunity available at the Chronicle ? He's interested, very knowledgible, and could learn the mechanics of writing.
Justice has his moments but he's a MLB guy and huge Cowboys fan who really
has little inclination to cover the local NFL team.
Speaking of the Cowboys, can any analysis of national coverage of the Texans be complete without considering the prominence and burden/challenge of sharing the region with the states other NFL team ?

[ObsiWan]

What ever happened to Dale Robertson? Does he not cover NFL football any longer or did Pastorini make him give that up?

[Texans_Chick]

Originally Posted by ObsiWan

What ever happened to Dale Robertson? Does he not cover NFL football any longer or did Pastorini make him give that up?

He's been doing a lot of tennis and a few feature articles here or there. He pitched in with some NFL stuff last year that actually contained information that I wasn't aware of. He was the first to break the information about when Andre Johnson was really coming back--though it was sort of said in an offhand way.

[nero THE zero]

I'd also like to echo the sentiment on LZ. He's the best football guy Houston has, by far.

I often wonder what could be done to create some competition for the Chron. I know the Houston Press has started covering the Texans a little bit, but their coverage isn't really substantive and they're not a "real" newspaper. I've found that I've even stopped looking at the Chron for Texans' information because of how disappointing it is. I'll checkout HT.com for their coverage (though I wish they would do more stuff in print) and check out here for the collection of national stuff.

I'm basically starving for some legitimate local coverage, but I guess the chances of that ever happening are nill.

[Texans_Chick]

Originally Posted by Vinny

I'm a big fan of LZ and it's a shame that he does the best job of critical analysis (not supposed to be a backhanded compliment Lance)....I mean, he's the starving unpaid intern amongst that group.

I think if he actually worked for the Chronicle, he wouldn't be able to read advertisements on his station. The Chronicle TV guy who I like, David Barron had something on that a while back as it related to Solomon and the Chronicle policy toward their sports guys on the radio. Something like they can't work over a certain number of hours a day, they have to say something like "Richard Justice of the Houston Chronicle" and they can't do the advertising read for their sponsors...sponsors pay more for the host reading their content.

But ultimately, out of the people working at the Chronicle, who would you trust to get a non-Pravda X and O discussion from? Like discussing the prospects for different guys battling for the linebacking position around DeMeco? Or saying something like WTH, look where Marlon Greenwood ranks on Texans salary cap numbers? That's not Manfull's job. And McClain is more..."this is what people tell me."

I'd like to hear more of "this is what I'm seeing and this is what is concerning me" sort of talk. I don't trust a lot of this sort of information from the Chronicle because I don't think they have X and O guys, but more let's be provocative peeps. Even in November of last year, Justice was saying in his blog comments that Williams playing "terrible" and was doing a really good imitation of a sixth round pick. The defense has had all sorts of bad bad problems, and Mario Williams shouldn't have been considered a part of that problem. If you can't trust the Chronicle people about something just that basic, what can you trust them about?

[nero THE zero]

Originally Posted by Texans_Chick

I'd like to hear more of "this is what I'm seeing and this is what is concerning me" sort of talk. I don't trust a lot of this sort of information from the Chronicle because I don't think they have X and O guys, but more let's be provocative peeps. Even in November of last year, Justice was saying in his blog comments that Williams playing "terrible" and was doing a really good imitation of a sixth round pick. The defense has had all sorts of bad bad problems, and Mario Williams shouldn't have been considered a part of that problem. If you can't trust the Chronicle people about something just that basic, what can you trust them about?

I agree, I think this is one of the big problems the Chron has. I don't know how other papers do it, but Justice is the perfect example of how Chron articles are really more emotive than analytical. I think listening to his show on 1560 is really telling of his shortcomings as a writer for the Chron. He is terribly knowlegable about baseball, but he has serious shortcomings when it comes to other sports. You can listen to him interview people and then simply relay it in his articles with the obligatory dramatic spin. I don't think he understands the sport, so he just takes what other people say and exagerates it. The Mario Williams thing is the perfect example; he would simply parrot what seemed to be the popular opinion at the time instead of breaking down strengths, weaknesses, and formulating some sort of unique analysis.

That's where they could really use an LZ-esque writer who has a background in the sport, connections with scouts and coaches, and a mind of his own.

[nunusguy]

Originally Posted by nero THE zero

The Mario Williams thing is the perfect example; he would simply parrot what seemed to be the popular opinion at the time instead of breaking down strengths, weaknesses, and formulating some sort of unique analysis.
That's where they could really use an LZ-esque writer who has a background in the sport, connections with scouts and coaches, and a mind of his own.

Everybody crucified the Texans for the Mario pick up until the 2007 season,
including LZ. The only media person I know of, locally or outside of Houston who has consistantl supported
the pick, was ESPNs Michael Smith.
But if you listen to 1560, you know that Justice bags some big names to interview, like #1 NFL Draft guru Rich Gosselin of the DMNs. Of course I will admit its been just lately that Justice doesn't all but apologize to Gosselin,
who of course like Justice is a Cowboys supporter, about asking him questions
about our "little NFL team" here in Houston.
But again, yea LZ is the local authority on the NLF, though the guy they've got in the afternoon on 1560 seems knowledgible also.

[nero THE zero]

Originally Posted by nunusguy

Everybody crucified the Texans for the Mario pick up until the 2007 season,
including LZ. The only media person I know of, locally or outside of Houston who has consistantl supported
the pick, was ESPNs Michael Smith.
But if you listen to 1560, you know that Justice bags some big names to interview, like #1 NFL Draft guru Rich Gosselin of the DMNs. Of course I will admit its been just lately that Justice doesn't all but apologize to Gosselin,
who of course like Justice is a Cowboys supporter, about asking him questions
about our "little NFL team" here in Houston.
But again, yea LZ is the local authority on the NLF, though the guy they've got in the afternoon on 1560 seems knowledgible also.

John Harris?

He's supposed to be a walking encyclopedia of football, but I never get a chance to listen to him. I think he keeps up a blog though.