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we DEFINATLY have Rivalries

here are the Texans Rivalries.

The Tennessee Titans. These guys USED to be the Houston Oilers.. but they left cause the owner was a jackass. so we enjoy beating them .

The Jacksonville Jaguars. We didnt have a rivalry with these guys until the last season or so. Their fans are rude and talk alot of smack. they make claims that they cannot backup as well. Their team is full of thugs who like to play dirty.. and whine when someone plays dirty back. they are an easy team to despise.. and we do .

The Dallas Cowboys. This is the big one. The thing is.. Dallas isnt in our division or even in the AFC (there are two parts to the league.. the NFC with 16 teams.. and the AFC with 16 teams.. we are in the AFC, Dallas is in the NFC). Every 4 or 5 years we play the Cowboys. The reason we dislike them is because they are here in our home state and ..well.. i really cant explain it.. we just dont like Dallas or their teams . Our first game ever in 2002 was against the cowboys.. we beat em 19-10.. it was a beautiful beautiful day.



here are the NFL divisions.

http://www.hallsfantasyfootball.com/divisions.htm

[Grid]

oh.. and about the draft.. it works like this.

Depending on how your team played that season, you are given 7 draft picks. (one for each round). The draft is made up up college seniors, and some juniors who have declared.. sometimes sophmores as well (you have to be 3 years out of highschool to qualify).

The worst team drafts first.. the superbowl winner drafts 32nd. Some teams get extra picks as supplements for lost players the year before (it works kinda like this.. if 5 players left my team last year, and I only signed 3 new ones.. then id get 2 extra draft picks this year.. depending on how good or important those players i lost were).

You can also trade people for draft picks.. like I could trade you a player for your 1st and 2nd pick. or if I was drafting 15th.. I could trade my first second and third for your first, if you were drafting #1. That kinda thing. All those kinds of trades usually happen on the day of the draft.


As for transfers. There is a period during the offseason called "Free Agency".. this is when players whos contracts have expired are free to be signed by other teams. There is ALOT to learn about this.. from all the different TYPES of free agents.. to the nature of the contracts you can sign and how it affects the salary cap for your team. How much cap space your team has and how releasing a player early can help or hinder it. It is very involved.. suffice to say that there IS a period where players are exchanged. Do to the nature of the salary cap though.. you will hardly, if ever, see a Player for a Player transaction. Its always a money for a player transaction.



AND btw.. about the rivalrys. You may have a fist fight or 3.. but no rioting or stabbing .

[welsh texan]

i didn't realise that you had mini divisions in each league, you do play everyone in the AFC though right?

the difference between our rivalries and yours must be massive, with the UK being relatively small scale, wrexham are less than 10 miles away, a massive hatred therefore arises.

how many times do you play each other a season?

other more trivial questions:

how often do you change the Kit?
does it stay the same colour?
how often does a franchise move? is houston here for a good few years yet?
do the fans chant, or just generally shout and cheer?

is football played as a pastime in the park to any extent? over here we play football (sorry...soccer)all the time, as well as many different types of games based on different skill.

without being biased, is football the biggest game in the US?

having 3 big sports in one city must be amazing, do a lot of texans fans support all 3 or do you guys stick to 1 sport as your favourite?

i heard there were unlimited substitutions, do all of the player in the whole team play a part at some point in the game? (in soccer we name 5 subs, and can only use 3)

can league games end in a draw, or does it always reach a result through overtime?

is texans stadium big compared to other football stadiums ovewr there?

sorry for the inquisition, just a few things i'd like to know.

[Vinny]

Originally Posted by welsh texan

i didn't realise that you had mini divisions in each league, you do play everyone in the AFC though right?

No, the NFL uses a formula to schedule and there are only 16 games each year. You play your division opponents twice a year and play one AFC division, and one NFC division with a couple of extra games decided by a formula to round out the 16 game package.

Originally Posted by welsh texan

the difference between our rivalries and yours must be massive, with the UK being relatively small scale, wrexham are less than 10 miles away, a massive hatred therefore arises.

Not much real hatred goes on. Each team is made up of players from every region of the Country.

Originally Posted by welsh texan

how often do you change the Kit?
does it stay the same colour?

If you are talking about the ball then ...beats me, and its always the same.

Originally Posted by welsh texan

how often does a franchise move? is houston here for a good few years yet?
do the fans chant, or just generally shout and cheer?

Not often. Franchise movement is more of a fringe thing and is not something you will see much of.

Originally Posted by welsh texan

is football played as a pastime in the park to any extent? over here we play football (sorry...soccer)all the time, as well as many different types of games based on different skill.

without being biased, is football the biggest game in the US?

Growing up everyone plays some version of football here. Depends on the region and who you talk to about Football being the favorite sport in the Nation. Baseball, Football and Basketball all have loyal fans and are all played by most kids (at least when I was growing up...now I think most sit on their butts and play video games)

Originally Posted by welsh texan

having 3 big sports in one city must be amazing, do a lot of texans fans support all 3 or do you guys stick to 1 sport as your favourite?

I support all our major franchises, but Football is far and away my favorite sport

Originally Posted by welsh texan

i heard there were unlimited substitutions, do all of the player in the whole team play a part at some point in the game? (in soccer we name 5 subs, and can only use 3)

There are 22 starters and a special teams unit (Punts and kicks) made up with a few starters and mostly reserves. Most guys eventually hit the field in a given game off the roster.

Originally Posted by welsh texan

can league games end in a draw, or does it always reach a result through overtime?

I haven't seen a tie game in years and years. Sudden death overtime generally decides the winner in O/T (first team to score wins in overtime) if the game is tied in regulation

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nah its cool ..its fun to tell people over there about American Football.. there are alot of misconceptions about the sport.

You dont play everyone in the AFC each season. Every year we play the guy in OUR division of the AFC twice (AFC South).. that means we play Tennessee, Jacksonville, and Indianapolis twice. Then each year, you get one other NFC and one other AFC division that you also play games against. and you will play one game against each team in those divisions.

this next Season we play the AFC North and NFC West I think.


"Change the kit" sorry I dont follow what a Kit is? Uniforms?


It is rare for a franchise to move.. you see one move maybe every 20 years. The Texans will be in Houston for many many many many many many years. We know what it is like to NOT have a team now.. and our owner is just an awesome awesome guy. The Texans arent going anywhere.


Yes it is played as a past time.. Usually you will see people playing Flag football. Basicly you tuck a towel in your belt and to tackle someone they have to grab the towel. This keeps people from getting injured . But lots of people play full contact too. I grew up playing football and football related games. We played full contact in the yard.. but that wasnt a big enough field to play real games, so we would play touch football in the street (touch= touch the guy with the ball with two hands between the shoulders and knees to "tackle" him). We also played a game we called "Fumble" which was kinda of like doing kickoff returns. Someone threw the ball up in the air, and if you grabbed it.. you had to get it to the other side of the yard without being tackled. If you got tackled, you had to throw the ball up and someone else would grab it.. rinse, repeat. Good fun .


Yes football is the biggest game in the U.S. During the season anyway. Football has a relatively short season with only 17 weeks of regular football.. then 4 weeks or so of post season/championship football. When football is in season it is hands down the most popular game in America. And the Superbowl is the BIGGEST television event of the year, every year.


Eh.. for the most part Houstonians support all three. Some people just arent baseball or basketball fans. I watch baseball.. though im disgusted with the Astros after last season.. GOD that sucked. Im not a big basketball fan though, so I couldnt tell you much of anything about the Rockets right now.



There are "unlimited" substitutions. But you gotta keep a couple things in mind. first of all, there are only 52 people allowed on the team. You have 11 guys on Defense, 11 guys on Offense, and 11 guys on special teams.. that is 33.. that leaves you 19 spots (roughly..cause some guys play special teams AND offense/defense.). now.. when you consider that there are MANY MANY different positions in Football.. and you cannot use the same guy to play more than one position in most cases.. that means that you will only have 2, maybe 3 backups for any given position. And since injuries are very common in the sport.. well... you GOTTA have unlimited substitutions.



Im actually not sure if there can be a draw. To my knowledge.. the game will go into overtime and be completed, no matter what. But I think a tie game IS possible.. but very unlikely.



Our stadium is not the biggest.. but it is on the big side in comparison to all the other stadiums. We seat 72k.. and the cool thing about our stadium is that it is state of the art.. is the only stadium with a retractable roof. it has real turf. ..well.. I cant really go into everything the stadium has, but it is just an awe inspiring construction.. its sweet. Best thing though is that it is "oval" shaped... and really no matter WHERE you sit in the stadium, you have a great view. even in the nose bleed sections.

[Grid]

Vinny did a better job explaining the substitutions :P.. I had a brain fart there. Yah the 11 special teams guys are made up of reserves as well.. so about half the team are "backups".

[welsh texan]

where i say kit i think you say 'jerseys' and 'uniforms'

over here 72k is currently the biggest stadium in the country, but man united are currently expanding to 75k, and the FA are building a 90k stadium for the national team.

chesters stadium has 3500 seats, plus a terrace that holds 2500, are any of the stadiums terraced over there? it creates a hell of an atmosphere!

what are the predictions for the texans next year? also, when does the season start again? i can't wait, there is a live match on a sunday night, and a good highlights show, with it being on at 3:30 am on a school night, i only managed to drag myself out of bed to see you guys v the green bay packers.

another thing, do you guys go to away matches? over here we have to play 20 teams home and away, and i've only missed 4 away matches so far this season (quite an achievement, ive so far racked up about 3000 miles since august to watch city)

this is our stadium(above), it's actually nice compared to some of the places in our division

this is cheltenhams stadium

[Grid]

ahh ok. Well the Steel Blue jerseys are for home games. The white jerseys are for Away games.

And twice a year we are allowed to wear alternate jerseys.. that is when we wear our Battle Red. So far we are undefeated in battle red .


Im not sure if we have terraced stadiums or not.

Predictions for next year.. well.. we are good enough to make the playoffs or even the superbowl IMO.. but we lack consistency and our offensive line needs to get better. So, if we come out and play to our potential.. I think we could make playoffs.. but a safe bet would be 9-7 (9 wins, 7 losses) which COULD possibly get us a wild card spot into the playoffs, but it would be close.

the season starts in september, but there is alot of stuff going on before then (I dont have dates).. we have the pro bowl this sunday.. then soon we will have the combine (an event where the top prospects out of college work out for the NFL teams so they can decide who they are gonna try and draft). Then you have the Free Agency period.. then the draft.. then the training camps where you start to see who has improved, which rookies will be on the team, and what changes to scheme your team might be making this year. Then you have the 4 preseason games (basicly scrimmages where you see your 2nd and 3rd stringers playing mostly, to try them out in game situations and see how they perform). Then the start of the regular season .

[Blake]

The University of Michigan stadium "The Big House" holds 107,501. Thats the biggest I know of. Correct me if Im wrong, but most NFL stadiums are going to hold around 70,000-80,000 I believe.

And on the Kits, each team has a Home and Away uniform. One is light colors, and one is dark. We have white, and Steel Blue. And we also have a alternate kit that we are allowed to wear 2 games a year out of the 16 game season. Most teams have 1 alternate.

[welsh texan]

do you go to away games? i'm going to kidderminster tomorow and the excitement is now starting to build,we will probably win 2 matches in a row for the first time this season!!

[Grid]

Ive never been to an away game personally. Some of the folks on here get together and go to one away game every year. Its pretty expensive to do that though, so ive never been able to .

[Shamrock]

Originally Posted by welsh texan

do you go to away games?

Away games are fun, and it's great to meet other fans (most of the time).

I grew up in San Diego, CA, and am a Chargers fan. I've seen them play at Houston both in preseason 2003, and in the 2004 season opener. I've also been to Chargers games in San Francisco, LA (vs. both the Raiders and vs. the Rams - before they both moved), and in the old Seattle Kingdome (that place was a dump).

If you ever do make it out to Reliant Stadium for a Texans game, you will be seeing the best stadium in the country. It's a football palace. Houston did it right !!!

[texasguy346]

Originally Posted by Vinny

I haven't seen a tie game in years and years. Sudden death overtime generally decides the winner in O/T (first team to score wins in overtime) if the game is tied in regulation

Didn't Atlanta have a tie regular season game a couple years ago? I'm thinking they were playing the Steelers, but I'm not absolutely certain.

[welsh texan]

over here it's lot cheaper to move from one end of the country to another, in a car share, we usually get there & back for £10 each, (but i'm going by train today).

my Dad has lived over there for 9 years now, but i've never managed to get over there, i'll probably be trying to go to new york with my mates some time in october, and will try to schedule in a trip (although this may end up being put back a year).

what are the drinking laws over there, is it 18 like here?

can't wait, i've been told that the whole experience is a lot better than soccer, we just pack into a stadium, watch the game, try to get over the barrier at the opposing fans, then go home.

[Vinny]

Travelling is a bit different here. For instance, I can drive for an hour on the freeway from the Clear Lake area of Houston (south Houston) to Intercontinental Airport (North Houston) with no traffic and still never get out of Houston.

[Grid]

yah I live 2 and a half hours from houston and im basicly "just outside" of it.


To go watch a game in another state.... that would be a 2 or 3 day drive. Maybe more.

a game against the Saints in Lousianna may be possible, but that would be a looooong day. Leave in the morning... get there at kickoff.. leave after the game, get home and go to bed.

[welsh texan]

yeh, i've just got back from the game (1-0 win , we're pretty much safe from relegation now) 11 hours on the road including the match, absolutely knackered.

how big is houston, is it really 70 miles across?

[Section136#3]

Drinking in the states you have to be over 21 yrs.

[Grid]

I think we are the biggest city in the western hemisphere.. from a land mass point of view. But our city is very spread out.. its not like New York where you see skyscrapers as far as the eye can see.

[welsh texan]

Originally Posted by Section136#3

Drinking in the states you have to be over 21 yrs.

how do people survive from 18 to 21 ???

are the laws strictly enforced, (need ID etc) or can you get served underage? over here it's fairly easy to get served from about 16 if yuo know which pubs are OK with it.

I think we are the biggest city in the western hemisphere.. from a land mass point of view. But our city is very spread out.. its not like New York where you see skyscrapers as far as the eye can see.

i forget which area my Dad lives in, but the road is called Sussex Drive, anyone know where that is?