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The Chanifesto: Texans fans still need identity

Wolf

100% Texan
There's the Dawg Pound in Cleveland, the Cheeseheads of Green Bay and the disturbing nature of Raider Nation.

And then there are Texans fans.

In the animal kingdom of NFL fans, those who root for the Texans are the platypuses.

Surely they exist, because you've seen them on TV before. But you're not sure what they do and what purpose they serve.

Here in Cowboys country, Texans fans walk anonymously as second-class citizens. Every Cowboys fan finished the 2008 season bitter and disappointed about their team's 9-7 season.

For the Texans, 9-7 would be a franchise record.

Go out of state, and Texans pride is met with confusion.

People who introduce themselves as Texans fans must quickly follow with “Well, I'm from Houston,” in order to preempt the “Why?” that almost always follows.

Like their team, Texans fans are still developing an identity. There aren't any defining characteristics like the Redskins fans' hog noses, the Vikings fans' horn helmets or the Eagles fans' hostility.

The Texans have tried to force a look, with events like a “Battle Red Day,” where the fans and the team all wear red. They've also adopted the Packers' “Lambeau Leap,” although the wall at Reliant Stadium is higher than at Lambeau Field and makes the jump a little more awkward.

But the true personality of the Texans fan, whenever it is created, will have to be organic. And it's still missing the biggest ingredient to unite a fan base: a winning team.

http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/page2/The_Chanifesto_Texans_fans_still_need_identity.html
 
I dispute the enitre premise that Texans fans need an identity.

I couldn't possibly care less about the fact that people in other cities don't have broad and over simplified brush with which to paint us.

I'm a Texans fan. So are my friends. So is everyone who joins me at Reliant Park on game days for great food, cold drinks, hand shakes and high fives. We're hard working, fun loving football fans. We're doctors and nurses. We're lawyers and cops. We're teachers and students. We're geologists and roughnecks. We're drivers and mechanics. We're Houston.

We like football. This is our team. We are not yet victors, but we continue the fight. Let others bask in the ever fading glow of their team's past acheivements. We will enjoy what we have right here right now and look forward to an ever brighter future.

Let others search for convenient labels. We'll just keep gathering ten times a year and keep having the time of our lives. We'll hope for the best, and grip for the worst. We'll celebrate our successes and learn from our failures. We'll be Texans every step of the way and in every sense of the word. If no one else gets it, so be it.

bpe3
 
I dispute the enitre premise that Texans fans need an identity.

I couldn't possibly care less about the fact that people in other cities don't have broad and over simplified brush with which to paint us.

I'm a Texans fan. So are my friends. So is everyone who joins me at Reliant Park on game days for great food, cold drinks, hand shakes and high fives. We're hard working, fun loving football fans. We're doctors and nurses. We're lawyers and cops. We're teachers and students. We're geologists and roughnecks. We're drivers and mechanics. We're Houston.

We like football. This is our team. We are not yet victors, but we continue the fight. Let others bask in the ever fading glow of their team's past acheivements. We will enjoy what we have right here right now and look forward to an ever brighter future.

Let others search for convenient labels. We'll just keep gathering ten times a year and keep having the time of our lives. We'll hope for the best, and grip for the worst. We'll celebrate our successes and learn from our failures. We'll be Texans every step of the way and in every sense of the word. If no one else gets it, so be it.

bpe3

I need to shotgun....
 
Identity? Vugg it! Expand something which already exist until it takes over All Texans fans. I submit to you ladies and gents the expansion of...

"THE BLUE CREW"

problem solved...just give special t-shirts, hats or rings or something to original members of the REAL Blue Crew.
 
Here in Cowboys country,

uck-dallas-bull-pen.jpg


Thanks Steph
 
The Texans have tried to force a look, with events like a “Battle Red Day,” where the fans and the team all wear red.

Yep. "Traditions" started by a group of people sitting around a conference table in the marketing department inventing words like Liberty White, Steel Blue and Battle Red are shallow and patronizing at best.

Real football traditions are what the fans invent.
 
The picture in that article is a reason why if you are a face paint fan, especially Chris in the front row, you should very much avoid being caught by cameras making sad fan face.

Unless you want to be the face of the franchise in futility.

Camera guys can catch you doing all sorts of things, but if you know that cameras might be on you, you can't pose for the team just had a crappy game shot.

But then again, sometimes you just get busted when you think the cameras are not on you:

jerryjonespicksnose_20090921155908_320_240.JPG


Jerrah pickin for gold to pay for his stadium.
 
The picture in that article is a reason why if you are a face paint fan, especially Chris in the front row, you should very much avoid being caught by cameras making sad fan face.

Unless you want to be the face of the franchise in futility.

Camera guys can catch you doing all sorts of things, but if you know that cameras might be on you, you can't pose for the team just had a crappy game shot.

But then again, sometimes you just get busted when you think the cameras are not on you:

jerryjonespicksnose_20090921155908_320_240.JPG


Jerrah pickin for gold to pay for his stadium.

See TC ... if you knew anything about football , you'd know that was a signal to the OC to run a pick or rub play ( they didn't catch him give the rub signal ) . :pop:
 
Typical SA reporting (you get use to it).

Side note: Couple weeks ago, a local radio station was at Texans Camp. And the hosts said that SA fans should really like Andre Johnson. They said he has many "Spurs like qualities", Doesn't want the spotlight, works hard, is one of the best at his trade, and is a GREAT guy. (needlessly to say, I almost wrecked my car do to the shock of a SA reporter saying something nice about the Texans).



ps, to be fair that same station (1250 am ESPN) talks with Mark V. once a week. So we are starting to get some more pub.
 
He mentions 3 or 4 teams who's fans he contends have an identity, but I would contend that the "identity" of most fans (including those specifically mentioned) is tied to the history and performance of the team.

I consider the fans of the Patriots, Bears, Chiefs, Giants, Broncos and Steelers to be some of the best in the NFL. What's their "identity" beyond having Super Bowl trophies, and franchise success to look back on (even if it's not current success or recent Super Bowl trophies).

The Dawg Pound is the best example of this. The reason the Dawg Pound has any notoriety at all is because of the reputation it received during the days of Hanford Dixon (who came up with the moniker in the first place), Earnest Byner, Kevin Mack and Frank Minnifield. It managed to survive a franchisectomy, but I would say it's "identity" has precious little to do with the Browns of the past decade.

So if you want to say the Texans themselves still need an identity, and if you want to say the fans can't establish an identity until the team does, then fine - your pretty much right on target, but you're also pretty much a master of the obvious. Let's just not pretend the cart's going to be pulling the horse down mainstreet.
 
I agree with some things in that article but the Texans have very passionate fans and a very strong fan base. That's not a problem here.

I would like to see more of an identity for the fan base though. I think that would be cool and give a lot of fans more pride.

I saw this guy with a bull face mask at a game one time. It must have been custom, but the thing was awsome! It was scary looking to, because you didn't know who was behind that mask. I wish they would sell those. It would be cool if a lot more fans had stuff like that to give fans in the stands a better identity. That mask reminded me of some of those Dawg Pound masks that the Browns have, but it was just a Bull face mask. That type of thing could be our identity sort of like when you come to play the Texans you come to "run with the bulls" like they have in Spain or whatever country it is that they do that in every year. I do think something along those types of lines would give our fan base more pride and our franchise more notoriety.
 
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