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Do you think Brian Cushing will be Happy in Houston ?

N

nunusguy

Hall of Fame
Let me begin by answering my own question - Yes ! Absolutely Yes !But if you remember the Draft like I do, you know Cushing was in the "green room" with other players and acted anything but thrilled when the announcement was made that he was being picked by the Texans. And
the way he was embraced by his family/friends at the announcement was almost embarrasing - I recall the behavior when his own mother hugged him. It seemed almost like an act of condolence. I dunno what the problem was, maybe there was another team(s) he was hoping to play for ? Maybe he just didn't specifically want to come tocome to Houston ?
But if I've learned one thing about Cushing, it's that this is one guy who truely breathes, eats, drinks and lives football. And if he doesn't know by now he will soon know that this rabid football community has embraced him and his intensity, his sheer love of the game, and his prowess on the field as the real deal when it comes to being a hard-nosed LB like his beloved USC never did and really could.
For the people of Southern California I suspect Cushing was just another good football player on a team that was used to ESPN-hyped celebs like
Sanchez and former stars like Leinert and Bush. And word is they routinely had real celebs like Will Farrel show up for practice.
But here Cushing gets a mild flu-bug the first month he's on the team and
many local fans treat it with the urgency of a sickness in their own family.
I think he's gonna feel the admiration and support and appreciation, yea the love, like he never knew on the West Coast. And I think he's gonna respond in kind because he's that kind of guy.
 
You're basing a lot on assumptions with no backing.

Cushing wasn't jumping up and down with a cheese eating grin on his face, but he's an all-business type guy from New Jersey. And, if you know people from New Jersey like I do, you know that, even when elated, they don't typically show it like someone from the south would.

Maybe he was disappointed that we picked him, maybe his dog got run over by a truck that morning, or maybe he just shows his emotions differently that you expect him to. But, it's a pretty big jump to assume that Cushing was disappointed to be picked by the Texans from a few seconds of video.
 
I think his draft day reaction was due to there being little surprise with where he went. Kid is stricly business, that's all.
 
Kid has played four games and we are already worried that we are going to lose him in free agency 5 years down the road?

Way to see the shi*** lining of the cloud.
 
If his play continues, Cushing could quickly be elevated to Olajuwon status by fans. Both players were Alaskan work dogs. The "dream" brought two championships but the "nightmare" brings the fan base of an NFL team. If Texans can annually take it to the playoffs and Cush earns a few awards say DROY & probowl, I can see it happening. I think he is real pumped to play next to Ryans and Diles should step up as season goes by. Yeah, the first rounder should be happy in Houston if his play continues to improve.
 
GuerillaBlack said:
What the hell?
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I agree :


300kinghilllr103108.jpg
 
I guess i don't remember the draft like you do (or some other people do i guess) because I didn't see anything out of the ordinary. I have gone back and re-watched it to see if I missed something and I still can't figure out how some people are making these assumptions. Baffling.
 
I think he digs it here, and hopefully he'll be one of the foundations for the dominant defense that brings the city much success. He's embracing local community service, and I've heard a couple of interviews with him that paint a picture of a down-to-earth player with a great worth ethic and much gratitude for the chance to play and the reception that he's received from Texans fans.

Houston has a sort of blue-collar feel to it and we love football. Our old football home was called the "house of pain", which is indicative of the kind of football that fans like here. I think it fits his personality and work ethic well.
 
Maybe he got to watch a few live games of the Jets and/or Giants on Christmas break.

When was the last time a pro-football team play anywhere close to the USC campus?

Here, he gets to play in front of a sell-out crowd every home game.
The team is on the verge of getting out of mediocrity, providing him with the chance to make a difference.
What's to be unhappy about?
 
Double Barrel said:
I think he digs it here, and hopefully he'll be one of the foundations for the dominant defense that brings the city much success. He's embracing local community service, and I've heard a couple of interviews with him that paint a picture of a down-to-earth player with a great worth ethic and much gratitude for the chance to play and the reception that he's received from Texans fans.

Houston has a sort of blue-collar feel to it and we love football. Our old football home was called the "house of pain", which is indicative of the kind of football that fans like here. I think it fits his personality and work ethic well.
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Yup, Houston embraces guys who work hard at what they do.

I also heard that Cushing was amazed at how much house he could buy in Houston compared to the East and West Coasts. So we got that going for us, which is nice.
 
badboy said:
If his play continues, Cushing could quickly be elevated to Olajuwon status by fans. Both players were Alaskan work dogs. The "dream" brought two championships but the "nightmare" brings the fan base of an NFL team. If Texans can annually take it to the playoffs and Cush earns a few awards say DROY & probowl, I can see it happening. I think he is real pumped to play next to Ryans and Diles should step up as season goes by. Yeah, the first rounder should be happy in Houston if his play continues to improve.
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I'm loving Cushing right now........but that "Olajuwon status" isn't happening anytime soon. Cushing could have a great career with us and he still most likely won't come close to reaching "Olajuwon status". That guy is a Legend....a Legend for what he did for UofH and the Houston Rockets. Legends don't come around very often.... Andre Johnson has a better chance of reaching "Olajuwon status" and unless we start winning here even he won't make it.


I think some of us need to calm down a little bit...we're only 4 games into his career.
 
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Cushing mentioned in the same sentence as Olajuwon is blasphemy on so many levels.

Why don't we let Cushing play a season before we start making a bust for him for the Hall of Fame?

Cushing will be happy in Houston if we win, period. I really don't care if he is happy. As long as he is playing good it doesn't matter. Now if he is unhappy and it affects his on the field production, then I have a problem.
 
Carr Bombed said:
I'm loving Cushing right now........but that "Olajuwon status" isn't happening anytime soon. Cushing could have a great career with us and he still most likely won't come close to reaching "Olajuwon status". That guy is a Legend....a Legend for what he did for UofH and the Houston Rockets. Legends don't come around very often.... Andre Johnson has a better chance of reaching "Olajuwon status" and unless we start winning here even he won't make it.


I think some of us need to calm down a little bit...we're only 4 games into his career.
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Word.

When the Texans win back-to-back Super Bowls because of a dominant defense that is led by Cushing, Mario, DeMeco, then maybe, juuuuust maybe, we can whisper his name in the same breath as Hakeem.

One is a rookie with four games to his name, and the other is a HoF legend who many consider to be in the top 3 at his position of all time. Let's not get emotional here, folks.
 
My favorite quote from Cushing the day we drafted him and he first visited Houston, paraphrased was something like

"I played my high school ball in New Jersey, my college ball on the west coast and now I'm in the South"

Sounded pretty excited to me!
 
IIRC, Kubiak was on the phone with him when his name got called and he was occupied with the phone conversation.

I could care less if he's happy here. I just want him to keep playing lights out.
 
Vinny said:
in other news, nunusguy is worried about the cost of tea in China.
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Holy crap, did it go up again? I won't be able to afford it, and there will be no polar bears when the world melts because of our Carbon emissions... Yeahh...:spin:
 
LOS ANGELES, Dec. 29 - As the weeks passed earlier this season and the freshman linebacker Brian Cushing sat injured on the University of Southern California sideline, the phone calls home increased in frequency and urgency.
He would call his parents in New Jersey and say that he had made a mistake in choosing a university almost 3,000 miles away. Cushing missed his family, his friends, his girlfriend and the familiar surroundings of Park Ridge. He wanted to go home, to transfer to Rutgers or Boston College and to restart his career. But Cushing recalled that his father delivered a blunt message: "Suck it up. It's your decision. You need to stick with it."
**
Cushing's father recalled that on one of his visits to California, his son had a sour attitude most of the time. But at the end of the visit, he said, his son came clean.

"If I was playing and starting, I wouldn't have been complaining to you all day," Frank Cushing recalled his son saying.
Cushing has started the last three games and has thrived despite his physical limitations. He led the team with seven tackles in a victory at California and recovered a fumble in each of U.S.C.'s victories against Fresno State and U.C.L.A.

He said that his decision to attend U.S.C. was predicated upon the desire to compete against the best players every day.

"I really wanted to go home, but I kept it inside of me, just knowing I had to tough it out," Cushing said. "I knew if I stayed here, good things would happen."
http://images.google.com/imgres?img...es?q=brian+cushing+girlfriend&hl=en&sa=X&um=1
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Looks like Cushing wasn't very happy back in 2005 when a freshman in his first year in California either ?
 
Four years ago during his freshman season he became homesick because he couldn't play football due to an injury...

So how exactly did you come up with the presumption that he may not be happy in Houston due to that?

Stupid thread.
 
Jackie Chiles said:
This sentence reeks of you assuming he is not happy now. Could we please drop this whole nonsense? This thread is a joke.
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I have to agree. If you watched the NFL Network show chronicling his path to the draft, you would see that Cushing is a laid back, quiet dude who likes to work hard. While Crabtree was smiling the entire series, Brian maybe cracked a smile 3 or 4 times the entire time. Most of those times were after a workout.

From all I have heard from people at Reliant is that Brian is working hard and trying to soak up as much information as he can and get better. Any concern about him being unhappy is unfounded. He is playing the game he loves and making a difference.
 
Jackie Chiles said:
This sentence reeks of you assuming he is not happy now. Could we please drop this whole nonsense? This thread is a joke.
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This is a good article and it says a lot about the experiences a young man (actually just a boy) might have in these circumstances.
I can relate to it because when I was 18 like Cushing I went away from home, out of state on a football scholarship and remember it being very difficult at times. But that's where any similarites I might have had with Cushing ended, because I bombed in my brief college football career.
Besides I like to antagonize you guys by suggesting (as I really strongly suspect), that Cushing has not made the adjustment yet to living in this
area.
 
4 years is a long time from 18 to 22. I know I matured in leaps and bounds during that period, so I have no doubt that Cushing has, as well.

Besides, with 32 team in the NFL, the odds of him getting drafted by a team near his hometown was slim. He understands the nature of pro sports and what it takes to be good at it. He's a Houston Texan, and I think he will be so for a long, long time.
 
nunusguy said:
This is a good article and it says a lot about the experiences a young man (actually just a boy) might have in these circumstances.
I can relate to it because when I was 18 like Cushing I went away from home, out of state on a football scholarship and remember it being very difficult at times. But that's where any similarites I might have had with Cushing ended, because I bombed in my brief college football career.
Besides I like to antagonize you guys by suggesting (as I really strongly suspect), that Cushing has not made the adjustment yet to living in this
area.
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So are all of our other rookies unhappy as well? Oh yeah, I forgot, your entire theory rests on some strange notion that Cushing didn't react the way you anticipated after he got drafted. I was at a wedding a while back and the parents of the bride actually cried. Boy, they sure looked sad, that marriage must be doomed. Come on.
 
I mean honestly, he just won AFC defensive player of the week. I hope he continues to be "miserable" the rest of his career in Houston if that is how he is going to respond. Anyway, I'm done with this thread, continue tilting at windmills if you like.
 
It makes a difference when you can fly your entire family in for games. You don't miss them quite so much.

I think Cushing will fit right in in Texas. I wouldn't begin to compare him with Olajuwon yet, and probably never will, but I could see him becoming the kind of fan favorite that Ray Childress or William Fuller was.
 
i was surprised when people mentioned that Cushing didn't look happy when his named was called, and that his parents were consoling him etc. I didn't notice anything the first time, and after reading those comments i rewatched his reaction.
Looked fine to me - relieved if anything.

Watched the Cincy game last night - I hope the guy retires a Texan
 
Ahh, the memories. In high school, Cushing was long rumored to be a strong UVA lean when Pete Carroll swooped in and snatched him (in much the same manner he did with Dwayne Jarrett, another Jersey guy, the year before). Word around the Wahoo campfire was that Cushing was enticed by a promise that he'd play safety (in addition to the usual access to SoCal hotties, and the fact that he might have a slightly better shot at the BCS with USC. Slightly.)

In any event, when the article about Cushing being homesick came out, Carroll was also intimating he might need Cushing to play on the DL as sophomore (which he did). The homesickness coupled with the apparent broken promise led to speculation that Cushing might transfer. Of course, that speculation proved unfounded. Shocking, I know.

Anyway, Cushing is now very much a "USC love" guy (I believe he used the term in a radio interview), so he can adapt. I grant he might have been disappointed on draft day to learn that he would be far away from both his ancestral home in Jersey and his adopted home in SoCal, but I have no reason to think he won't get over it. If he hasn't already.
 
Hooston Texan said:
Ahh, the memories. In high school, Cushing was long rumored to be a strong UVA lean when Pete Carroll swooped in and snatched him (in much the same manner he did with Dwayne Jarrett, another Jersey guy, the year before).
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I heard Cushing say on a local radio show last month that his older brother wanted him to go to Miami, but his father nixed that idea because it wasn't a strong school, academically speaking, but his Dad did approve of USC because it was academically sound. Then another source said he had for a long time wanted to go to ND, which has some logically basis because he's Catholic and of course ND is a legendary football school. So who knows ?
 
I read when he was little he told his father he would grow up to play at Notre Dame (the Catholic connection) then the Cowboys.

At least he made it to the right state! I think Cush is just happy on a football field. That's the way he plays anyway...well not happy happy but you know what I mean..."intense happy" if you will...
 
It doesn't take a forum discussion to see that the guy loves his teammates --especially DeMeco-- and is performing exceptionally. That's all he needs.

Why did this thread get revived anyway? Lame topic.
 
Spled said:
He seems happy here - http://www.nfl.com/videos/houston-texans/09000d5d8110e8b9
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Good find Spled. Cushing is downright giddy in that brief vid.
In the meantime here's a paragraph from the latest article about Cushing in the Chronicle which is a comment by DeMeco. And I gotta respectfully
disagree with DeMeco - it's not a big step up from the SEC to the NFL, but it is from the PAC-10.
**
“College stadiums are a lot bigger,” Ryans said. “You play in front of bigger crowds. And when you play at the top programs, like USC or Bama, the game's just as fast (as the NFL's), I think. You're playing the top athletes week in and week out. The step up isn't that big. It's an easy transition, especially when you have the instincts he has.”
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/fb/texansfront/6681942.html
 
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