I don't enjoy football anymore...

was my thought at end of 2010 Texans season. Flat out disgusted. No playoffs? Heck I didn't even like the way we won most games. I was feeling sorry for me and Andre Johnson as neither were going to get much out of the games other teams would go to after regular season ended. Didn't McNair see what I and countless others did? He said he cared, well? Memories of ex-wives saying the same thing were making me paranoid. I kept mumbling "show me something for hanging with you, Bob."

I told my mock draft partners Beerlover and RMartin65 that I was sick of the NFL draft being the high point of the season. We discussed stopping the mock & I remember thinking that Astros had slowly turned me off and the Rockets were making me re-think my desire to watch. Have not watched more than a handfull of Rocket games for two season and whoopee; no 2011 season is on the precipice of the CBA cliff.

Then came the hiring of Wade Phillips. Good guy and great DC but I followed him mostly due to his dad. A molecule of excitement enterred me; if Wade could just get the defense into the mid ranks....I decided to do one more draft. Credit Kubiak or Smith or Phillips, I truly do not care but what a draft!

My feelings of enjoying the game is not limited to our team but now I watch other NFL games that may impact the Texans standings. I find myself eagerly reading the sports page (yes, I did return to the Houston Chronicle, first Sunday only and last week to daily) to compare W-L records and also to review injury report of other teams. (Did you know that Tampa Bay DT Gerald McCoy tore a right biceps Sunday & is out for season?)

I could still be disappointed in the ending this season but I believe for a much different reason.

Regardless, I enjoy football again.

cool story?

I've always enjoyed football at its highest level (the NFL and most of the SEC). I've never grown tired of watching the Texans at any time but they have made me shake my head a few times. Perhaps that's why I'm not as dizzy as I used to be.

I love the NFL. It's the only sport that I really care about. At the end of every season, I feel a void that has to be filled with other diversions (like watching MMA, basket weaving, snipe hunting, etc).

While the Texans are my team, I do not let their mediocrity and failures cloud my enjoyment of the NFL in general. And now that they look to be contenders instead of pretenders *knock on wood*, it makes it that much more enjoyable to have a proverbial horse in the race.

For entertainment diversions, it doesn't get better than January in my world.

My history with the Texans:

March through April - Very excited about football. Predraft and draft stuff are exciting. 8/10 interest level

May - July - Read every article about the Texans and their new picks. Very excited. 8/10

August - Out of my mind with anticipation and preseason. 9/10

September - October - Even better than August. 10/10

November through March - Texans are out of the running and I'm so fed up I can't follow anything except the superbowl. 4/10

Does it bother you guys when Texans not in Super Bowl? I always watch but it does not have the same flavor. I usually pick a team to root during the game for but it almost seems like blasphemy rooting for another team. Rather like watching a wet t shirt contest and knowing your girl not only not winning but not even up there. For a few years with Texans I could at least say I had a girlfriend T-shirt wearing or not, but last year I was warming up to the idea of dumping the GF.

badboy said:

Does it bother you guys when Texans not in Super Bowl? I always watch but it does not have the same flavor. I usually pick a team to root during the game for but it almost seems like blasphemy rooting for another team. Rather like watching a wet t shirt contest and knowing your girl not only not winning but not even up there. For a few years with Texans I could at least say I had a girlfriend T-shirt wearing or not, but last year I was warming up to the idea of dumping the GF.

Click to expand...

Interesting analogy...

For my entire life of 45 years, I have never had the experience of a Houston team in the Super Bowl. So I have always watched the big game as other teams played it. I do not feel like I am betraying my team when they cannot make it to the event. It's just an entertainment diversion at the end of the day. Nothing more, nothing less.

Vinny said:

I've always enjoyed football at its highest level (the NFL and most of the SEC). I've never grown tired of watching the Texans at any time but they have made me shake my head a few times. Perhaps that's why I'm not as dizzy as I used to be.

Click to expand...

I agree with this. I love football. I love the Texans.

I know some things seem so obvious to some people. & it would be easy to do this, or do that. But it rarely ever turns out to be that way in real life, especially when you have to work with other people, help them get better, & that's what the NFL is to me.

You can't just go pick up 53 good players & throw them on the field, it doesn't work that way. I've got 12 that I have to deal with & I know I don't get all of them giving their best effort for the same 60 minutes every week.

Bob doesn't do things the way I would do things. Gary doesn't do things the way I would do things.... right or wrong doesn't matter. But even 2010's Texans were better than the Texans before Gary got here. I'm not trying to say Gary is doing a good job or anything like that... overall, I don't feel that he is (for the record)

But those were some damn entertaining games. Sucked like hell that we lost them, but entertaining none the less.

I don't watch sports at all anymore except for the NFL, and that's only because of the Texans. If McNair hadn't gotten Houston an NFL team, sports of any type would not be on my TV, only movies and TV shows.

But, since the Texans do exist, I will watch every game no matter how badly they suck or are (finally) looking like a real live NFL franchise. To be honest, I don't even watch a lot of the NFL playoff games or the super bowls. The only NFL games other than the Texans I watch are games where I can watch a soon-to-be opponent. In fact, the Red Zone channel has pretty much elimanted my watching any game except for a Texans game.

What all that means I don't know, but since everyone else is mentioning how they feel, I thought I'd put in my 2 cents.

Double Barrel said:

Interesting analogy...

For my entire life of 45 years, I have never had the experience of a Houston team in the Super Bowl. So I have always watched the big game as other teams played it. I do not feel like I am betraying my team when they cannot make it to the event. It's just an entertainment diversion at the end of the day. Nothing more, nothing less.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I don't know what its like to see my team in the Super Bowl. Strangely perhaps, but I don't think I'd I feel more love to my old Oilers if they won multiple championships. I'd tell better stories about the past, but beyond that I don't feel any empty feeling about the past. Hopefully the Texans can give me that ultimate fan experience, but before this season its gotten to the point where I just wanted a playoff game before I kick the bucket.

wow badboy, your going to have to get your own blog or something

I'll be good with just being a footnote in your notes as a draft partner in crime

badboy said:

Does it bother you guys when Texans not in Super Bowl? I always watch but it does not have the same flavor. I usually pick a team to root during the game for but it almost seems like blasphemy rooting for another team. Rather like watching a wet t shirt contest and knowing your girl not only not winning but not even up there. For a few years with Texans I could at least say I had a girlfriend T-shirt wearing or not, but last year I was warming up to the idea of dumping the GF.

Click to expand...

I've only been bothered by Houston not being in the SB a few times. After the Pittsburgh AFC Championship games and a couple of times in the 90's when Houston, at least in theory, should have played in the big game. All other years Houston had long since been put out of our misery and I was able to enjoy the SB as a fan of the game. I can always pick teams I want to see win and half-heartedly make it a little more interesting by rooting for that team. The Super Bowl is a must see for me, though. The last chapter in a long season that ironically always seems too short...lol.

Like was said earlier, my fondness for the Oilers is the same, SB appearance or not.

After 115 pro seasons (give or take) Rockets x 40, Oilers/Texans x35, Astros x 40 (give or take) my team has won 2 titles and been to the big dance only three times. It would be hard to be bothered by not seeing my team play for it all since they have only made it that far 2% of that time.

Oh, and that doesn't count Houston/NC State. I went from "we will find a way to get this game and be, for once, a Champion" to *TILT!! INSERT COIN* in the time it takes to hit the ground after jumping off a building. Leaving me wondering if getting that far was worth the deceleration trauma.

beerlover said:

wow badboy, your going to have to get your own blog or something

I'll be good with just being a footnote in your notes as a draft partner in crime

Click to expand...

Because of your guidance, patience, constructive criticism and just being someone I could talk football with, you will never be a footnote in my life let alone a silly blog. Besides, I would not even know how to set one up. lol

I guess a better analogy would be when I see couples together for many years that still enjoy being intimate with each other. I think, damn that could have been me.

I will get excited if we can beat Tampa in Tampa!!

Vinny said:

Yeah, I don't know what its like to see my team in the Super Bowl. Strangely perhaps, but I don't think I'd I feel more love to my old Oilers if they won multiple championships. I'd tell better stories about the past, but beyond that I don't feel any empty feeling about the past. Hopefully the Texans can give me that ultimate fan experience, but before this season its gotten to the point where I just wanted a playoff game before I kick the bucket.

Click to expand...

Out of curiosity, do you think that the Oilers would have left town if there had been multiple championships in their past?

I am a Texan Fan, i bleed red and blue and will til I die or untill I watch the last truck rolls of reliant going to another city

hadaad said:

Out of curiosity, do you think that the Oilers would have left town if there had been multiple championships in their past?

Click to expand...

(If I may put two cents in here)

Yes. Bud not getting what he wanted > warm fuzzies over multiple championships. The man had no soul. Bud only got warm fuzzies about Bud.

badboy said:

Because of your guidance, patience, constructive criticism and just being someone I could talk football with, you will never be a footnote in my life let alone a silly blog. Besides, I would not even know how to set one up. lol

Click to expand...

OMG...... get a room.

This season - so far anyway - the Texans have upgraded my football watching from "mildly interesting but frustrating" to "fairly exciting" and often enjoyable.
If they actually compete in the playoffs and get to the AFC championship game my state of mind will elevate to "unbearably nerve-racking". Just like when the Oilers and Rockets were legit contenders.

Showtime100 said:

(If I may put two cents in here)

Yes. Bud not getting what he wanted > warm fuzzies over multiple championships. The man had no soul. Bud only got warm fuzzies about Bud.

Click to expand...

Agree. The Oilers were Bud's team. Only for Bud and no one else's.

We got a lot to thank for to Phillips family. Unlike Bud, they care about Houston.

Go Texans!!!

hadaad said:

Out of curiosity, do you think that the Oilers would have left town if there had been multiple championships in their past?

Click to expand...

Hard to say.
I don't think it had anything to do with the lack of championships. I think it had more to do with the fact that Bud wanted a new stadium and the mayor Bob Lanier said, not just no but hell no. Meanwhile, the Nashville mayor made Bud a very tempting offer - $144 mil towards a new stadium plus another $70 Mil in guaranteed ticket sales. And, at the time, the Houston fanbase (and the press) was pissed at Bud for breaking up a team that had just finished 12-4 and had made the playoffs for like 5 yrs straight. Also a lot of fans were still pissed that he ran Bum out of town - although consecutive playoff appearances helped take some of the edge off that anger.

Maybe if we had a championship under Bum he wouldn't have been fired and maybe allowed to step down. Maybe if we got one or two trophies during the Run & Shoot era, Bud wouldn't have shipped Moon off to Minnesota... Maybe if someone sane had been the owner...

Who knows.