Football is to Texas like gambling is to Vegas, rain is to Seattle and stuffing ballot boxes is to Chicago. From the Junction Boys to the Tyler Rose to Friday Night Lights, football heroes are as central to the state as Stephen F. Austin and Sam Houston.
But it's been a long time since the state of Texas had two good pro football teams. In the Houston Texans' five-year history, they've always looked like the expansion team they are, and the Dallas Cowboys haven't won a playoff game in more than a decade. The NFL has more passionate fans when it has two good teams in the state of Texas, but that hasn't been the case since 1993, when the Houston Oilers went 12-4 and the Cowboys won the Super Bowl.
But with the Cowboys and the Houston Texans both off to 2-0 starts, this could be the year that a double dose of winning football comes back to Texas. That would be good for the NFL.
