So far, the rebuild has been successful. It's at least a year ahead of schedule, frankly. Of course it hasn't produced a championship because it's honestly just taken place at the major league level...the best player in the organization just turned 21 last week, and what he's done so far is astounding. As you know, you don't draft guys in baseball who have an impact on your team the next season (I'd point out here, that's SUPPOSED to happen in football, though). Again...if you're asking me to say which team is in a better position to be successful on the field over the next 3-5 seasons, I'd say it's the Astros and it's not close.
1978, 1979 AFC Conference Championship Games against the Steelers. As an old timer here Max, I can't believe you forgotten about these games
How is bringing in a new coach, changing your schemes and formations and looking for a new QB not a rebuild in the NFL? Even if so, they had a winning record last season and competed for a playoff spot till the last day of the regular season, much like the Astros look to be doing this season. I suppose those years the astros were the laughing stock of the MLB and the rockets were staying afloat trying to make the playoffs but just missing you said the same thing then. Look at the Astros, why can't the Rockets be more like them! I am not the one who tried to make it about Astros vs Texans but when people come into this forum and start dumping on the Texans cause the Stros are competing for the playoffs for the first time in a decade, I find it comical. I am done with this, big weekend for the Stros and Texans! Hope they are both successful!
you're absolutely right....i was 5 years old in 1979, and that didn't come to mind. But I know that history well....not sure why that didn't register.
Yes, I did criticize the Astros then. They had a terrible front office after they let Hunsicker go. The Astros changed and it makes no sense to keep bashing them for the past. The Texans have always had terrible front office except for a few years with Kubiak perhaps.
You don't have to tell me about the history of pro football in Houston. I've been here since the Luv Ya Blue days. I had my Earl Campbell lunchbox, poster, t-shirts, Pony sneakers, etc. I still maintain that you can't blame the Texans for Bud Adams. You can't pin 4 decades of blunders on a team that's only been around for 1 and had to literally start from scratch.
New coaching staff, new QB, new philosophies, and they had a winning record with a chance to make the playoffs on the last day of the season. The astros and Rockets have not accomplished that.
You mean after winning the division twice in the weakest division of football while the team with Peyton Manning was in a transition in those 2 years to get their next franchise QB for the next decade? And then you immediately turned back to the sucking (rebuilding) mode? Are you the spokesman for Bob McNair? No wonder Rick Smith last this long in this town.
You are 100% correct about Jerry Jones and what his arrogance and meddling ways have done to the Cows over the past 20 years. However, very quietly, without many folks noticing it, power in that organization has shifted to Stephen & Jerry Jr. - it is they who now call the football shots. Ol' Jerry in mostly a figurehead now who excels at marketing the Cows and (I hate to admit this) successfully since they are now worth $4 billion (remember Jerry paid $170 million for this team). Those 5 Lombardi trophies appears to buy one an awful lot of goodwill.
You appear to have completely missed my point: I am not holding Bob McNair and the Texans responsible for Bud Adams and the Oilers. Far from it - the current state of mediocrity that is the Texans all belongs to him. Rather, I was pointing out how, to a Houston native and longtime pro football fan, it has been one long slog through the NFL wilderness with no end in sight. For me, that's been 5 decades of football futility. The coaches, players, organizations - even teams themselves - all may change but the end result never changes for Houston football fans. It's like we're all trapped in our very own pro football version of "Groundhog Day".
This bickering between "who's better? Rockets, Astros or Texans!" is pretty dumb. I would venture to guess that most people are fans of all 3... sure they may like one more than the other at times (especially when that team is doing well), but in the end, I get absolutely no extra pleasure or pain in having a "good Rockets team, a good Astros team, but a mediocre Texans team". I follow all the teams. I wasn't throwing the Rockets under the bus when they were in limbo during the post Yao/McGrady era... while the Texans/Astros had had more recent success. Hell, in the grand scheme of things, the Rockets still haven't made the NBA finals since 1995... and aren't the favorites to do it this year as well... we've just shifted the expectations on them compared to the other teams here (and, TBH, that is the goal this year for them...). But in the end, comparing teams to each other across sports is usually not only a waste of time... but in general is counter-productive to fans that actually root for all of them.
I guess I have. You started off by lamenting the fact that, unlike the cowboys, there are not many Texan fans outside of metro Houston. I said it's because the Texans haven't been around as long most other teams and you replied with the fact that the Oilers sucked. If the cowboys moved to Los Angeles and 6 years later dallas got an expansion team (let's call them the dallas Dickwads), do you think all those old cowboy fans not living in dallas would give a crap about the Dickwads? No. The Dickwads would have to start completely over from scratch with marketing their brand. Like the Texans are having to do now.
Yep. Some people who want to talk down about a franchise will use anything they can find even if it doesn't make sense. I hate it when parents say stuff like "you don't have good grades like Bill" even though Bill talks back to his parents, cusses, smokes and drinks. Like I was trying to prove with my QB comment, I can alter my comparison between the teams to make it seem like any one of the three is much better than the other. Just enjoy the teams successes and deal with their failures.
I don't think it's as cut and dried as you would like. I feel that the two teams are tied together because of the term "Houston" in both of their names. As for your scenario, I think what would happen is what you saw here when the Oilers moved. You had a lot of Houston football fans following the team to Tennessee while others chose not to follow the Texans because they weren't the Oilers. The Texans started from ground zero - that is so very true - but they also had the legacy of the pitiful Oilers hanging over them like a dark ominous cloud of gloom. And when things started going bad, you had all of that additional baggage to compound the situation. I believe that the frustration you see here over the continued lack of success of the Texans stems in part from the poor football history of Houston. You can only ask fans to be patient for so long without showing real progress.
I get that. Like I said, native Houstonian here. Right there with you on the frustration part. I do think a lot of people here are overly hard on the Texans and I sometimes wonder why. Is it because of what you mentioned in your posts? Probably some of it. Is it because Texans talk TOTALLY DOMINATES the airwaves year-round and at the expense of the Rockets and Astros? I actually think that has a lot to do with it. And I understand it. Is it because we are all hyper-sensitive to every failure since this is our team? Maybe a little perspective helps here. For instance, did you know that since the Texans inception, they have just as many playoff wins as the dallas cowboys have had in the last 18 years? Maybe a topic for another thread.
