Never a second chance at a first draft pick
Scoring my feelings about yesterday's helping of football:
- The Texans win: +10
- The Texans win in spite of -5 yards passing, and only because the Raiders somehow managed to be even more incompetent: -4
- Vince Young beats the Colts in his rookie season, while the Texans are 0-10 against them: -4
- Reggie Bush gets over 150 yards of total offense and FOUR touchdowns: -6
- Considering the previous two points, Mario Williams gets two tackles: -8
- Having to watch the media rightly trumpet up Bush and Young's performances, knowing that half that attention could and should be going to the Texans if McNair had made the right choice: -10
I'm not asking for your pity; I'm demanding it.
15 comments:
More importantly, Glavine was interested in returning to the Braves, and the Braves didn't grab him, and he re-signed with the Mets.
Total: -100.
Is Glavine somewhere in the neighborhood of 140,000 years old? The Braves don't need Tom Glavine; they need the next Tom Glavine.
+10.
Total: -90.
And now you live close to Atlanta, so whoever's pitching, you can actually go see them in person and eat hot dogs and drink beer.
+5? At least?
(if your answer is "yes", then I'm going to say my word verification word in celebration: huahu!)
What's odd is that you can easily argue that Bush isn't even the most important rookie on his own team. Marques Colston has more total td's and more receiving yards than Bush does rushing yards. How that guy is not rookie of the year, I don't know...No wonder the Saints traded Donte Stallworth!
Forget Mario Williams...DeMaco Ryan may be the defensive rookie of the year! ;)
Mysterious commenter shrouded in anonymity: no question that Colston has been more valuable to the Saints than Bush, though it's Brees that's made that team this year.
Christian: Oh, yeah. DeMeco is a MONSTER. He did a defensive "hit for the cycle" yesterday: sack, interception, forced fumble, fumble recovery...and FIFTEEN tackles.
But...to both of you, the main thing that bums me out is the attention. Houston sports teams often gets completely ignored by the media, and combine that with the Texans' lousy record, and their joke of a conference (no team within 1000 miles of any of the others), and they're completely overlooked. They DESPERATELY needed a player that would bring attention to the team, and picking a DE--no matter how good he is--is not the way to get attention.
I was consoling myself by the fact that Vince and Reggie hadn't done much until the last couple of weeks. Now they're both looking exactly like the players that decent scouts thought they were. The only thing that's going to make up for that is if the Texans become a constant contender, and they're not exactly going down that road yet...
Not really sure why you are concerned about getting media attention though. Put it this way...what would make you happier: a winning record and a trip the playoffs, or the glare of the national media. I think that question answers itself, right?! Of course, once they start winning, the attention and exposure will come.
Well, one reason I would like more media attention on the Texans is so I could actually see the games. A couple of weeks ago, I went to THREE sports bars that claimed to show all the NFL games, only to find that none of them had it on any of their dozens of TVs, and weren't willing to change any of them.
For those of you who are NFC East fans, getting media attention is actually pretty old. But what I've noticed from the Houston coverage is that people only pay attention to them when they have some star player. They don't have the rivalries that anyone pays attention to, and even when they're good (Rockets championship teams, Astros in the WS a couple years ago), their championships are guaranteed to be described with, "lowest ratings ever".
I want a team that I can get excited about, and one that I see on Sportscenter. That's not going to happen until the Texans get a player that's not just good, but that's charismatic and has the media lens on them.
But why cover a Houston team when the media can cover the Cowboys, America's team, AD NAUSEUM. What Houston really needs is to get is a controversial player and/or a decent qb who wasn't drafted...then they might get that media attention! See what Albert Haynsworth did for the Titans back when they sucked earlier this season?
Trust me, what you want is a team that WINS. That's how you get the attention and all that comes with it (primetime games, stories on Sportscenter, etc). Of course, it's a chicken and egg kinda thing: the media will find a player to focus on when a team starts to find its success. The Texans just need to keep building and getting better. If they do that, people like Andre Johnson, DeMaco Ryan and David Carr will be all over ESPN and the like.
How exactly is this Steve McNair's fault? Should he have chosen the Texans over the Ravens? Was that even an option?
I never realized that the AFCS teams are that far apart in geography from each other. Does Houston have any natural rivalries with any other cities? Dallas or New Orleans? I mean here in Baltimore we generally dislike any team from PA or NYC, regardless of the sport. But then again, those places are relatively close.
What must really add insult to injury is that the Colts, with a much later draft pick, were able to pick up Addai. There needs to be more conspiracy between owners to prevent the Colts from drafting good players.
Xtian - Or, in lieu of winning, you can just have John Feinstein write a book about your team, or have HBO follow you around in training camp... ;)
Scott-- Neither of which likely happens if the Ravens don't win the SB a few years earlier! ;)
Christian, I know what you mean, but the Texans are a new team, and they're not going to really get the media's attention until they've had a lot of winning. Understandably. But if you can take a player who is going to bring immediate (positive) attention AND potentially be an amazing player, why wouldn't you take that guy? Williams, Bush and Young all have just as much potential to be either stars or busts, so why go with the guy that a) no one except die-hard fans could get truly excited about and b) if he's a bust, he'll bring nothing but embarrassment to the team?
Scott, sorry...I've been reading too many Texans boards. When we say, "McNair", we mean Bob McNair, owner of the Texans, not Steve McNair.
Houston does indeed have natural rivalries with New Orleans and Dallas, but they'll never get either of those teams in the same division. It's a shame that the realignment went as much by history as geography.
The Addai pick isn't really bad at all. We got some great late round picks (Owen Daniels and DeMeco Ryans have been two of the few bright spots this season).
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