Buffalo Bills

As It Turns Out, The Texans Could've Very Easily Kept Connor Barwin

"I think Brooks (Reed) and Connor (Barwin) played well. Sometimes because they're not numbers, the perception out there is somebody is not playing well because they don't have sacks, but I can tell you that can be far from the truth.  I think they play well. I think they were productive. You're alw ... More >>

Chip Kelly Heading To The NFL: 4 Winners, 4 Losers (w/ PDF Link To Will Lyles' Hilarious Recruiting Reports)

"It's a special place with special people. They accepted me six years ago when I was at New Hampshire. Not many people knew about me. Gave me an opportunity to come here. It really means a lot." -- Former Oregon head football coach Chip Kelly about three weeks ago A lot, but apparently not everythi ... More >>

Texans 24, Titans 10: Defense Returns To Form In Playoff-Clinching Win

After back-to-back games of exhilarating drama, the Texans seem back to their usual selves. That's just fine for soon-to-be Defensive Player of the Year J.J. Watt. Led by Watt and a defense that suffocated Tennessee and second-year QB Jake Locker, the Texans cruised to 11-1 and clinched the second ... More >>

All-Day Fundraiser Today at Liberty Kitchen for Injured Bartender David Brown

On Thursday, September 13, Liberty Kitchen bartender David Brown was riding his bicycle -- his main means of transportation -- down a busy stretch of Studemont that crosses White Oak Bayou when he lost his balance and plummeted 40 feet over the railing into the bayou below. Luckily for Brown, the r ... More >>

How Should You Spend Your Houston Texans Bye Week?

Folks, we have reached the first bye week of the Houston Texans 2012 season. Our band of heroes will not be seeing action. Not on Thursday, Sunday or even Monday. No, they will be taking a well-deserved few days away from their usual schedules to relax and store up energy for the next few weeks of g ... More >>

Packers 42, Texans 24: Troubling Trends Continue in First Loss; The 5 Biggest Holes to Fill

It may be only one loss, but the trend lines are concerning. For a second straight week, the Texans (5-1) were outplayed in a handful of key areas, most notably within the once-vaunted line play as well as individual battles of receivers vs. cornerbacks. But unlike this past Monday, when the Texans ... More >>

Houston Sports Stories That Need Their Own ESPN #30For30 Episodes

Red-Blooded American Man's newest obsession -- behind Kate Upton -- has to be ESPN's 30 For 30 series. The sports documentary series takes on notable and not-so-notable events in sports history and gives them the 360-degree treatment. Since 30 For 30 debuted in late 2009, the directors have tackle ... More >>

RIP, Larry Joe Miggins

Houston's fabled Irishman dies.

Vince Young's Money: Where It All Went

In addition to carving out a flash-in-the-pan NFL career, former Longhorn QB Vince Young has apparently burned through cash like a heavyweight boxer on a binge. He's involved in nasty court cases that point to empty pockets despite having gotten $26 million in guaranteed payments via contracts. Ev ... More >>

NFL Week 1: Schaub Gets Rich(er), Buffalo Gets Poor(er) -- 4 Winners, 4 Losers

Check out our slideshow of the Houston Texans' season opener against the Dolphins. Could Sunday have been any better? 80-degree day. Sun shining. Birds singing. NFL football back in our lives. Oh and someone left a whole book of Burger King coupons in the lobby of my building. SCORE! So yeah there ... More >>

Texans Draft Notebook: What The Mercilus Pick Means For The Weekend

The Texans, as expected, addressed a need with their first-round pick Thursday night. It just wasn't the sexy playmaker position that many expected. Whitney Mercilus, a projected linebacker at the NFL level who led the NCAA with 16 sacks in his junior year at Illinois, proved too much value for the ... More >>

2012 NFL Draft -- Live Blog

I made an analogy on my radio show this morning on 1560 The Game that the NFL Draft tonight is like Christmas Day for many NFL fans. Air of anticipation, excitement of the unknown, food, it's all there. (My co-host, John Granato, compared it to Hanukkah because it's played out over several days, but ... More >>

Texans Release 2012 Schedule: Five Early Thoughts

It's often not whom you play, but when you play. That's the key item to consider when evaluating an NFL schedule release. Ranking schedules based on prior-year records, as some media outlets did this week in proclaiming an "easy" slate for the Texans, can be misleading. For example, Denver -- sche ... More >>

Ravens 20, Texans 13: Historic Season Ends From Self-Inflicted Wounds

Looking ahead to the fall, finally​In the big picture, the Texans were playing with house money. With little playoff experience and on a third-string rookie quarterback, this shouldn't rank high on the list of Houston football collapses. This wasn't the Oilers in Denver and Buffalo, circa 199 ... More >>

Texans 17, Falcons 10: The Day Gary Kubiak Won The City Of Houston

Yes we can​One of the major criticisms of Gary Kubiak has been an alleged lack of guts. From his turning away on game-winning field goal attempts to generally conservative playcalling when ahead, Texans fans wondered over the years if he had the killer instinct to win big. But the 2011 season ... More >>

5 Signs You're Dangerously Starting to Think It Just Might Be the Texans' Year

Check yourself before you wreck yourself.​You have tried. You have told yourself you've been down the road before, and each time your hopes and dreams have been cruelly dashed. But you can't help it -- you are, once again, letting yourself become optimistic about the Texans. But this year th ... More >>

Texans/Browns -- 4 Winners, 4 Losers

Photo by Marco TorresTough day for Colt McCoy​The Texans beat the Browns soundly yesterday by a score of 30-12, and for the first time in the history of the franchise, your hometown team is three games over .500. The Texans have never tasted this rarefied air before, so I don't really know w ... More >>

Raiders 25, Texans 20: One Step Forward, One Step Back

Be sure to check out the rest of our pics from Sunday's game. When one step forward is immediately followed by one step back, perpetual mediocrity is the usual result. It has defined the Gary Kubiak era of Houston Texans football, and it reared its ugly head again on Sunday. Yes, the Texans (3-2) ... More >>

Five Reasons To Watch The Texans Tonight

It's another big night for you, Matt Leinart​I don't know that there was ever any point during the NFL lockout where I was fearful that we wouldn't have football this season. Still, the specter of the work stoppage that loomed over us throughout thus summer made us at least ponder life without ... More >>

For Friday the 13th: Five of the Unluckiest Texans Ever

Investors held on too long.​Beginning with LaSalle, the French explorer who survived shipwrecks and cannibal Karankawa Indian attacks only to perish at the hands of his own men near Navasota, some people in Texas have had some pretty damned hard luck. You might lay some or all of the blame at ... More >>

2011 NFL Draft -- Live Blog

I am not an NFL Draft expert. How's that for unbridled confidence? Right out of the shoot, in a live blog for the NFL Draft, a host of a sports talk show is admitting that he's not an expert at something sports related, let alone the thing at which he's about to live blog. If you're looking for l ... More >>

Houston Texans -- Owen Daniels Gets Paid

Owen Daniels gets his contract​It's been quite an odyssey for Houston Texans tight end Owen Daniels these last few years. The highlight of his Texans career thus far has probably been his trip to the Pro Bowl at the end of the 2008 season. Since then, to say O.D.'s journey has been star-cros ... More >>

Houston Texans -- The Green Mile, 5 Winners and 5 Losers

Texans fans: Enjoy it today, resume griping tomorrow​The Texans beat the Chiefs on Sunday afternoon 35-31 to move to 4-2 for the first time in the history of the franchise, and I for one am going to enjoy it. Seriously, try to stop me. You can try and bring me down with your texts and tweets and ... More >>

Rappers Talk Trash Before And After Cowboys-Texans Debacle

Some rappers happen to be thoughtful, intelligent people. Every Monday that isn't a national holiday Rocks Off will have some of them here discussing issues relevant to their culture. Photo illustration by John Seaborn Gray​This Week's Panel: Fat Tony, Kyle Hubbard, Brad Gilmore, John Dew, Fr ... More >>

UH Looking For Lots Of Crowd Noise For Tonight's ESPN Game

Bring the noise to Robertson Stadium for ESPN​Strange as it may seem, if things had gone a bit differently in the college career of Drew Bledsoe, Kevin Sumlin might not have ended up in Houston. But strange as it may seem, that's the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.Sumlin's first ... More >>

Our Year

Will Texans make it to playoffs?

Game Time: Best of the Best -- Top 10 Moments from Clutch City Rockets (w/video)

Consensus Number One​I am a total sucker for lists.This makes me like roughly 95 percent of society; the fact that I openly admit I'm a sucker for lists makes me a little more unique. There are so many list books, list columns, list blog posts (many by yours truly) that it seems by admitting you ... More >>

Game Time: USC Sanctions -- A Lesson in Media Logic (or Lack Thereof)

She cheered the Lane Kiffin hire, too​If you take Brian Cushing's four-game suspension and Reggie Bush's single handed takedown of his alma mater's football program -- two of the biggest football stories of the last two months -- and go to connect them "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon"-style, the easy ... More >>

Game Time: Cush-Watch Day 5: AP Voters Get Their Sanctimony On

You talking to me? ​I'm not sure what it says about your franchise when the most highly anticipated Monday is not a Monday following a big game nor the Monday after the NFL Draft, but instead it's the first Monday of "organized team activities" (OTA's for those into acronyms) in May, and it's ... More >>

Catching Up With Tom Franklin, Voice Of the Coogs

Photo courtesy of uhcougars.com​Last December, just on the verge of Christmas, the great minds at Clear Channel decided to dump several of the talent and voices heard on 790 KBME and the 740 KTRH sports segments. One of those so unceremoniously dumped was longtime Houston sportscaster Tom Franklin ... More >>

Texans 16, Rams 13: Staying Alive

​It's often noted how the difference between the 7-7 Texans and an 11-3 powerhouse is two Kris Brown kicks and two conversions of a single yard. Turns out, the difference between 7-7 and 1-13 isn't all that great, either. As the Texans seem to do in late-season road games where they're hea ... More >>

The Draft Day Debate of 2006 Rages On, With The VY Guys Smiling Now

​Like a great many former Oilers fans with a concurrent Longhorn allegiance, I am no Houston Texans fan. I tried for a few years, right up until the 2006 draft. The selection of Mario Williams was it for me. I took a solemn vow then to never support the Texans until the McNair family relinquished ... More >>

The VY Guys Are Smiling Now

​Like a great many former Oilers fans with a concurrent Longhorn allegiance, I am no Houston Texans fan. I tried for a few years, right up until the 2006 draft. The selection of Mario Williams was it for me. I took a solemn vow then to never support the Texans until the McNair family relinquis ... More >>

Game Time: Texans Battle Titans Tonight In The Most Important Athletic Event In Our's Nation's History

​Ladies and gentlemen, I've been to Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq, and I can say without hyperbole that this is a million times worse than all of them put together." -- Kent Brockman, Channel 6, Springfield (The Simpsons)If you are wondering what "this" was in that quote, it was the Bart Simpso ... More >>

25 Things About The Texans-Titans Monday Night Match-Up

​For the second week in a row, it's homecoming week on Monday Night Football. This past Monday, it was the Baltimore Ravens returning to the place from which they came, Cleveland, to play the Browns. This coming Monday, the Tennessee Titans are returning to Houston to take on the Texans.With tha ... More >>

Remembering The Houston Gamblers, Thanks To ESPN

​To celebrate its 30th anniversary, ESPN is in the midst of airing what it calls 30 on 30, which is a series of 30 one-hour documentaries on sports-related matters that have occurred within the network's 30 years on the air. And one of the documentaries, one that aired on Tuesday is on a subject n ... More >>

Texans Finally Put Two Halves Together; Defense Finds Pulse

​After three weeks of the season, the Texans were on a pace to allow more total yards and more yards rushing than any team in NFL history.So who the hell are these guys? And more importantly, have the guys calling the shots figured something out?The Texans' defense pitched a third consecutive ... More >>

Tuesday Morning Quarterbacking: Were You Ready for Some Boring Football?

I can't believe I wasted over three hours of my life watching the Houston Texans last night. Sure, they won the game 30-17, but damn, that was an awful game to watch. I found the document review I was working on to be more interesting than most of that game - and you attorneys out there know that ... More >>

John Royal's NFL Power Rankings

NFL Review, Week Three: Bad Challenges, Tricky Snaps and Playboy Bunnies

Football U: Texas Roundup, and Then Some

John Royal's NFL Power Rankings

John Royal's NFL Power Rankings

The Five Best Houston Pro Football Players of All Time

The Five Biggest Choke Jobs in Houston Sports History

What to Watch: Football, Hockey, Football and Football

John Royal's NFL Picks, Week Four: Betting on the Houston Texans. What? Why Are You Surprised?

Finally! Mock Draft Version 5.0

The Mark

A reporter gets branded for cash (again)

Sad Sundays

John Pirkle'Oiler Blues: The Story of Pro Football's Most Frustrating Team