In a Reddit “Ask Me Anything” session several weeks ago, Houston Texans CEO Cal McNair was asked about the possibility of fans swapping out jerseys from players no longer with the team (read: Deshaun Watson), and getting some sort of credit toward a new jersey. After all, these NFL jerseys are not cheap!
Here was the exchange on that particular topic:
tawild92: Are there any plans to do a jersey swap (especially for one particular player) for a free/discounted jersey of another player? Seems like a solid way to take care of the fans that have been through the ringer the last couple years.
Cal: Yes, we will do this in October so stay tuned for details!
Well, the Texans and Cal McNair are living up to the CEO’s promise, with the announcement on Monday morning that the Texans would offer a 44 percent credit toward a new jersey in exchange for the jersey of any player acquired from 2017 through 2021, who is no longer with the team. Here was Cal McNair making the announcement, on TMZ of all places! (Way to go viral, Texans!):
Ok, let’s address the awkward elephant in the room — roughly 95 percent of the jerseys that are going to get swapped out are Deshaun Watson jerseys. Any of the other former player jerseys that are typically spotted around NRG Stadium on a game day — J.J. Watt, Andre Johnson, DeAndre Hopkins, to name a few — belong to players who were acquired long before 2017.
Now, let’s address the hilarious elephant in the room — a 44 percent discount? As we all remember, Watson’s jersey number in Houston was number 4. Good for the Texans to have a sense of humor, and dare I say a bit of a dose of snark in this promotion!
For what it’s worth, Mark Berman of FOX 26 tweeted out the complete list of player jerseys that are eligible for this promotion:
God bless you, if you bought a Matt Kalil jersey back in the summer of 2019, but Monday was your lucky day! Also, some of these names make me sad, like David Johnson, whose Texans’ career was a complete affront to season ticket holders and whose jersey was actually IN THE TEAM STORE. I hate the David Johnson Era with the white hot passion of 1,000 suns.
If you’re looking to handicap whose jersey becomes the “go to” darling of Texan fans under this promotion, the people have spoken, and it definitely appears the rookie class has the most juice of any group of players, particularly running back Dameon Pierce:
But when you do stuff like this regularly, people want to represent you:
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This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2022.
