Houston, the largest city in Texas, the fourth largest city in the United States, and the largest economy on the Gulf Coast, occupies a pivotal position in the entire North American continent.
The city is world-famous for its energy, especially oil, aviation industry and canals. The Port of Houston is the sixth largest port in the world and the busiest port in the United States. The Fortune 500 headquarters is second only to New York; at the same time, Houston is also Home to the Texas Medical Center, the world's largest and most important concentration of research and treatment facilities.
It is worth mentioning that Houston has the lowest living expenses and housing prices among the 27 major metropolitan areas in the United States with a population of more than 1.7 million.
Houston's most famous nickname is undoubtedly "Space City," even the White House calls it that, because it is the location of the Johnson Space Center and the mission control center is also located here. Therefore, "Houston" was the first word spoken during the moon landing program; "Call Houston" is also a standard line in countless Hollywood movies about space adventures.
Undoubtedly, this is a very important and extremely prosperous city. As one of the largest ball markets in the entire Western region, the three major professional sports leagues except ice hockey all have a professional team in Houston.
Among them, the NBA's Houston Rockets are undoubtedly the most familiar to Chinese fans, because in the 2002 draft, they selected Yao Ming as the number one pick, changing the history of the four major North American sports leagues.
Outside of the NBA, MLB's Houston Astros are also a traditional strong team across the league. The team first won the National League Championship in 2005, then won the American League Championship in 2017 and won the World Series Championship in one go. It also became the only team in MLB history to win two conference championships.
Finally, there's the NFL.
In the history of the NFL, there was once a traditional strong team stationed here, the Houston Oilers, a superstar team with fans all over Texas. They were founded in 1959 and officially joined the American Football Conference in 1960. , reached the championship in the first year and completed the defense of the title the following year.
Before the merger of the American League and the National League, the Houston Oilers were a well-known super team. In 1966, after the two major leagues officially merged and announced the Super Bowl era, the Houston Oilers were still a traditional powerhouse in the league. In the 1980s, From the late 1990s to the early 1990s, they reached the playoffs for seven consecutive years.
Unfortunately, the Houston Oilers have never been able to reach the Super Bowl, and they have never even won a conference championship in the Super Bowl era.
1993 was the last glory of the Houston Oilers. After that, the team fell into a long downturn. Facing the gradually cooling football market, the call for a new stadium also failed to get a response from the city hall. This made Team owner Bud Adams decided to move the team to Nashville, Tennessee.
In July 1997, the Houston Oilers officially completed the relocation procedures and changed from the Houston Oilers to the current Tennessee Titans; almost at the same time, local Houston businessman Bob McNair submitted the expansion ball to the league. The team's application was rejected because at that time, the league lacked confidence in the Houston market.
However, McNair never gave up. He worked tirelessly in the hope of bringing professional football back to Houston. This persistence was initially recognized by then-league president Paul Tagliabue.
In March 1998, the NFL approved Cleveland's proposal to expand the team, increasing the total number of teams in the league to thirty-one. In order to maintain a balance in the total number of teams, the formation of the next new team was also elevated to the schedule.
After learning the news, McNair immediately took action, joining forces with Houston City Hall officials and going to the league's official residence to complete the announcement of the plan. In order to work together to establish a new team, they also proposed to build a retractable stadium. The new stadium plan with a roof - this was also one of the important reasons why the Houston Oilers left.
But at this time, Houston encountered a powerful sniper - Los Angeles, which was also in the blank period of professional football. Michael Ovitz, who single-handedly founded Hollywood's top innovative artist management company, is this sniper!
Prior to this, Ovitz had climbed to the top of the industry in Hollywood, and could even be said to have changed the rules of the entire industry. At his peak, he was elected as the most influential figure in Hollywood for three consecutive years.
In 1995, Ovitz believed that work in Hollywood was no longer challenging, so he decided to make a career change. He went to Disney to serve as president, but it later proved that this was a fatal mistake-Ovitz and Disney's then CEO Official Michael Eisner can be said to be a mountain without two tigers, and the latter is also called a "tyrant"; two years later, Ovitz was kicked out of Disney in despair, taking away 100 million Twenty million dollars in damages.
Ovitz returned to Hollywood and used the compensation to create a new agency and start over; but at the same time, the idea of transformation still lingered. He's targeting the NFL.
Ovitz built the entire team through his own connections, proposed a plan to spend $750 million to form a new football team, and received strong support from the Los Angeles city government.
Although McNair's team also received $150 million in annual aid from the Houston Rodeo Show, Los Angeles' huge market advantage still put Houston at a disadvantage; more importantly, Ovitz's eloquence and powerful Personal connections have had a huge effect among the thirty-two teams.
In March 1999, NFL team owners voted "29:2" to approve Los Angeles' permission to form a new team.
But then things took a huge turn. The preparations of Ovitz's team were too slow and they were unable to keep up with the progress; the plan to rebuild the Los Angeles Memorial Stadium also did not have much feasibility and operability in terms of funding. This made the league very dissatisfied and issued successive urging orders. But it still failed to achieve results, which ultimately angered league president Tagliabue.
In September 1999, the NFL officially notified McNair's team in Houston and invited them to attend the team owners' meeting that was about to be held again in Atlanta. At this meeting, McNair's $700 million team building plan was successful and passed with an absolute advantage of "29:0" during the voting process - with two additional abstentions.
The Houston Texans were born!
Houston's initiative has allowed the new team plan to be advanced quickly. In less than a year, preparations for the stadium and the team have been completed one after another, and the team name has also been adopted. Among the three different name candidates, "Texans" successfully stood out - since Texans is the nickname of the Kansas City Chiefs, McNair also specifically reached an agreement with the Chiefs regarding the use of the name.
In May 2001, the league was officially reorganized from five major divisions to four major divisions. The Houston Texans and Cleveland Browns joined the new division plan, thus forming the current league structure. Among them, the Houston Texans are in the American League South, in the same division as the Indianapolis Colts, Jacksonville Jaguars, and the renamed Tennessee Titans.
As mentioned above, the Houston Texans are a very young team, and 2002 was their first official season. Like young players, young teams need time to adapt to the intense pace of the NFL, as well as chemical reactions. They have gone through a long period of construction, overthrow, reconstruction, and adjustment, slowly finding their place in the league.
In 2006, former Denver Broncos offensive coordinator Gary Kubiak joined the Houston Texans as head coach; in 2010, former Cowboys coach Wade Phillips took over the defensive staff. Coaching position; In 2011, the team selected JJ Watt with the 11th overall pick in the first round of the draft.
At this point, the Houston Texans have officially completed all the puzzle pieces.
In the 2011 season, the team seized the trough of the rival Indianapolis Colts and performed well, reaching the top of the American League South and entering the playoffs for the first time in history; in the 2012 season, the team went one step further, The offensive team performed at its best level in ten years, the defensive team continued to perform at its best level, and Watt delivered his best performance in a single season and entered the playoffs for the second consecutive year.
The current team has a balanced offense and defense, stable standards, and many bright spots. Last season, the offensive team ranked eighth in the league and the defensive team ranked tenth in the league.
Among the offensive team, quarterback Matt Mibu, wide receiver Andre Johnson, and running back Adrian Foster formed an iron triangle; among the defensive team, the cornerback Johnathan-Joseph and defensive end JJ Watt are both star players who can change the game.
In this offseason's draft, the Houston Texans selected Clemson University wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins with the 27th overall pick in the first round, hoping to further improve The performance of the offensive team can make an impact on the Super Bowl in the new season.
The rise curves of the Houston Texans and San Francisco 49ers have too many similarities. The rapid rise in the past two seasons has become; and this season, the situations faced by the two teams are also extremely close.
In the American League South, the Indianapolis Colts, under the leadership of Andrew Luck, have shown an upward curve in overall strength, and the competition within the division has become increasingly fierce; while the Houston Texans have performed outstandingly for two consecutive seasons. After that, the existing lineup has completed the running-in, but it is also facing injuries.
Just like the San Francisco 49ers who are facing the impact of the Seattle Seahawks.
In the fierce competition in the NFL, apart from the difficulty of defending the title, it is also extremely difficult to enter the playoffs for multiple consecutive seasons. Due to the hard salary cap, the strength of the rivals in the same district is unpredictable, which also makes everyone The competition for a playoff spot this year is full of suspense. The fundamental reason why the four elite quarterbacks stand out is their stable output and their ability to lead the team to the playoffs for many consecutive years. This is because of Ben Roethlisbo. What quarterbacks such as Greg, Eli Manning, and Philip Rivers can't do.
After winning the Super Bowl this year, Lu Ke was also considered an excellent quarterback, but he is still far from being an elite. That's why - let's not talk about other things for now, at least let's see if he can continue to perform at a high level in the regular season for five seasons. Only with stable output can you be qualified to challenge the elite.
The same is true for the San Francisco 49ers; similarly, the same is true for the Houston Texans.
