After six years as a Houston Texans season ticket holder, this one was sweet.

The guys beat Jacksonville 42-28, and finally had a non-losing season. Not bad for the team with the most guys on injured reserve, and bitten by the injury bug the way they were all season.

But the highlight has to be this pair of kickoff returns by Andre Davis -- which came on top of a clutch fumble recovery he made on a Texans punt..

Receiver André Davis became the seventh player in NFL history to return kickoffs for touchdowns in the same game, and his extraordinary performance ignited the Texans to a 42-28 victory over Jacksonville.

The victory, accomplished over a Jacksonville team that rested seven starters, allowed the Texans to finish with a franchise-best 8-8 record – a six-game improvement from the franchise-worst 2-14 record of 2005.

Davis, who recovered a muffed punt that set up the TexansÂ’ first touchdown, returned the last kickoff of the first half 97 yards for a touchdown that gave them a 21-14 lead they never surrendered.

Then, Davis returned the second-half kickoff 104 yards for a touchdown that boosted the lead to 28-14.

WOW!

I feel great about next year -- and we are all thinking playoff here in Houston.

And to the Texans, may I just say THANK YOU FOR A MEMORABLE SEASON.

Posted by: Greg at 12:32 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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So I'm hoping the New England Patriots lose this weekend, and end the season 15-1.

With the New England Patriots now one win away from finishing the regular season undefeated, Sen. John Kerry is stepping up his campaign to get the final game broadcast on national television.

The contest Saturday with the New York Giants is to air locally in Boston and New York. But outside those markets it is scheduled to appear only on the NFL Network, a cable channel that reaches just 35 million households nationwide while the league and cable operators dicker over pricing and distribution.

Kerry asked football Commissioner Roger Goodell today to move the game to NBC – and threatened Senate hearings if he does not.

“Under the unfortunate circumstance that this matter remains unresolved, leaving 60 percent of households across the country – including thousands in Massachusetts – without access to Saturday’s game, I will ask the Senate Commerce Committee to hold hearings on how the emergence of premium sports channels are impacting the consumer,” he wrote to Goodell today in a letter released by his office.

The Massachusetts Democrat added that he would “consider what legislative measures may be necessary to ensure that consumers are more than bystanders in this process.”

Actually, the appropriateremedy is for the cable companies to be required to follow the terms of their agreement with the NFL and make the NFL Network a part of their basic cable package. Unfortunately, a single state court set a nation-wide precedent on the matter some months back, allowing the cable companies to violate their agreement.

And if we can't make the cable companies abide by the agreement, maybe the time has come for Congress to mandate an end to monopolistic cable franchises -- so that consumers can have a choice in cable providers, just as they do with their long distance service..

Posted by: Greg at 04:11 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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I don't do geeky quizzes very often, but Hube over at Colossus of Rhodey scored an 85, so I had to try to beat him.

	I received 92 credits on The Sci Fi Sounds Quiz How much of a Sci-Fi geek are you?
Take the Sci-Fi Movie Quiz canon s5 is

Not only that, but I beat Jonah Goldberg from National Review, too!

OK -- who wants to shoot for a perfect score?

Posted by: Greg at 03:24 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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I grew up a fan of the Washington Redskins, though I never had a chance to attend a game. Indeed, I finally did get to see them play in St. Louis when I was in my mid-30s, after the Rams moved there.

And today I am a big fan of the Houston Texans, with season tickets. But I would drop those tickets in a minute if this sort of stuff ever became the standard at Reliant Stadium.

I went to my last professional football game this month. My son and I braved frigid, remote FedEx Field to see our beloved Chicago Bears, the fallen Super Bowl champions, humiliated 24-16 by the struggling Washington Redskins. It wasn't the depth of our despair that will keep us away from football stadiums for good but the depravity of the fans.

I suppose depravity is a strong word. But what better describes drunken adult men, egged on by other grown beer-swillers, belly-shouting the most spectacular obscenities imaginable as they stand next to a 13-year-old boy? Every play was a competition to produce a more vile insult or a different suggestion about which Bear body part might be stuffed up which orifice. When the Redskins scored their first touchdown, four young women -- I'm guessing they were in high school -- turned around and did a little stripper's dance that made my son blush as I cringed. Even putting aside their ages, it was too cold to bare flesh.

Within 10 minutes of kickoff, I knew I had made a terrible mistake taking my son to the game.

The looming aggression and violence was more troubling than the foul language and drunken boorishness. Some of the men near us were enraged and barely in control of themselves. When Bears quarterback Rex Grossman went down with a knee injury, two obese drunks behind us bellowed that they hoped the [expletive] [expletive] would never walk again. They did this over and over, adding slurs and suggested tortures.

I had already pointed out to these gentlemen that there were kids around. They glared at me, furious. It was obvious to me that if I pursued it, there would be a fight or a screaming match.

And as a season ticket holder, I find this part of the story to be even worse.

My son wore a Bears jersey concealed under his layers of fleece and down. A man two rows in front of us who looked like Cpl. Klinger from "M*A*S*H" took it upon himself to needle my son every time something bad happened to the Bears, which happened a lot. He would turn and stare at him and wave goodbye in a threatening way. I know he was trying to be funny, ribbing us in good spirit. But when I asked him to stop, he just shook his head. The very nice man next to me, a season-ticket holder, told me that if I just waited until the second half, the guy would be too drunk to stand.

That isn't the way things are in our part of Reliant Stadium, or in other parts from my experience (and I've been to 90% of the Texans home games since the team was created). We have an alert staff of ushers and off-duty cops who make sure that everyone has a good time at the game, and that the place is family friendly. They even put up a phone number on the jumbotron for you to call if someone in your area is out-of-hand -- and they do take action.

Indeed, our biggest problem is fans coming from out of town to watch the games. I've been spit on by a Cowboy's fan and throughly cursed by a sluttily dressed Dolphinette for demanding that she quit move so that my wife could get to the bathroom from our handicapped accessible seat ("Move for the wheelchair!" was such an unreasonable expectation). One was thrown out of the stadium, and the other would have been arrested if he hadn't run off into the crowd. But other than the occasional drunk getting a bit out of hand, I've not observed the sort of problems described in this column here in Houston.

That's not to say that there isn't taunting -- there is. The funniest may have been a few weeks back when all the Saints fans started chanting "Reggie! Reggie!" after Reggie Bush made a first down near the goal line -- and when he lost the ball on the 1-yard line the very next play, we all dutifully turned around and reciprocated with the same chant of "Reggie! Reggie!" in honor of the running back we didn't draft a year ago. There was even a bit of laughter from both sides. And therein lies the key -- we are there for fun, for entertainment.

So Dick, I hope you don't give up on the NFL. If you get a chance, bring the boy down here to Houston for a game and see how football can be done right.

Posted by: Greg at 05:08 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Great news on the cinematic front. Peter Jackson will be making the film version of The Hobbit.

Peter Jackson has won the battle for Middle-earth and is to make The Hobbit.

The Oscar-winning Wellington film-maker and Hollywood studios New Line Cinema and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios announced today that they had resolved their legal dispute. Jackson and partner Fran Walsh will serve as executive producers on two Hobbit movies.

Pre-production will begin as soon as possible and both will be shot simultaneously, tentatively in 2009. The Hobbit is likely to be released in 2010 and the sequel in 2011.

I’m pleased to hear that Jackson’s masterful interpretation of Middle Earth will continue – but I do have one question. A sequel? What sequel? What sequel is the sequel to The Hobbit?

Posted by: Greg at 10:58 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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My God – is the woman really this stupid?

The hotel heiress was so enamoured with the two dwarf actors - who were dressed as the blue cartoon characters to promote Haribo's new Smurf sweets at a Christmas market in, Berlin, Germany - she asked if she could take them home with her.

A source said: "When Paris saw the guys on the sweet stall she squealed. We heard her saying, 'Oh my, real life Smurfs. I always wanted one when I was a kid', before turning to her pal and asking, 'Can I take them home?'

"Then she added 'I didn't realise this is where they came from'."

“I didn’t realize this is where they came from?” You must be freakin’ kidding. Nobody is this far out of contact with reality. Surely this has to be a put on. At least I hope it is.

Posted by: Greg at 10:56 AM | Comments (94) | Add Comment
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So much for the integrity of the Mitchell Report.

One active major league player was able to keep his name out of the former Senator George J. MitchellÂ’s report on performance-enhancing drugs in baseball, even though Mitchell had evidence that he bought them, Mitchell said in an interview Friday.

The unidentified player offered persuasive evidence that he had disposed of the drugs without using them, Mitchell said one day after releasing a roughly 400-page report critical of baseballÂ’s drug testing program. The report named about 90 players who were linked to the use of performance-enhancing drugs.

"Persuasive evidence"? Like what? And did he buy such drugs from others? Did he report those who he bought this set of drugs from? If you are going to name names, then you need to name them all. I'm curious what other little frauds and deceptions George Mitchell included in his report.

Posted by: Greg at 02:58 AM | Comments (12) | Add Comment
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Roger Clemens. Andy Petite.

Seeing those two names in the report crushed a lot of spirits here in their home town -- especially after the exciting seasons we had with the two men playing here. But of greater concern to many of us is the presence of Miguel Tejada, who the Houston Astros acquired just Wednesday.

A 21-month investigation into use of performance-enhancing drugs in Major League Baseball concluded Thursday a culture of secrecy and permissiveness gave rise to a "steroids era" in the game that included some of its biggest names, most prominent among them superstar pitcher Roger Clemens.

The report criticized team officials across the league who did little to police their own clubhouses and high-ranking officials in management and the players' union which, the report said, had little motivation to interfere with the surging popularity and economic growth experienced by the game over the last decade. It spread blame for the rise of the use of anabolic steroids and human growth hormone in baseball among the players, team officials, the union and Commissioner of Baseball Bud Selig.

"Everyone involved in baseball over the past two decades -- commissioners, club officials, the players association, and players -- shares to some extent in the responsibility for the steroids era," the report said. "There was a collective failure to recognize the problem as it emerged and to deal with it early on. As a result, an environment developed in which illegal use became widespread."

Among the most prominent current and former players fingered in the report were Barry Bonds, Miguel Tejada, Gary Sheffield, Andy Pettitte, Rafael Palmeiro and Mark McGwire.

"Players who used [performance-enhancing] substances were wrong," the report said. "They violated federal law and baseball policy, and they distorted the fairness of competition by trying to gain an unfair advantage."

The problem, of course, is that none of these players really has the ability to fight the charges made in the Mitchell report. There won't be any day in court, nor will there be any sort of due process for those accused. That troubles me -- especially given the intimate involvement of federal prosecutors in the investigation that culminated in this report. Indeed, it appears that only Barry Bonds will ever get a chance to present a legal defense to charges related to steroid use.

Regardless, though, I still hope that the game can be redeemed by this report, and the response to it.

Posted by: Greg at 11:12 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I've never made a secret for my love of rodeo -- indeed, the one positive thing about the approaching end of the football season is that it brings me that much closer to RodeoHouston this spring. And right now its time for the National Finals Rodeo, the event that caps off the year for the sport that grew out of the everyday skills of the American cowboy.

The New York Times covers it today.

Just as they did in the 1882, when Buffalo Bill Cody organized the first major rodeo, in North Platte, Neb., cowboys rope calves, ride rough stock and wrestle steers. Life for a cowboy, however, does not get much better than the 10 days they spend here each December chasing the biggest pot of the year at the National Finals Rodeo.

It means that after 80 or so rodeos, they are one of the top 15 competitors in their discipline. It means that after more than 270 days on the road driving four cowboys to a truck and sleeping two to a room — or often a tent — they finally receive their own accommodations.

And at the lower levels of the sport, that is exactly the case every weekend. But at the NFR -- not to mention here in Houston -- you see the best of the best competing for incredible amounts of cash. That is where the living is sweet -- though the risk is high. Certainly the physical toll that the sport takes is every bit as high as football -- except that there is no such thing as a penalty flag on a bucking horse, nor does a bull stop its spinning and bucking after 8 seconds. And yet these men keep on enduring the pain for one more shot at the gold buckle and a check.

Indeed, I've got only one complaint about the article. Why pick this picture to be the first thing you see about the story?

I can tell you that there would have been plenty of American flags and probably 49 other state flags presented in an identical fashion. Why play up the one with the Confederate Battle Flag so prominently displayed? Is it a sign that someone with the NYT wanted to surreptitiously present an editorial opinion about rodeo and its enthusiasts? Or was this really the best that they had?

Posted by: Greg at 11:16 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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This is going to turn out to be an ugly day for Major League Baseball -- and yet it may also begin the redemption of the game.

The headquarters for George J. MitchellÂ’s investigation into the use of performance-enhancing drugs in baseball has been the DLA Piper law offices in Midtown Manhattan, right next to Rockefeller Center and only blocks from the Park Avenue offices of Major League Baseball. On Tuesday, as MitchellÂ’s 20-month investigation drew to a conclusion, it was Major League Baseball that was on the move, as officials from the sport went to the DLA Piper offices to get a look at the report.

What it contains will be officially revealed Thursday, when Mitchell holds a 2 p.m. news conference in Manhattan. Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig will hold a separate news conference across town at 4:30 p.m. to discuss the report's findings. But two people who are familiar with MitchellÂ’s investigation, and his findings, said that the report would contain the names of more than 50 active and former major league players who are linked to the use of performance-enhancing drugs.

More than 50.

Wow.

Not that anyone will be surprised by that number -- or by some of the names that surface. We've watched some of these folks have freakish growth spurts (paging Barry Bonds) over the years, and so we have a good idea who they are. Others have admitted using these drugs.

The question, ultimately, is one of rectifying past abuses and setting the course for a clean future. Here's hoping that we will see some penalties for those involved in this scandal -- and a continued commitment to the new penalties that have been imposed in recent years. Maybe I'll start going to games again.

Posted by: Greg at 10:53 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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As a kid, I cheered Jack Pardee as a player for the Washington Redskins when he was a part of the "Over the Hill Gang". Later, when he was coaching the Chicago Bears, I got to meet him (and his team's budding young superstar, a running back named Walter Payton) when the team was using a drill hall at Great Lakes boot camp during a cold snap. And I've always had a soft spot for any team he is coaching. For that reason alone, I'm excited about this possible comeback.

For University of Houston athletic director Dave Maggard, the search goes on for a football coach to replace Art Briles. But a person with knowledge of the situation said that it has been narrowed to two candidates — former NFL and Cougars coach Jack Pardee and Notre Dame offensive coordinator Michael Haywood.

Pardee said Tuesday he had not been offered the job, and Haywood could not be reached for comment. Maggard would not comment on the situation, saying only that "there is still a lot of work to do."

Now either of these guys would be a good choice as head coach, but I personally like the choice of Pardee. And i like this coaching staff.

Pardee's projected staff would reportedly include current assistants Jason Phillips (wide receivers), Bubba McDowell (cornerbacks), Tony Fitzpatrick (defensive line) and Thurmond, with newcomers like former SMU assistant Ronnie Vinklarek (offensive line), Tomball High's Tommy Kaiser (S-backs and special teams), Arlington Bowie coach Kenny Perry (safeties) and former Cougars quarterback David Klingler (offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach).

Pardee said the staff would have a good blend of experience and youthful enthusiasm.

Not only that, but it is also a good blend of what has been a very successful coaching staff under the team's former coach and new coaches who will introduce new perspectives and talents. the presence of both continuity and change would be good for teh Cougars -- and might just propel them back tot he heights that they reached under Jack Pardee two decades ago.

Posted by: Greg at 11:01 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Or maybe he will just need to cower in isolation for the whole time.

Michael Vick was sentenced to 23 months in prison Monday for running a "cruel and inhumane" dogfighting ring and lying about it.

The suspended Atlanta Falcons quarterback could have been sentenced up to five years by U.S. District Judge Henry E. Hudson. Vick, who turned himself in Nov. 19 in anticipation of his sentence, was wearing a black-and-white striped prison suit.

After Vick apologized to the court and his family, Hudson told him: "You need to apologize to the millions of young people who looked up to you."

"Yes, sir," Vick answered.

The 27-year-old player acknowledged using "poor judgment" and added, "I'm willing to deal with the consequences and accept responsibility for my actions."

Although there is no parole in the federal system, rules governing time off for good behavior could reduce Vick's prison stay by about three months, resulting in a summer 2009 release.

Probably hoping to be back for the 2009 season. Let's hope the NFL has other plans. I'm certain that NFL fans – especially those of us who buy the tickets and actually go to the games – don't care to see him back on the field.

Posted by: Greg at 10:33 PM | Comments (22) | Add Comment
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