Texans Down 'N Dirty: Cinderella Edition

Dick Justice can't decide whether he wants to spend all the time he has for covering the Texans being critical of coaches and players for no reason or trying to write tear-jerkers.  Richard detailed the Cinderellesque story of Glover Quin's rise to the NFL.  My feelings toward Justice aside, it is impressive to hear that Quin made it to D-IA football after only playing 6 games in two seasons of junior college due to injury and Hurricane Katrina.

While Quin might fit the bill of a Cinderella story, David Anderson says that the Texans don't fall in that category even if they make the playoffs this year.  Anderson explains that .500 ball is now below the expectations for the team, and therefore success shouldn't qualify as a surprise.  You have to dig Anderson's moxie, and I officially feel like a douche for stating that it didn't matter whether the Texans matched the offer sheet that the Broncos gave him earlier this offseason.

Paul Kuharsky also had a chat with 2008 first round selection Duane Brown.  The conversation specifically centered around the fact that the training wheels will be removed this season when Brown will be required to play all of the offensive plays.  I take this as a step in the right direction because the fact that he played two out of every three series last year was probably in response to his poor conditioning, which has supposedly been rectified.

As for the action on practice field during mini-camp, Quin and Connor Barwin continue to be the rookies that grab attention.  The one thing these two seem to have in common is work ethic.  As stated earlier, Quin is used to performing against the odds, while Barwin seems to have that drive naturally.  I don't know what kind of impact these two will have in 2009, but I definitely think that if they keep up this kind of effort they will have good to great careers.

Bob McNair seems to be quickly becoming one of the more visible owners in the league.  He weighed in on hs opinion that the NFL's stance of resisting legalized gambling is somewhat doomed because of its overarching popularity.  He succinctly states, "The horse is already out of the barn on that one."  It's good to have an owner from Texas, as opposed to other teams with an Arkansas prima donna calling the shots.