The other day I thought it would be cool to go to the Texans open practice against the Saints. I printed my tickets, told the wife and kids we were going but we would have to get up early, because the gates opened at 730 and we live 70 miles from Houston.  I'm a bit of a sport blog junkie, so I emailed John Mcclain personally to see if he was ever available to talk with fans. I don't always agree with Jmac, but I do read his blog and I thought if I was going to drive all the way into Houston, maybe I could meet him. I prepared the kids for a hopeful autograph or two. My daughter has a pink Schaub jersey that she's grown out of and my son has a new Demeco Ryans jersey and we took a football.

Well, Jmac responded to his email with his cell phone number and told me to text him when I got there, so I did.  I texted, he texted "call me", so I did. Jmac brought Anna-Meagan Raley along to come meet us, however my son and my wife stayed in the stands because the Texans had just ran onto the field.

So my daughter and I go down from the stands and Jmac and A-M are there and we meet them and we tell them that we had brought stuff for players to sign, but hadn't had access to anyone. My daughter is a huge Matt Schaub fan, she is on her second jersey of his. John said "well if you really want Schaub to sign it, why don't you let me have it, I will have him sign it and email me your address and I will mail it to you" We thought that would be totally awesome!  Anna Meagan then said " why don't we just let them try and get thier own autograph"? We thought this was completely and totally awesome!!. So John and Anna Meagan and myself and my daughter started walking around the practice field towards the players  and I mentioned my wife and son were still in the stands, John said " call her and tell her you will see her after the game". This did not fly well with my wife at all....

She cussed me a blue streak via text and if I hadn't had the car keys, my daughter and I wouldn't have had to thumb our way back home. John left us and said he would see us after practice. After stumbling upon a catching drill with Andre Johnson, Steve Slaton and Owen Daniels, I had finally had enough of my wife's textual abuse and asked the gate keeper if I could go get them, since I now had a nifty florescent green bracelet, so I did... that bracelet gave me access and it was like people knew me.

We watched practice and when practice ended we got to meet some players and here what I noticed...

Andre Johnson- Not near as tall as I thought, I know he's 6-3, but I literally bumped shoulders with him and we were eye to eye it seemed, and I'm 5-11 wearing flip flops. If there needed to be another reason to love this guy, after practice, on his way back over to the stadium he stopped and signed autographs all along the way, I don't think anybody missed out. I made my son hand him our football and he signed. I told AJ good luck and he said thank you with out even opening his mouth. I told my son, " the best reciever in football has held and sweated on our football"- Awesome

Demeco Ryans- I tell you what, when these guys don't have a jesey on, they are hard to recognize, especially when your as awed as we were. Ryans was standing right behind me and I didn't notice until I heard some kids yelling his name. My son had his back to him as well and when I realized who it was I just backed him up to him and handed Demeco a sharpie and he signed his jersey.

James Casey- UH and Rice players were also at this practice just watching and once all of the Rice players left Casey alone I went up to him and told him that I had good vibes bout him, he smiled and said that he wanted to keep those vibes good- only rookie to sign my ball.

Ryan Moats- Short dude, was acttually leaning against the football as I held while signed, very nice young man.

Amobi Okoye- smiled, didn't say a word, big boy.

Chester Pitts- this man is very comfortable around fans, he seemed to look for something to sign, very nice.

Eric Winston- signed the ball, but never stopped talking to his daughter.....can't blame him really.

Jacoby Jones- I know why he always fumbles, hands are smaller than mine. he did return a punt for a td in practice.

Matt Schaub- I spotted his balding head in the line of players and watched him walk across the field and talk to Drew Brees and never lost site of him. When he headed back towards us the crowd had thinned and I stepped right in front of him and asked him to sign my daughter's jersey, without hesitation he signed, I told him good luck with up coming season, he looked at me and said Thank You.

This may have been a bit corney to you guys, but my family had a blast and I have John Mcclain of all people to thank for it. If  you read this far ,thanks.