Ever heard that one before?  Do you know what comes next?  Can you guess?  The answer is just about as hard to figure out as what your girlfriend/significant-Panda-other meant when they gently took you aside after being distant for the prior month and said "We need to talk..."

I confess that I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that I just need to accept that by most people's definition of the term, I'm whatchacall... a "Homer".  While I detest the degree to which fans of other teams, college and pro, are willing to overlook the failures and shortcomings of their teams and while I DO think that I am even-handed in my reaction to legal troubles, I probably tend to give my guys more of the benefit of the doubt when it comes to motive and intent with regard to NFL rules infractions both on and off the field.

So, since, from the way most of the posters here use the word "homer" I have to conclude that it must be a very, very, VERY bad thing, I feel like I must preface this with:

"Hi, I'm DilloTex, and I'm a homer..."

If you are morbidly curious about my homer ranting... click your heels twice and jump with me...

So, conceding that I donned perpetual rose-colored glasses the day they announced the new NFL team for Houston, I make no claim to:

• impartiality
• great depth of knowledge of the technical aspects of the game
• having spent the hours that many of you probably have studying game films and evaluations of players from the draft
• having spent the DAYS that many of the Texans coaches and front office staff have spent DOING NOTHING ELSE but evaluating potential draft talent.

And also, since apparently one's intellect, credibility and worth tend to diminish as they approach 65, I must confess that I am indeed, over 50, so my mental faculties are probably too diminished to effectively communicate my point, but I'll try...

Four games into the season, if we have demonstrated that we still suck I can completely understand snarky comments and bitching.  By the end of the season, if we are still having just another .500 season... bring it on, because it is time.  For that matter, if we play a couple of preseason games and the team just looks horrible, by all means I understand hand-wringing and cries of desperation.

But in the name of common sense and all that is reasonable, since you DID NOT spend the same hours evaluating game film, combine numbers and test scores that the PROFESSIONALS whose very livelihoods depend on "getting it right" and who do NOTHING ELSE but those evaluations and who have been doing those evaluations probably longer than most of you have been on the planet, please don't miss the opportunity to shut the hell up and let the rest of us Pollyanna emulators enjoy the only month of the year when we can be optimistic (reasonable or not).

Because insisting on peeing the punch-bowl doesn't make you urbane, witty, or intellectually superior...  And if you don't learn to squeeze whatever happiness you can out of life (delusional or not), you are going to have one sad existence.