As SOLIS relayed yesterday, your Houston Texans won't be playing on Sunday. If Reliant Stadium hadn't already been scheduled to pop its MNF cherry against Jacksonville in December, I'd make some sort of bad joke about how we finally knew what Houston had to do to get a game on Monday night. It'll be very interesting to see how loud Reliant is in a few days, because there's a decent chance that the hometown fans (not to mention the employees of the organization, including the players and coaches) have their minds elsewhere. So please keep your fingers crossed for all of those potentially affected by the storm and realize that posting may be a bit sporadic over the next few days. Nevertheless, a few nuggets from today's Chronicle that bear mention:
-Super Steve Slaton gets the start against the stout Baltimore defense on Monday night. While I'm excited about this and confident this is the best course of action for the team's offense, Slaton sure will not have had an easy introduction to professional football. Pittsburgh, then Baltimore? Talk about earning your stripes.
-Darius Walker has been elevated to the active roster. I like this development a lot, too. I'd rather have Walker than Cedric Benson, Shaun Alexander, and/or Tatum Bell, probably because he'll require significantly less bail money, need for a heart transplant, and/or bail money/counseling for kleptomania. Oh, and he's shown flashes of quality in a system with which he's familiar. Can't forget that point.
--Arliss Beach is back on the practice squad, taking Walker's place. Not much to say here except to offer my congratulations to the Beach family.
-In what I'm sure will be a running theme throughout the season and/or the end of Ahman Green's tenure in H-Town, that restructured deal looks increasingly genius by the second. The only thing that would've been smarter was cutting him altogether, but I'll take these baby steps over nothing. What do you figure the over/under is on how many of those $200,000.00 "activity" bonuses Ahman's going to collect? I'm going to set the line at three (3), but I'm an eternal optimist (read: a cynical bastard who believes that Green will force himself onto the active roster a few times to bank another few hundred thousand dollars).
-Reported a few days ago, I believe, but I think we forgot to mention that Stanley McClover's season is over. If you're keeping track, McClover made it seven (7) days as a Texan.
-Although many of us are being bombarded by hysterical newscasts warning us that the end is nigh, let's not forget that the human spirit is nothing if not indomitable:
Receiver Harry Williams, who suffered a career-ending injury to his spine in the Dallas preseason game, surprised his teammates after practice and walked onto the field to greet them.
"I’d like to thank God and my teammates," Williams said after visiting with the players and coaches. "I’d like to thank the fans for their support.
"I’m just happy to be walking again. I might not be able to play football again, but one day I’ll have family and kids, and I’ll be able to run with them."
Williams, who underwent surgery to repair two vertebrae in his spine, was cheered and applauded as he walked onto the field.
"It was great," Williams said. "It brought back a lot of memories. I’m going to the (Baltimore) game. When I was in (physical) therapy, people were asking, ‘Why are you working so hard?’ I was like, ‘I’m trying to get out of here. I’m trying to get to the game.’ They released me (Wednesday), so I’m happy."
Stay safe, everybody. Everything's going to be okay.