(cid:42)(cid:79)(cid:82)(cid:85)(cid:92)(cid:3)(cid:39)(cid:68)(cid:92)(cid:86) W hen pro football arrived in Houston in 1960 sports fans there rejoiced Some of the country’s top high school and college players already sharpened their skills on the city’s playing fields The Houston Oilers completed the picture For 36 seasons they were one of America’s most exciting teams In 1997 the Oilers moved to Tennessee where they became the Titans Houston fans were in shock They couldn’t imagine a fall without the NFL For five seasons Houston was without an NFL team A group of investors led by Bob McNair worked hard to fix this problem Finally in 2002 the league expanded and placed a new team in Houston The (cid:25)
LEFT Owner Bob McNair poses with David Carr RIGHT Aaron Glenn was a defensive leader of the Texans Texans were part of the American Football Conference AFC One of the teams in their division was the Titans Everyone knew this would turn into a great rivalry Houston’s first coach was Dom Capers He worked quickly to build a strong defense Capers got good performances from players such as Aaron Glenn Jamie Sharper Gary Walker Marcus Coleman and Dunta Robinson They helped the Texans earn a reputation as a hard-hitting team The offense looked for leadership from quarterback David Carr Domanick Williams was the team’s top running back Houston’s best player was Andre Johnson He was a big receiver with (cid:26)
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tremendous speed In just his second season he played in the Pro Bowl When Johnson teamed with Jabar Gaffney the Texans passing game was hard to stop Houston got off to a great start in its very first game The Texans hosted the Dallas Cowboys on a Sunday night People all over Texas and the nation tuned in to watch Carr put the Texans ahead with a 19-yard touchdown pass to Billy Miller Houston’s defense took over from there and the Texans won 19 10 Thanks to their defense the Texans played a lot of close games But they lacked the experience to win in the final minutes That began to change in 2007 Houston built an excellent defense around young stars DeMeco Ryans Mario Williams and Amobi Okoye LEFT Andre Johnson’s size and speed made him Houston’s top player ABOVE The Texans celebrate the winning touchdown against the Dallas Cowboys in 2002 (cid:28)
