Notes from San Fran

Texans fans in San Fran (my blonde hair to the left!)

I don’t mean to beat a dead horse and talk about the exact same thing everyone who has ever watched football has been hammering on about for weeks, but WE MUST: Matt Schaub.

I actually do feel bad for Matt Schaub at this point in the game. I still agree he gets paid a good deal of dough to throw the ball to his own teammates, but I see these “fans” continue to rip him apart and it’s downright disturbing. I was at the game on Sunday in San Francisco and as much as I try to forget seeing that poor performance live, there were a few things I noticed. Perhaps you noticed this on TV, but if not, here are my observations:

When Schaub threw his fourth consecutive pick-six (it actually hurts to say that), the TV cameras were probably first pointed at the un-intended receiver, Tramaine Brock, but my eyes were glued on Schaub, mostly due to disbelief. His face said it all. You could see his “are you serious” look through his helmet. I’m not a football player, I have no idea if someone ran the wrong route or something was off, but Schaub was shocked. We were shocked. Y’all were shocked. Didn’t “we” just spend the last seven days working on exactly that same situation to avoid exactly the same costly mistake?

As Schaub reluctantly trotted off the field, he went directly to Kubiak. Who knows what aggressive words came out of his mouth or what he was asking, but Kubiak’s reaction is what I’m slightly floored about: he smiled. The Texans quarterback, with a guaranteed salary of $24.75 million, just threw his fourth pick-six in four straight games, and you smile? Why aren’t you pissed and shocked and upset like all the other 4 million Houstonians? Throw something, yell, make your face get all red and your veins pop out.

Do something.

I know Kubiak reacted in his own Kubiak way, but maybe that’s a bigger issue. Kubiak has spent the past week addressing the media assuring everyone they are working HARD to avoid those mistakes, and you come out of those dirty San Franciscan gates and do the exact same thing. And then you smile?

This is how the game started

And yes, there is a large part of me that feels for Schaub. Houston is being brutal to the guy, and it goes well beyond the field and burning jerseys. They have now resorted to blasting his family about his play (as if that has anything to do with it). A friend of mine was sitting next to Schaub’s mom at the San Fran game and she cried the second he threw that pick-six. She knows how hard this is on her son. She knows the mental demons he was dealing with prior to that fateful throw are only going to get worse. She knows his career is in jeopardy.

At least she had a reaction, unlike Kubiak.

Another reaction after that pass? Andre Johnson.

Again, I don’t know what y’all saw on TV or to what extent the commentators were privy to the situation, but my seats were right there – first row, DIRECTLY behind the Texans bench. Number 80 was not a happy camper and he wasn’t afraid to show it. I don’t think he could even control it. He actually got in the face of WR Coach, Larry Kirksey, and honestly, it looked like he was going to fight him. I couldn’t catch it on video, but the crowd saw it and started chanting Andre, taunting him. I thought the entire Texans sideline was going to explode, some with tears, and some with anger and punches and foul language. And I wouldn’t have blamed a single one of them. This has been a hard few weeks for ALL of those guys.

After quite a few choice words, yelling and throwing things, Andre looked for a moment like he was going to take his jersey off, saying “I’m done.” It was a heated moment, the most heated I’ve ever seen from the Texans. The entire team was shocked. Again, at least he was reacting. Duane Brown and Wade Smith, two of my favorites, out there each and every offensive play trying to protect Schaub, and they clearly weren’t impressed coming off the field after that pick-six. They were reacting.

But you know who wasn’t reacting (aside from Kubiak)? Arian Foster.

Let me reiterate, I’m not an NFL player (duh), but I did play sports growing up. Hecklers get to you and turnovers change the tone of the game, quickly. But my coach would never let me take my eyes off the field and respond to hecklers in the stands. A few seats over sat six of the most obnoxious fans to ever wear a 49ers jersey, and they were giving it to Arian.

One guy, holding up his cell phone yelled “Hey Arian, I just dropped you on my fantasy team.”

Another guy, “Arian you suck!” in a loud and squeaky, yet to hit puberty, or maybe it was drunk, voice.

Before the Texans were even out of the game, Arian was responding back. His eyes were on the hecklers, not the game. His first response to those guys: “I’m rich” with a Johnny Manziel kind of hand motion.

This is how the game ended.

Yeah Foster, you are rich. From that game your back is turned to and has been turned to the entire game – that’s what made you rich. You worked hard for it, but it ain’t over. You got (and earned) that big contract, but it’s not quitting time buddy. It’s Week 5. The other 52 guys are at least watching the game in front of them, but not you.

Then, probably the most annoyed I’ve ever been at a player on the team I’m rooting for, Arian walks over to the side, grabs a sharpie, signs his gloves (which didn’t get much action that night) and handed them to the heckler.

Now I’m not sure what the gloves said – if it was a message saying, “I’m rich,” or some other actual message to the hater, I’m down and can respect that. But just a few seats over were at least five of the most crazed Texans fans that traveled to San Fran to support these guys, and they do it almost every week. Even during trying times, they are still cheering and trying to pick our boys up. But Arian didn’t ONCE look their direction. I’m not sure he made eye contact with a single Texans fan during the entire game, but those San Fran jackoffs got his attention, for at least an entire quarter.

Which is probably what prompted what happened at the end of the third quarter after another one of Schaub’s completed passes to the other team (I’m going to start calling it that instead of an interception…), two Texans fans took off their shirts, AND THREW THEM AT THE TEXANS PLAYERS ON THE SIDELINE. (Then the dumbasses had to leave the stadium shirtless, and I’m not sure they thought that part through fully.)

Texans fans, I get it. Watching that in person, on TV, on a mobile app, whatever, it wasn’t pretty. But to disrespect your own team and those players that are working hard is embarrassing to the real fans. And to an entire city.

For those who traveled and spent all that money, what a bum note to go out on. But here’s the positive: there’s no place like home. After visiting the decrepit and dirty Candlestick Park, I know I’m ready to kiss Reliant’s grass and hug every real Texan fan in the stadium.

Next up is St. Louis. We got this. There’s no way this team can lose four straight, right?

Let’s talk Texans, Schaub, Kubiak, heckling fans, whatever else you want on The Blonde Side’s FB page.

This blog post is part of The Blonde Side’s Bud Light Series. Be sure to LIKE Bud Light Houston on FB to keep up with all the fun things in Houston, here we go!