On being good and great in football.

I can sympathize with the man.

Blew dat

Texans quarterback Matt Schaub (8) was left hanging his head after he and his teammates blew a nine-point fourth-quarter lead sunday in a 40-33 loss to the saints in new Orleans.  Schaub threw for 373 yards and three touchdowns, but the Texans couldn’t stop New Orleans’ Drew Brees late in the game. (Houston Chronicle Cover 9/26/11)

After starting a strong 2-0, Houston was handed its first defeat in the New Orleans Superdome yesterday.  We can put out the cliches about getting back up on your feet, it's only a single game, etc but that does't change one thing.  Loosing hurts, it stings.

As I said I can sympathize with the man.  As a long time Saints fan (aka sufferer) I lived through the real  bad years, the bad years and the good years.  The late 80s to the early 00s were the good years.  Several seasons we were a good, strong team.  And we had the misfortune of being in the same division (the then NFC West) as San Francisco when the 49ers were in their prime.  When they had Joe Montana throwing to Jerry Rice and an unreal talent level for the entire team.  Any team that has Steve Young (a man who could easily walk onto half the teams in the league and start at the time) as a back up is incredible.  But New Orleans was stuck because of the organization of the league.  We would go 10-6 then go into San Francisco for the first round and get slaughtered.  But in the years of NFC dominance some of the commentators noted "If New Orleans was in the AFC they would be in the Superbowl..." or "New Orleans has a better record against better teams than the two teams playing for the AFC Championship..."

Fast forward to 2006 and New Orleans comes from nowhere and makes it to the NFC Championship.  Two years later and the Lombardi Trophy is finally won by New Orleans.  My team has a QB that is ranked in the top of the league and the Saints are a contender for the playoffs in any realist look at the teams.  Yes, these are the great years for my team and I'm enjoying them.

For the fans of the Texans, the team of my adopted home, these are the good years.  There is no question the Texans have a much improved defense and a more powerful offense.  They are not in the basement of the NFL anymore.  But they are not in the same breath as Green Bay, New Orleans or New England. They are good.  They are not great.

Will this day come, will they ever been ranked in the great teams of the NFL?   Only God knows.  Four teams have never made it to the Superbowl and of the teams that have made it, fourteen have never won one.  You can only get back, learn from what went wrong and improve on what went right.

A lesson in life if ever there is one.

Onward to Jacksonville for the Saints and Pittsburg for the Texans.

Life goes on.