Houston Texans

• 1. Introduction

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  The Houston Texans entered the NFL on the 8th of September 2002, and did something no expansion team had managed since 1961: they won their opening game. Their opponent that day was the Dallas Cowboys, and before a crowd at the newly opened Reliant Stadium, the newest franchise in professional football announced itself with a victory. What followed, though, was a long road through losing seasons, coaching upheavals, franchise-defining trades, and playoff runs that ended just short of the sport's biggest stage. The Texans have never played in a Conference Championship game. They are one of only four NFL teams never to appear in a Super Bowl. Yet they have also built eight division titles, produced Hall of Fame players, and in 2023 became the first team in league history to win their division with both a rookie head coach and a rookie quarterback. How does a franchise born in 1999, replacing a team that had packed up and left, forge its own identity in a city that already knew football heartbreak? And what does it mean to represent Houston without ever having reached the pinnacle of the sport?

• 2. The Franchise Is Born

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  Bob McNair's path to owning an NFL team began not with football but with hockey. In 1997, the Houston entrepreneur tried and failed to bring an NHL expansion team to the city. That same year, the Houston Oilers completed their departure, moving to Nashville under owner Bud Adams and eventually becoming the Tennessee Titans in 1999. The city was left without NFL football just as the league was reckoning with its own relocation controversies. The Cleveland Browns had moved to Baltimore in 1996 to become the Ravens, and as part of the settlement between the NFL, the city of Cleveland, and team owner Art Modell, the league had promised to return football to Cleveland within three years.

  To bring the league to 32 teams, the NFL looked for a second expansion site alongside Cleveland. Houston was among the top candidates, along with Toronto and Los Angeles, the latter of which had already lost two franchises when the Rams and the Raiders departed in 1995. McNair formed Houston NFL Holdings with partner Steve Patterson and teamed with the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo to push for a domed stadium as part of the city's bid. On the 6th of October 1999, the NFL awarded its 32nd franchise to Houston at a cost of $700 million.

  Naming the new team took months of research. An online survey drew more than 65,000 responses in a single week. By the 2nd of March 2000, the list had been narrowed to five choices: Apollos, Bobcats, Stallions, Texans, and Wildcatters. On the 6th of September 2000, the name Houston Texans was announced at a downtown rally. The word "Texans" carried history; it had belonged to a Canadian Football League franchise in San Antonio, a World Football League team in Houston that later became the Shreveport Steamer, and both a 1952 NFL team in Dallas and the original American Football League version of what became the Kansas City Chiefs. McNair secured permission from Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt to use the name.

• 3. Identity in Steel Blue and Battle Red

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  McNair unveiled the team logo alongside the name at that September 2000 rally. The design is an abstract bull's head, split to resemble both the flag of Texas and the shape of the state itself, with a lone star serving as the eye. McNair described the five points of that star as representing pride, courage, strength, tradition, and independence. The colors he named were "Deep Steel Blue," "Battle Red," and "Liberty White."

  The bull was chosen deliberately. It ties back to Texas cattle ranching, which helped shape the state's economy in the 19th century. The helmet started out white when the logo was first shown, then was changed to dark blue before the team played its first game. The 2003 season brought a red alternate jersey. In 2007, red pants were introduced, creating an all-red combination that lasted through 2010, was retired, and then returned in 2023. By 2022, a red alternate helmet joined the rotation.

  In April 2024, the Texans unveiled a full uniform redesign. The updated home blue jerseys added the team's primary crest on the sleeve along with new collar stripes. The road whites featured blue and red horn stripes and blue numbers with red trim. A second alternate set used a navy blue base with "H-Town blue" accents and was paired with a navy helmet carrying the "H-Star" decal. The NFL permitted teams with new uniform packages to introduce a second alternate helmet ahead of schedule, which is why both helmets appeared together.

  Game-day traditions grew up around the colors too. Battle Red Day asks fans to wear red while the team takes the field in the red alternate jerseys. The Liberty White-Out flips the stadium to white. Before each kickoff at NRG Stadium, the team plays a clip of a raging bull set to AC/DC's "Thunderstruck."

• 4. Early Struggles and the Kubiak Turn

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  Dom Capers coached the Texans through their first four seasons. After the opening-game win over Dallas in 2002, the team went 4-12 and finished last in the AFC South. They improved slightly to 5-11 in 2003 and 7-9 in 2004, then collapsed to 2-14 in 2005, the worst record in the NFL that season. Capers was fired after that finish, and the Texans held the first overall pick in the 2006 NFL Draft.

  Gary Kubiak, a Houston native, took over as head coach in 2006. The team posted back-to-back 8-8 records in 2007 and 2008 and came close to the playoffs with a 9-7 mark in 2009, but a 2-8 second-half collapse in 2010 left them at 6-10. The turning point arrived in the 2011 NFL draft, when the Texans selected Wisconsin defensive end J. J. Watt 11th overall. That offseason, former Cowboys head coach Wade Phillips joined as defensive coordinator. With a rebuilt defense, the Texans finished 10-6 and claimed their first AFC South title.

  In the playoffs, the Texans beat the Cincinnati Bengals 31-10 in the Wild Card round before losing 20-13 to the Ravens in the Divisional Round. The following season, Houston started 11-1 by week 14, won a second consecutive AFC South title with a 12-4 record, and again beat the Bengals in the Wild Card round before falling to the New England Patriots in the Divisional Round.

  In 2013, the Texans drafted Clemson wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins 27th overall. But the season was a disaster. After starting 2-0, the team lost every remaining game. Kubiak was fired after the Texans were swept by the Jacksonville Jaguars, a team that had itself started 0-8. Wade Phillips stepped in as interim head coach but could not stop the slide. The final record was 2-14, tying 2005 as the worst in franchise history, and a 14-game losing streak that stands as the longest in team history.

• 5. Watson, Watt, and the O'Brien Years

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  Bill O'Brien arrived from Penn State to become the third head coach in franchise history in 2014. He stopped the losing streak, led the team to a 9-7 season, and missed the playoffs by a narrow margin. The 2015 Texans appeared on HBO's "Hard Knocks" and stumbled to a 2-5 start before recovering to go 9-7 and win the AFC South. The playoff reward was a 30-0 shutout loss to the Kansas City Chiefs.

  On the 9th of March 2016, the Texans signed Denver Broncos quarterback Brock Osweiler to a four-year, $72 million deal. Osweiler struggled throughout the season. After he threw two interceptions against the Jaguars in Week 15, O'Brien benched him in favor of backup Tom Savage, who led a comeback. Savage started the next game, a Week 16 win over the Bengals that gave the Texans their fourth AFC South title in six years. Osweiler was reinstated as starter for the playoffs due to Savage suffering a concussion; he then threw three interceptions in the second half of a 34-16 Divisional Round loss to New England.

  The 2017 draft brought Clemson quarterback Deshaun Watson, selected 12th overall after the team traded up. Watson went 3-3 in six starts with what was described as arguably the greatest and most decorated rookie season by a quarterback in NFL history. Then, following a 41-38 loss to the Seattle Seahawks in Week 8, Watson tore his ACL in practice and was lost for the season. The same year saw Tom Savage suffer a seizure after a game against the San Francisco 49ers, raising questions about the team's handling of the league's concussion protocol. The Texans went 1-9 over the final stretch and finished 4-12.

  In 2018, the Texans opened 0-3 before Watson sparked a nine-game winning streak, the longest ever for a team that had started the season 0-3. The previous record for such a team was a seven-game streak set by the New York Giants in 1918. One highlight of the streak was Watson throwing five touchdown passes in a Week 8 win over the Miami Dolphins. Houston finished 11-5 and won another AFC South title, then lost 21-7 to the Indianapolis Colts in the first playoff round.

  On the 22nd of March 2020, O'Brien traded DeAndre Hopkins and a fourth-round pick to the Arizona Cardinals for running back David Johnson, a second-round pick, and a future fourth-round pick. The move drew widespread criticism. O'Brien was fired four games into the 2020 season after a 0-4 start; interim coach Romeo Crennel, who had previously led the Cleveland Browns and the Kansas City Chiefs, went 4-7 before the Texans closed on a five-game losing streak. Final record: 4-12.

  Watson was eventually traded to the Cleveland Browns on the 20th of March 2022, along with a 2024 fifth-round pick, in exchange for three first-round picks, a third-round pick, and a fourth-round pick, amid sexual misconduct lawsuits filed against him.

• 6. Ryans, Stroud, and a New Era

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  On the 31st of January 2023, the Texans hired DeMeco Ryans, a former Texans player who had most recently served as the 49ers' defensive coordinator, as their sixth head coach. In the 2023 NFL draft, the Texans selected Ohio State quarterback C. J. Stroud and traded up to the third pick to take defensive end Will Anderson Jr. The pair immediately transformed the franchise's trajectory.

  With a 10-7 record, the Texans won the AFC South for the first time since 2019 and became the first NFL team ever to capture a division title with both a rookie head coach and a rookie starting quarterback. They defeated the Cleveland Browns 45-14 in the Wild Card round before losing 34-10 to the Baltimore Ravens in the Divisional Round. Stroud was named NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year; Anderson was named NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year. Ryans finished tied in total votes for NFL Coach of the Year with Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski but lost the award in a tiebreaker due to having one fewer first-place vote.

  The 2024 season brought a repeat AFC South title, also at 10-7. The Texans beat the Los Angeles Chargers 32-12 in the Wild Card round before losing to the Kansas City Chiefs in the Divisional Round.

  In the 2025 season, the Texans finished 12-5 and second in the AFC South following an 0-3 start, becoming the first team in NFL history to make the playoffs after opening 0-3 in two separate seasons, the first having been 2018. In the postseason, they defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers 30-6 in the Wild Card round, ending the franchise's long history of losing every road playoff game. They then fell to the New England Patriots 28-16 in the Divisional Round, with Stroud throwing four interceptions in the first half.

• 7. Ownership and Legacy

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  Bob McNair owned the Houston Texans from the franchise's founding until his death from skin cancer on the 23rd of November 2018. His wife, Janice McNair, became principal owner and Senior Chair on the 26th of November 2018. Their son, D. Cal McNair, became chairman and Chief Operating Officer at that point, then became principal owner when Janice transferred ownership to him in 2024. According to a Forbes valuation from August 2022, the franchise was worth $4.7 billion, ranking it eleventh among NFL teams.

  The team's Ring of Honor has four inductees. Wide receiver Andre Johnson, who played for the Texans from 2003 to 2014, was the first inductee on the 19th of November 2017. Bob McNair was posthumously inducted on the 6th of October 2019. J. J. Watt, who wore number 99 and played for the team from 2011 to 2020, was inducted on the 1st of October 2023. Janice McNair became the fourth inductee on the 2nd of November 2025.

  Johnson reached the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2024, becoming the first player inducted primarily for his time with the Texans. Safety Ed Reed, who played a single season with the team in 2013, is the only other Hall of Famer with Texans tenure.

  J. J. Watt's connection to Houston extended beyond football. After Hurricane Harvey devastated the city in 2017, Watt raised $41.6 million in relief funds and won the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award that season. The Texans' own charitable foundation, which was created in 2002, had raised more than $27.2 million by the time of the source's writing, and the 2017 Charity Golf Classic alone brought in more than $380,000 for the foundation. Watt personally requested his release from the team, confirmed by owner Cal McNair, and was released on the 12th of February 2021. His Ring of Honor induction two years later closed a chapter that had shaped the franchise's first two decades.