Saturday, April 30, 2016

Underacheiving local sports teams

After making it all the way to the Western Conference Finals last season, the Rockets were poised to make a run for the NBA Championship in 2016. Instead, the season has been a complete disaster: their head coach was dismissed just a few weeks into the season, which just ended with a blowout loss to the Golden State Warriors in game five of the first round of the playoffs. The Rockets never came together as a team this year and really didn't deserve to go to the playoffs at all. The way things are going, I wouldn't be surprised if they don't even manage a winning record in the 2016-17 season.

The Houston Astros also took a big step forward in 2015 (their chokejob to the eventual World Series champs aside) and were expected to be a strong contender in 2016. Instead, the team has fallen apart. Their 7-16 record is tied for the worst in the American League, and after only a month into the season they are already five games back of the decidedly-mediocre Texas Rangers in the AL West. While there's still plenty of time for the Astros to turn things around, right now they look completely lost.

That's two Houston sports teams that have failed, or are currently failing, to meet expectations coming off of strong performances the previous seasons. I have two thoughts about this:
  • Being a Houston sports fan continues to suck. There is not another city in this country whose sports teams collectively let their fans down with the frequency and manner that Houston teams do.

  • They say bad news comes in threes, and there's another local sports team that did well last year and has high expectations for this season.
To be sure, the Cougars are losing a lot of talent from last season's top-ten, Peach-Bowl-winning season. William Jackson III, for example, was taken in the first round of  the NFL Draft Thursday night. Houston has a lot of holes to fill on both sides of the ball, and so another 13-1 (or even 14-0!) season might not be in the cards. But can they avoid following the lead of the Rockets and the Astros, and at least stay competitive?

126 days 'til kickoff, by the way...

I now return this blog to its previously-scheduled break.
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2 comments:

  1. Unknown8/02/2016 7:58 PM

    This has nothing to do with Cougars and maybe has nothing to do with you, i dunno.
    I have a rabbit. God help me. Half drunk, extremely frustrated after sweeping my house for the third time today because of all the rabbit turds I googled "rabbits are horrible" to hopefully make myself feel better for my misguided visions of what a pet rabbit would be like. The internet kept telling me how wonderful, and smart and trainable they are. That I'm the problem, I'm doing things wrong, not that rabbit.
    And then a page popped up that said Why Rabbits Suck circa 2004, and it was hosted by mindspring (and I have no idea how that's still possible) And it was the wonderful blog that said EXACTLY what rabbits are like. Every. single. part of it. I tried to find the email link, and when I hit the home page I was redirected here after a couple of 404 errors.
    I am not out of the woods yet. Spoon still holds me hostage to a vicious cycle of cleaning up her poop, replacing wires and staring at me with a dead expression on her face all the while. but after reading that blog I felt a little better. I am not the only one that is not captivated by these adorable little hellrats I so desparetly wish to hug yet they bite and kick me every time I try.
    Thank you, rabbit critic, thank you

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  2. Thomas8/17/2016 12:55 AM

    Yep, I wrote that piece many years ago; I'm glad you found some comfort in it. Best of luck with your "hellrat."

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