Texas Two Step

The players don’t want to play. And the fans aren’t going to watch.

So what is the point of the Pro Bowl?

After six months of taking a beating in practice and games, the Pro Bowl is the worst all-star game in all of professional sports.

It is understandable why these men would not want to play. And to make matters even worse, it is no longer a week-long luxurious trip in Hawaii as the game was moved to the site of the Super Bowl beginning this year.

A “Sporting News” columnist wrote that they call it the Pro Bowl because you only need to be a professional to be able to play. I could not agree more. There are seven Pro Bowl quarterbacks. Originally named to the roster was Peyton Manning who is playing in the Super Bowl and Tom Brady and Philip Rivers who are “nursing injuries.” Even the first alternate Ben Roethlisberger dropped out.

So leading the offense on Sunday for the AFC will be the combination of Matt Schaub, Vince Young and David Garrard.

In a sport that requires hard hits and constant aggressiveness, the Pro Bowl allows neither. There are injuries in every football game every week during the regular season and even in the preseason.

There is no reason to have the best players out there making that same risk. The solution is simple (or at least it is in my eye). Let’s get rid of the Pro Bowl.

The NFL should name Pro Bowl rosters based on whatever crazy system they have. And then there should be no game. Let the real Pro Bowlers have their honor and then that’s it. Nothing else.

If people really want to see their favorite athletes one more time, how about letting them have a charity softball or basketball game?

I have wanted to do this all year. It may be obvious which quarterbacks I am comparing here, but some may not know. So without further ado …

Quarterback A:

CMP ATT YDS CMP% YPA LNG TD INT SACK RAT

298 478 3886 62.3 8.13 80 23 7 31 97.9

Quarterback B:

CMP ATT YDS CMP% YPA LNG TD INT SACK RAT

352 513 4181 68.6 8.15 72 25 13 23 98.9

By looking at the stats, which would you rather have?

It appears to be a tossup because of the interceptions. (Quarterback A has lost four fumbles compared to Quarterback B.)

One of these quarterbacks gets lots of national attention and is extremely overhyped. The other … not so much. One of these quarterbacks has a distinguished offensive line made up of perennial Pro Bowlers. While the other has a bunch of fifth, sixth and seventh-round picks that no one knows about.

One of these quarterbacks has the best wide receiver in the NFL and a few guys that no one else in the NFL wanted. The other has a Pro Bowl tight end and a wide receiving corps that at times can be outstanding including a breakout receiver who likely will join his tight end in the Pro Bowl.

These quarterbacks play in the same state. (The state that this blog is named for.)

If you were somehow unable to figure it out, this comparison is between the Dallas Cowboys Tony Romo and the Houston Texans Matt Schaub.

Romo=Quarterback A

Schaub=Quarterback B

So what do you think? Schaub has more touchdowns and more yards, but has more interceptions. Romo has a running game, allowing his offense to be more than one dimensional.

I am not going to tell you what I think yet. I just wanted to remind everyone that Tony Romo is not the only quarterback in Texas. Matt Schaub is one of the more underrated players in the NFL. His accuracy is among the best in the league.

It will be interesting to see once the Pro Bowl rosters are announced and if either of the quarterbacks will make it.

Maybe Schaub just needs to start dating a celebrity?

Although the Cowboys have lost their status of being America’s Team over the past decade, it would take a change of borders with the city of Dallas becoming part of Oklahoma for them not to be the most popular team in Texas.

But this year is another chance for the Houston Texans to chip away at that state supremacy. Since entering the NFL in 2002, the Texans have slowly gotten better while the Cowboys have remained a middle-of-the-pack football team that gets too much publicity.

Now the Texans are on the verge of becoming a better football team than the Cowboys.

I am trying not to be a homer because I am from Houston and despise the Cowboys, so let's just look at some facts.
Obviously, the Cowboys have the built-in advantage of history and tradition. They are the most significant sports organization ever in the state of Texas and maybe even in the south.

The Cowboys have Super Bowls and the Texans have 8-8 records. The Cowboys have Hall of Famers and the Texans have 1,000-yard rushers. The Cowboy cheerleaders have a reality TV show. The Texans’ cheerleaders were eliminated from the same show and went four hours south looking for the next best thing.

The Texans did start off on the right note back in 2002 when the Cowboys came to Reliant Stadium led by the joke of an NFL quarterback that was Quincy Carter. Forever in the heads of Texans’ fans are the numbers 19-10, the final score of the Texans' win over Dallas in their first ever game. What you won’t hear from Texans’ fans, however, is the score of their second matchup, which I am hoping got lost in the records.

But the future looks bright for what is still the youngest franchise in the NFL. It looks as if Charley Casserly was right when he drafted Mario Williams. Matt Schaub, when healthy, is one of the most accurate passers in the NFL. Andre Johnson is arguably the best wide receiver in the league. But in the tough AFC South, the Texans have been having trouble getting out of the cellar.

In their attempt to dethrone the Colts as the perennial favorites to win the AFC South, the Texans have gained little popularity throughout the state.

So what can the Texans do to become the primary team people think about when they first think about football in the state it is named after?
1. Win a Super Bowl and then maybe three or four more.
2. Sign Mike Vick.
3. Hope another Cowboys' structure collapses, but maybe takes out the entire offense this time (just kidding, of course).

If there is a chance for the Texans to gain more respect from the media and NFL fans outside of Houston, this year is a good time for them to take advantage of some recent losses in Dallas. T.O. is gone, Pacman is gone, and even Jessica Simpson is gone.

But still it won’t matter, because it is the almighty Cowboys. If the Texans win their first six games and the Cowboys lose their first six games, the top story around the media outlets will be, “What’s wrong with Romo?” or “Should Wade Phillips be fired?”

So will the Texans ever reach the status of the Dallas Cowboys? We can only hope.