When it comes to sexy NFL brands, the Houston Texans aren’t exactly at the top of the list alongside the likes of the Cowboys, Packers, and Steelers. In fact, the best brand identifier about the Houston NFL team is probably the retro uniforms that the Tennessee Titans own and used against the Texans this season.
After several barren years, the Texans have been one of the great upstart stories of the 2023 NFL season led by first year head coach DeMeco Ryans and the incredible play of rookie quarterback CJ Stroud. Nevertheless, they haven’t yet been rewarded with any kind of national exposure until this week when their Week 18 game at the Indianapolis Colts will be the Saturday primetime game on ESPN. The winner of the Colts-Texans game clinches at least a Wild Card spot.
And when we say “any” national exposure, we do so in the most literal way possible. Even with the proliferation of nationally televised games across NBC, CBS, Fox, ESPN, Amazon, Peacock, NFL Network, and ESPN+ the Houston Texans didn’t get one of them this season. In fact, as NFL Network’s Peter Schrager pointed out, this week’s game against the Colts represents the first game the Texans will play outside the 1 PM ET early afternoon window all season long.
I just revealed this fact on @GMFB and am double and triple checking it.
The @HoustonTexans have played only 1 pm EST games this season. 16 of them.
Saturday will not only be their first primetime game, but there first game played outside of the 1 pm EST window.
— Peter Schrager (@PSchrags) January 2, 2024
It used to be that every team in the NFL appeared at least once on a Thursday Night Football game, but that hasn’t been in place since the 2021 season. At the beginning of the year, the Texans were scheduled for only one late afternoon kickoff against the Denver Broncos in Week 13, but even that got flexed back to 1 PM ET. None of the other Texans games got flexed off 1 PM ET until this week. It was the most anonymous schedule possible in today’s NFL world.
https://twitter.com/HoustonTexans/status/1656813297088311298
In fairness, nobody among the NFL schedule makers envisioned the Texans competing for a playoff spot with a rookie quarterback coming off a three win season. Given their great story and great play in 2023, it’s probably a safe bet that history won’t repeat itself next year.
