The Josh Innes Show - Texans Fans Arrive Late and Leave Early....

Episode Date: October 29, 2024

Jilly and I were excited to make a trip to NRG to see the Texans. Sunday was a battle for first place in the AFC South. You wouldn't know it based on the vibes in the stadium. Of all the stadiums I've been to, NRG may be the worst atmosphere. It's not loud. The fans arrive late and leave early...in a close game! How is this possible? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The following was recorded from inside an ice plunge. Ah! Woo! Okay. All right. When a Coors Light is cold enough, the mountains on the can turn blue. So the next time you want a cold lager, cold filter, cold package Coors Light, just wait until those glorious mountains on the can turn blue.

It's easy to say that fast when you're freezing cold. Howdy, Jmokes. What's happening? It's Josh. So I mentioned we were in Houston over the weekend. We did get tickets to the Texans game. We went to the Texans game on Sunday. Pretty good tickets.

We were in the 500 level, but I kind of like that. I like being able to see things develop i actually i fucking love it like i love like i don't want to be up in you know the heavens but i like watching the play develop you can see things open up i sound like a nerd in that way but i really enjoy it uh first time we've been back to nrg i guess since early last year we saw him play the colts at home uh last year and those are the two games we've been back to NRG I guess since early last year we saw him play the Colts at home last year and those are the two games we've been to in the last handful of years at NRG but you know um obviously we can talk about the game I thought the fan experience at NRG was dreadful just a boring crowd and it's kind of always been that way but if I and I'm not trying to be like old guy remember when but I feel like the atmosphere and the crowds were better during the 2011, 2012 back-to-back playoff years.

The early JJ Watt, Andre Johnson, Arian Foster, D'Amico Ryans, Brian Cushing, Sean Cody, go down the list of dudes on that team, a very good team. Connor Barwin, they had these good teams. And I feel like the place was kind of more of a vibe back then, maybe because the winning was new. I don't know. But I feel like it was a better overall game day environment than it is now. And normally, I'm not dump on fans guy. That's not my MO. Like it's your money. Do with it what you want. So I'm never going to be a dude that craps on you if you don't

go to games. But what I found interesting is that people were at the game. Like the place eventually was filled up. Now it wasn't filled up prior to kickoff, which is really a lame atmosphere and makes it less enjoyable. But obviously people bought the tickets and obviously people went. So my criticisms are not of people who couldn't afford to go. Like I was talking about this on Twitter yesterday. And someone's like, well, I'd like to go, but some of us can't afford it. Totally get it. I mean, after I spent the money on the tickets in the upper deck deck all told it cost me 150 bucks for two tickets to get into the game

then you get in and you know you drink some beers they're ten dollars a piece although shame on you nrg and shame on you the crooked woman that was working the uh one of the um do-it-yourself grab a beer lines where you go up to a little gate like you're at an amusement park or something like a little swinging gate type of thing like you'd see walking into Walmart and you walk up to it they take your card and she says two for $25 so that was the first beer I got so I'm thinking nothing of it like all right two for $25 cool so I'd be like 12.50 for a pint of beer which is comical but fine a pint of domestic of domestic beer, mind you, but Coors Light, but anyway. So I go through, we get the beers, they're two for 25.

I never really paid attention to the prices. Then the next time we go through, I'm listening to this guy arguing with her. He goes, look at the board. It says that these beers are $9.99. Explain how I'm being sold two for $25. And she had no real answer. Now, what we gathered is that somebody fucked up

and they were charging everybody premium beer prices, you know, like a craft beer. Like I think they had some, I think a St. Arnold's, maybe a Lawnmower, not Lawnmower, I think it might have been Hoppedale, one of them. They had like some premium beers, right? Craft beers that were supposed to be, I guess, 12 bucks as opposed to 9.99.

Yet they were charging everybody two for $25 beers even for the domestics. So then after that, we go to another line and they're just 9.99 for the exact same beer. And the fact that no one remedied this problem is preposterous to me, but they didn't. So it continued and people kept paying two for $25 at this

line which was a joke also on the video boards at nrg they put up these dynamic prices right they're like well go get a three dollar hot dog or whatever and we see like 489 for a domestic beer and i'm like fucking a right let's go we circumnavigated the 500 level looking for these 489 draft beers they don't exist you cannot find it so I don't know what section of the stadium they're in I don't know if they're in the 100 level I don't know if there's one fucking kiosk that sells the 489 beers my guess is that's the way it is because a lot of these teams are fraudulent in the way they do business so they tell you that of course there's dynamic pricing you can come to the game and get the cheapest beer in town and then it's probably at like one or two stands that have long

ass lines because upstairs 500 and 600 level i did not see a five dollar beer there was not one fucking five dollar beer to be had. There were barely any draft beer. That's another thing that me and Jilly talk about all the time. And maybe we'll do a podcast tonight. Jilly's working right now. But that's one of the things about stadiums and the stadium experience that's gone to shit is it's harder and harder to find domestic draft beer in stadiums.

It's there, but we've been overrun by the 16-ounce cans and the 25-ounce cans, and we don't get the draft beer as much. And that's the ones they're selling for $5. Yet somehow, you're in the stadium, you see a sign that says there's $5 beer, and you're looking for $5 beer,

and you would think the people in the 500 level would be the ones more apt to buy a $5 beer because you're looking for five dollar beer and you would think the people in the 500 level would be the ones more apt to buy a five dollar beer because they're in the cheaper seats yet it doesn't exist so you want to tell me the people that are spending three and four hundred dollars a ticket sitting in the lower bowl they're getting five dollar beers but us common jamokes up here at the top that spent seventy dollars a ticket to sit in the nose we don't want five dollar beer i'd love love $5 beer, $5 draft beer, chug-a-lug, chug-a-lug, give me another one. I'd probably be more willing to buy more of it. Now, there are downsides to draft beer. It's more easy possibly to spill a draft beer because

there's nothing holding it back. If you knock over a can, you might be able to grab that bad boy quick enough and only lose a little bit of your liquid. Whereas you knock over a cup, it's over. Like, bang, bang, new beer. But that part of it sucked. I missed tailgating because I didn't get there until about 10 minutes before the game. The other bad thing about the experience at NRG is it's not like you have an area prior to the game where unless you're tailgating, you do. You can go bounce around, go from tailgating.

The tailgating's immaculate there. Like, historically, it's great tailgating, and it's up there with the places like Kansas City. And talk about pro tailgating atmosphere. It's a very good tailgating atmosphere, maybe the best in the NFL. I haven't been to every stadium, so I can't say that, but I have been there, and I've been to Kansas City,

and I've been to some other places. You know, like in New Orleans, for instance, there really is no centralized tailgating because you're in the middle of a downtown so you same with indianapolis but indianapolis had a really cool whole downtown setup with bars and restaurants so there were places to bounce around to nrg has got a fuck you go next door into the parking lot with the ross and the tj maxx and the pet smart and all that you walk over there it's a fucking asian restaurant like no one's gonna go pre-game for the goddamn game at 11 in the morning and drink

fucking sake. It's not going to happen that way. It used to be a Mexican restaurant. We go do shots. But like you don't have places to congregate. I understand why you don't. It's not like, you know, when there's eight games a year at this venue and then you get the rodeo and other shit, it's probably not worth the time of people to build a nice place

right around there when most of the year the building's not being used for anything. So I get it. But there's nothing to do there so it's not like you can get there early go drink some discounted beers at a buffalo wild wings and then go into the game so it's not like there's great vibes but we did go over to gus's it opened at 11 we got a little fried chicken we go into the game it was easy getting into the game couldn't find these alleged five dollar beers uh got scammed out of beers once actually might have been it might have been the second time that the guy we heard after we'd already gotten our beers i heard the guy go ma'am that says ten dollars why are you selling it two for 25 and she couldn't figure it out so she's either a dipshit or a scammer i'll give her the benefit of the doubt and say she's a dipshit

but she could have been a scammer but then again how does she benefit from the scam it's not like it's cash where she's skimming off the top is you know this isn't the mafia so i don't know anyway not a cash business anymore it's all card but so game atmosphere about to kick off and places maybe 60 full and that's always kind of been the case in those club level seats. The other thing that I don't understand, like Jilly and PK and Denise are all about this club level. When I used to go to Texans games,

I had a media pass. So I would use my media pass to get into the Texans or the 610 suite. And that's where I would go drink my beer. They'd watch the games up in the cheap seats. They'd buy season tickets up in the nosebleeds and then sneak into the club level. Like maybe the food offerings

are slightly better in the club level and clearly the view is good in the club level, but it's not like getting into the club level at NRG gets you free things. It just gets you the opportunity to buy more expensive things. So you buy more expensive tickets for the opportunity to go into a more expensive area to buy more expensive things so you buy more expensive tickets for the opportunity to go into a more expensive area to buy more expensive shit oh but hey there's a couple of

comfortable chairs if you want to just sit around and do that well i don't i'm here to watch a game i'm not here to sit in a fucking recliner in the lobby but so that they're obsessed with the club level and i guess to the defense of the club level it is open later after the game so if you want to have another beer or two while traffic dies down you you can do that. So I will commend them on that. Like that I agree with, but overall the experience in the club level. And I would say this about any club level at any stadium, like Cardinals games here in St. Louis, because the team sucks so bad, you could buy club tickets for like $5. And at the end of the day, you're buying tickets for the opportunity to buy more expensive shit at the game.

As opposed to, hey, I just want to go get a hot dog, whatever. Nope. Here up in the club level, you get, you know, an opportunity to buy shrimp fried rice for $25 as opposed to buying a dynamic priced hot dog. So it's a scam. It's all a scam. It's not like Howard Eskin now. Everything's a scam. But so we get in there.

They play the intro intro the players they got i don't know how long they've had this thing but they got like a new tunnel that they run out of with like a creepy bull on top with red eyes it's like animatronic looking like some legends of the hidden temple shit and uh we they run out places maybe 60 full maybe and we're ready for coin toss coin toss team wins we're gonna take ball then they play toss. Team wins. We're going to take ball. Then they play this J.J. Watt hype video. And it's a pretty lit hype video for the guy who's arguably the greatest player that's ever played here. Right? It's hyped.

Cool video. The problem is there's no atmosphere in the stadium because it's half full. So, like, that's the part of the game where you want to get jacked up and it's fun and let's go. You want people standing, high-fiving. I want to run through a wall after I watch this J.J. Watt video. But it wasn't that way at all. It's just people sitting down, people making their way to their seats. J.J. Watt video gets no reaction.

There's no hype and game starts. Compare that to the most recent stadiums I've been to. I've been to two other NFL stadiums this year year we went to see the texans in indianapolis and that place was loud and raucous and packed when the game started it was a fucking amazing atmosphere i was talking with bootsy about this because he's an anti-indianapolis guy although he's never been indy's a fucking great town and he's like oh they pipe in crowd noise sure i don't know if they still do but maybe they do maybe they don't all i know is it was loud like you can tell when you're in a stadium that's kind of deafening and you're like holy shit like my ears are still ring that was that kind of vibe at indy it was loud and they were into it

same with new orleans like if anybody's ever been to a game in New Orleans, everybody is in their seats for the hoodat chant. So when they do the coin toss, they bring out the honorary captain. Oh, it's Drew Brees. Oh, it's this guy. Whatever. It's, I don't know, Marcus Colston. And they come out and they do the hoodat chant. You know that 72,000 people are yelling hood at when they do the hood at chant. And then they hit the U2, the saints are coming song. And it's like,

fuck, let's fucking go, man. It's loud and fucking awesome. And the people are passionate. Let's fucking go. You go to Philadelphia where that's probably the stadium. I've seen the set,

probably the second most games I've seen for in a football stadium is probably at Lincoln financial field. So a bunch of games at NRG, I see, I've seen for in a football stadium is probably at Lincoln Financial Field saw a bunch of games at NRG I've seen a bunch of games at the Dome but I think that uh Lincoln Financial's either the second or third most I've been to everybody is in their seats after the coin toss because you're getting the fucking rocky intro there's only one thing I want you to do for me and like everybody yells at the screen when what are we waiting for then they do the rocky eagles mix and it's fucking lit and people are jerked up they've been drinking all fucking day in the tailgates they're ready to fucking go let's go and then boom they hit gonna fly now right out of the you know let's do it but

and then they hit gonna fucking fly now as the players are getting ready for kickoff and it's and I'm like let's fucking go I don't even like the Eagles but I'm ready to fucking go let's go fly Eagles fucking fly you go to NRG and it's like

oh that was cool oh there's a football game interesting who's playing that's how the vibe is to NRG and it's like, oh, that was cool. Oh, there's a football game? Oh, interesting. Who's playing? That's how the vibe is in NRG. Big third down scenarios. A lot of people, nobody was standing up. There'd be one dude in front of us like, everybody get up, get up.

It's not loud. Like, again, I've been to three NFL games this year. My ears were ringing after the Saints game. Like, that place is truly loud the loudest place i've ever been is the louisiana superdome or the caesar superdome or whatever the fuck it is now the superdome the loudest environment i've ever been part of was when they played the rams in the 2019 conference championship game the first drive where they forced the turnover off of jared goff i've never been in a louder building in my life. It was intense.

There's no home field advantage at NRG. There's no like, oh my God, let's get loud. It's third down. Like it takes the people nine minutes into the first quarter to even get into the game. And again, I'm not here to bang on fans. Like some of you can't afford to go, whatever. But the interesting part is these are people who have tickets to the game. So it's not like people just aren't going.

It's the people that have the tickets and they show up late. But anyway, so they're late getting into the game. The atmosphere is kind of blah the whole game. They do a nice little ceremony for Andre Johnson at halftime. We get to see Hannah McNair who, fuck, I'm in love with Hannah McNair. We used to talk about how she looks like she like like insults cow when they bang i still believe that uh but god she's so hot and like like she's bitchy in like the hottest of ways like my boy figgy posted a video of her like doing this like acting like she was sweeping after

they won the game to sweep the colts like she talks her shit she's hot she wears the cute dresses fuck she's so good for you Cal I don't even hate you bro like she did you get together probably because you're rich yeah probably are you the best looking guy not the most but you know what good for you because your tongue has been to some pretty amazing fucking places bro and so is your mustache you you have offered mustache rides and you have an angel good for you Cal nice little thing for Andre Johnson at halftime it was cool whatever um fast forward through the game once you start getting into the fourth quarter like gradually the place starts to get a little emptier a little emptier three or four minutes left in the game the game is still in balance like this is before

the fumble that gave the ball back to the colts people start kind of leaving like up guess the game's over colts get the ball back on the fumble we think they score a touchdown they don't they get the ball back more people start leaving in a one score game like what are we doing? And I'm talking about in droves, like groups of people. Like, our entire row was gone. We had a full row. That entire row left with about five minutes to go. And it's not like they were all together. They were separate groups of people all left.

Gone. There was no atmosphere in that stadium down the stretch. The time that you need the atmosphere. You want to show up late, show up late, fine. Like what happens in the first two minutes of the game ain't going to make or break you? Three minutes to go in a game, you already have the tickets.

So it's not like a scenario where you didn't go, you went. If you're at a game, it's fucking Sunday. I'm guessing you don't have to go to work. I'm guessing you don't have a lot of responsibilities on Sunday at 3 o'clock. Because if not, you wouldn't have gone to the game to begin with. Why the fuck don't you just stay and watch the end of the game? It could actually help the team.

But nope, not Houston. Houston says we out. No diggity, no doubt. Throw up the deuces. Place is half empty on the last try of the game. Which is a meaningful possession. They won by three fucking points. So I don't believe that Houston's not a good NFL town.

I think that part of it is that it's a transient town. You got different fan bases, fine. You lost your football team initially, and I think there are some people that have just never fully embraced the Texans, and I get that. If you grew up rooting for the Houston Oilers and now oh here's the Texans who have been largely lame for most of their existence I get it but if you're gonna go to the game and it's a

football game for first place which we haven't mentioned how the fuck are you gonna leave with three minutes to go in a one score game oh game? Oh, well, traffic sucks. It's fucking Sunday. Deal with it. So what? Now, if it's a baseball game and it's Tuesday night and it's June and you're playing the A's and it's 4-2 in the 8th and you're like, I need to get home. Kids are going to school, whatever. I get that.

Like, there's 162 baseball games. There's not really one baseball game over the course of a season that's going to make or break that season. So I get that. Beat traffic, go home, fine. Listen to the end of the game in the car. That's the beauty of baseball. There's not a ton of urgency to it. It's actually to the detriment of baseball, but it's also positive about baseball, is there's no real urgency.

It's a casual, laid-back, talk-to-your-buddies, half-pay-attention-to-the-game sport. Drink beers, go up to the area, the bars and the stadium. Oh, we scored. Cool. There's no real urgency in baseball. You have six, 17 now NFL games and you're playing eight or nine of them at home. You don't get many of these and it's for first place. And the part that really irks me about it is if you're a fan of Houston sports, in particular, the Texans, you've lived through a lot of shitty quarterbacks.

You know, I thought shop was pretty good, but after that you had the TJ Yates is, and you had the case Keenum's and you had the, uh, the, the, the what's his name with the beard.

I can't believe I'm drawing a blank on his name, but like, um, Fitzgerald, um, Fitzpatrick duh but like you got all these guys and you've seen so much bad football and so much mediocre football and and what's his name the dude that used to be the backup for the fucking or like did brandon

whedon play there too at one point i don't remember but like the dude that used to be the backup for the uh the the uh hoyer you'd have hoyer you had all these shitty quarterbacks brock fucking osweiler Then you had a little glory moment with Deshaun before Deshaun was getting fingers in his asshole. But you had these people that were so bad and now you've got the biggest gift ever.

Look at who you played on Sunday. They're stuck with Anthony Richardson. He fucking sucks. At least for now he does. Your dude is a rookie came out and swagged the fuck out. He is an elite, legit quarterback. Is he like Tom Brady yet? No, but he gives you a chance to win every day. You've been given this gift despite the fact that you tried your best to not get the gift. You had Lovey Smith trying to keep you from getting this glorious gift that is cj stroud who wins you football games you've been

given this football gift and what do you do with it oh three minutes to go three point game the other team that's losing has the ball i'm gonna head out i gotta beat traffic josh 6 10's tough on sunday at three o'clock the fuck it is is. That's just shitty fandom, man. Like if you're like, why? Like, I don't know. To me, I just, I look for logic and things. Why go to a game? If you're not interested in the outcome enough to stay around, if it's a 14 point game with

two minutes to go leave, if it's a 20 point game, if it's a blowout leave, I get that traffic sucks. I come from a long line of people who leave games early for traffic purposes. Like I get it. You look for that right moment to don't, to get the fuck out. I get it. traffic sucks I come from a long line of people who leave games early for traffic purposes like I get it you look for that right moment to don't to get the fuck out I get it but it's football it's an event baseball games are not events there's 81 of them for the most part none of them are events football is an event especially when you're good and you're playing for first place and it's a quote-unquote rivalry game. Yet you're rolling out of the stadium with three minutes to go and

there's no atmosphere in a game where, you know, you kind of need a little bit of that atmosphere on defense, trying to make some stops at the end of the game, make life difficult for these guys. And I don't feel like it was always this way. Like I do feel like in 11 and 12 the fans were more into it yet now you've got this amazing quarterback and the passion doesn't seem the same as it did when they made the playoffs for the first two years I don't know do I think Houston's a shitty sports city obviously not in terms of results Houston's doing a lot of winning lately but in terms of interest it is it is not an elite sports that's why the sports radio stations die on am radio there and an fm station that nobody can hear past 6 10 past the loop but that's how it is man and i was disappointed i was i went there and i i

traveled down there because i wanted to be part of a fun atmosphere. I thought the atmosphere sucked. What does that mean? I don't fucking know. I mean, does it like just it's a boring game day atmosphere and the fans, they're not even apathetic. They're just kind of there. It's hard to explain because I don't think that they're miserable or like whatever. I just I don't understand why you would go to a football

game and leave a close football game early on a Sunday afternoon. Hockey, you get 40 home games. So I could see where you'd leave early for a hockey game. Baseball, totally. Basketball, totally. Like the results in those sports, every game does not matter. Well, every football game is like 10 baseball games. It's kind of a big deal. And you leave it. I don't know. It's a shitty sports city a lot of the time. You know?

It is what it is. But I was disappointed in that. I was disappointed in the lady maybe scamming us out of the beers. I was just disappointed that I couldn't find the $5 beers. Like, why would you have $5 beers and not have the $5 beers in the upper deck? Oh, I'm so sorry that rich dude that shows up late needs to get his $5 goddamn beer.

Anyway, at least they won. I still haven't even talked about the game itself. Like, I actually break that shit. I gotta still do that. All right, that's coming up.