A lesson in self-respect
The Houston Texans chose to win, even if it cost them the top draft pick.
If there’s one thing I wish North American professional sports would copy from European soccer (sorry, football) it’s relegation and promotion. Instead of the worst team in the league being rewarded with the first overall pick in the draft, it gets booted to a lower division and replaced with the best team from the minors. As it stands, instead of trying desperately to stay in the top flight and avoid the humiliation - and loss of millions of dollars in TV money - of relegation, the worst NFL and NBA teams have an incentive to tank the season in the hope of getting a shot at the best new players.
That’s where the Houston Texans stood yesterday. All they had to do was cap off a disastrous season by losing to the Indianapolis Colts, and the first pick in the 2023 NFL draft was theirs.
Lovie Smith reportedly entered the Texans' regular-season finale in danger of going one-and-done as the team's head coach. And his seat might be even hotter now, despite a miraculous last-second victory on Sunday. Scoring on a last-minute fourth-and-20 as they were down seven in their Week 18 rematch with the rival Colts, the Texans then converted on a two-point attempt to claim a last-second 32-31 victory. The "W" elevated Houston's season record to 3-13-1, and in doing so, forfeited ownership of the No. 1 pick in the 2023 NFL Draft…
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After starting 1-12-1, the Texans won two of their final three games, and the sole defeat in that stretch was an overtime loss to the Chiefs. Prior to Sunday, Houston had played 347 total games in franchise history, including playoffs, and never once scored a TD on fourth-and-20 or longer, or converted a go-ahead two-point try. They of course did both in Week 18 to cap their 2022 campaign.
Smith has been fired, but he made his point. Sometimes in life, you come across a loophole which not just allows you to take it easy and half-ass your work with no discernable penalty, but actually rewards you for doing a bad job.
The temptation to do just that can be overwhelming, but it comes with a cost: your own self-respect. You got away with doing a poor job this time, so you do it again. And again, and again, and again. Before you know it, you’ve gotten lazy and complacent and eventually, it catches up to you.
Lovie Smith and his team weren’t about to let that happen, so they chose to end a bad year with something they can take into the off-season and upon which they can start building. Maybe that’s worth having to settle for the second overall draft pick instead of the first.
There’s another reason I’m impressed by what the Texans did this weekend. They maintained their self-respect by winning two of their last three games.
But I am a Chicago Bears fan, which means I had any semblance of self-respect beaten out of me many years ago.
Houston’s win means Chicago now has the number one draft pick. And, boy, do we need it. For once in my life, the quarterback situation is the least of our worries.
I’m still mad that we fired Lovie Smith years ago, after he’d gotten us to a Super Bowl. You have to love that he’s still finding ways to help us out.
Oh, thanks to our division rivals in Detroit, too. We knew we weren’t making the playoffs this year, but at least we can take some satisfaction in these guys hitting the golf course, too.