Every-Thing Sports

Texans have a history of hitting below the Mendoza line when it comes to personnel decisions

Jermaine Every
Mar 12, 2019, 5:48 am
Photo by Scott Halleran/Getty Images

The Mendoza Line is actually a baseball term to define a piss-poor batting average. Any player hitting .200-.215 is considered to be hitting below the Mendoza Line. Think about it: the Texans' personnel moves over the years have been at or below the Mendoza Line for their history.

"Texans need offensive line help, especially at left tackle. They should go after Trent Brown. He's a former Patriot and fits their M.O. of mimicking anything New England does." Brown ended up signing a four year deal for $66 million with the Raiders not too long after the "official" negotiating period opened.

"Texans need to bring back Tyrann Mathieu. He's the best safety this team has had, a real leader, and they need help in the defensive backfield because the corners suck!" Mathieu signed a three year deal for $42 million with the Chiefs. He reportedly turned down a deal with the Texans for three years worth $9.5 million a year.

This pattern of behavior is nothing new for this organization. For Texans fans, it has been one bad breakup after the next. The relationship between fans and this organization has been abusive in nature. The organization continues to string the fans along with promises of improving, building a winner, and becoming a perennial contender. Yet sadly, it has done nothing but mire in mediocrity, hang banners for winning the AFC South with 9-7 records, and bumble offseason improvements. While this offseason is off to a pissy start, it should look eerily familiar to those who've paid attention over the years.

It goes back to the Texans' initial draft. Most would think starting a franchise from scratch would necessitate drafting a quarterback to be the face of the newborn franchise. David Carr was sitting there as the consensus number one quarterback/player on the draft board in 2002. So was Julius Peppers. Peppers was a can't-miss physical freak at defensive end, while Carr was a good, not great, quarterback. The franchise further bumbled this decision by not putting together an offensive line or quality running back to help Carr. Sure they drafted Andre Johnson in 2003, but that wasn't enough to save Carr. he was damaged goods after getting sacked 76 times his rookie year which is still an NFL record.

Cornerback is another position of need this offseason. When the team drafted Kevin Johnson in 2015, they passed on a guy they may sign this offseason who is clearly better in Ronald Darby (drafted 34 slots after Johnson), the best corner in that draft Marcus Peters (drafted two slots after Johnson, but deemed "not Texans-worthy" due to off-field issues), and Byron Jones (picked 11 slots later and was the combine darling with his show of athleticism). Where's Johnson? He signed with the Bills.

The idiocy doesn't stop at draft picks. Remember the extensions given to Matt Schaub and Brian Cushing? How about the signings of Ed Reed and Ahman Green? Who can forget preseason Hall of Famer Lestar Jean? Anybody recall the trade for Phillip Buchanon?

General Manager Brian Gaine had a good offseason last year. Working with less than optimal draft picks and keeping cap space in mind, he managed to improve a 4-12 team to 11-5 and making the playoffs via winning the AFC South. That only made the expectations higher in the eyes of the fans and supporters. If Gaine wants to build upon his success from last offseason, he's going to have to pull another rabbit out of his hat. He's armed with about $60-some odd million in cap space and three picks in the first 64 selections of the draft. The immediate return of investment on draft picks isn't always noticeable, but quality free agent signings are judged with immediacy because they're veterans.

Going from the Mendoza Line to .300 means getting a hit three out of 10 times instead of two. That one extra hit every 10 at-bats could mean the difference in being a Hall of Fame player, or a forgotten nobody. Translated into football vernacular: Brian Gaine can go from Charlie Casserly to Bobby Bethard. Not in the sense of going from a coat-rider to a Hall of Famer, but in the sense of going from a nobody to a somebody.

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It's time to admit it: Officials are trash

Kevin C Cox/Getty Images

The Kentucky Derby has been around for 145 years. It's steeped in tradition. Mint juleps, fancy hats, tons of celebrity appearances and so on. This past weekend, the officials made a change of outcome for the first time in that 145 year history. They rewarded Country House, the second place finisher and 65-1 long shot, as the winner instead of Maximum Security. Maximum Security was the actual winner of the race, but was disqualified after a twenty-two minute investigation into claims filed by two jockey's whose claims of interference were looked into.Now, neither horse is running in The Preakness.

The Saints were poised to make another Super Bowl appearance. They had the Rams dead to rights. It was a third and long inside field goal range of a tied game with about less than two minutes left. Getting a first down would allow them to run out the clock and kick the potential game winning field goal with no time left on the clock. However, Bill Vinovich had other plans. TommyLee Lewis was open on a wheel route when Nickell Robey-Coleman decided to destroy him before the ball got there. Vinovich swallowed his whistle and the rest is history.

The Rockets dropped game one to the Warriors by a score of 104-100. A four point loss on the road in game one of the Western Conference semis is not a death sentence, but it could have swung momentum in the Rockets' favor to start the series. There were about four to five times in which a defensive foul could have been called when James Harden was shooting a three pointer giving the Rockets a chance another twelve to fifteen free throws could've made enough of a difference change the outcome of the game.

Oklahoma State lost to Central Michigan in 2016 on a Hail Mary on an untimed down. This was the result of a pass interference call that was improperly enforced. In 1990, Colorado beat Missouri in the infamous "Fifth Down Game" which is so infamous, it has its own page on Wikipedia.

Officials have been piss poor for a long time. Unfortunately, they're getting worse. We live in an age in which technology has made some improvements in our lives. When it comes to sports, instant replay has allowed for bad or missed calls to be reversed. The ability of teams to be able to challenge a bad call has been huge. Imagine if Armando Gallaraga could've challenged Jim Joyce's call of safe allowing him to preserve his perfect game bid?

Officials rarely have to face the music like players and coaches do. They often times make themselves apart of the outcome and garner the spotlight, but don't have to face any media scrutiny. The issue of bad officiating isn't new. It's been going on for far too long and it's time to stop. Sports leagues need to do a better job of training officials. They also need to start weeding out older officials who can no longer keep up with the speed of the game, as well as discipline the ones who grade out poorly. This is something fans across the board have been calling for over a number of years. Leagues can no longer hide behind the human error excuse when the technology is readily available. There will be mistakes because we're human, but there shouldn't be outcomes so terribly effected when a solution is at hand. Human error is one thing, but sticking your head in the sand and refusing to embrace a solution to an apparent problem is idiotic.

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