The football season is meant to be over, but for this Crowd, it's only just started.
This is the crowd that can't get into the Houston Texans games. They can't afford $150 for a ticket plus the rest for car park passes, beers and food. There are families. And unlike NRG Stadium, it's more representative of Houston as a city. In a sentence: It's not so.....white.
The crowd aren't bothered that there isn't a team owner, or that the quarterback's a dude who used to play for Temple. They are here, cheering for their team, which is this week playing the St Louis Battlehawks. They come, dressed in Houston-related garb (Astros(an effort to show support for their embattle baseball team, who turned their dugout into Best Buy in order to win the 2017 World Series)/ Rockets/Texans gear also makes an appearance), and there's a spirit of optimism and excitement. They line up to buy apparel (the stadium - which usually houses University of Houston college games - is obviously not used to selling this amount of merchandise). Look, there's a group of guys in overalls and worker's hats. Look, there's another fan in a Mariachi mask.
And they drink beer. A lot of beer. They have an appetite for imbibing American p**s in the plenty (sorry, Bud/Miller Light), and they laugh, cuss and chat like anyone else (though generally not around the families).
Around me are a group of friends from work, who are here to drink, talk crap, watch the game, talk crap at each other, drink more beer, work out whether they are going to the next game or not, and talk crap.
The crowd aren't bothered that there isn't a team owner, or that the quarterback's a dude who used to play for Temple. They are here, cheering for their team, which is this week playing the St Louis Battlehawks. They come, dressed in Houston-related garb (Astros(an effort to show support for their embattle baseball team, who turned their dugout into Best Buy in order to win the 2017 World Series)/ Rockets/Texans gear also makes an appearance), and there's a spirit of optimism and excitement. They line up to buy apparel (the stadium - which usually houses University of Houston college games - is obviously not used to selling this amount of merchandise). Look, there's a group of guys in overalls and worker's hats. Look, there's another fan in a Mariachi mask.
And they drink beer. A lot of beer. They have an appetite for imbibing American p**s in the plenty (sorry, Bud/Miller Light), and they laugh, cuss and chat like anyone else (though generally not around the families).
Around me are a group of friends from work, who are here to drink, talk crap, watch the game, talk crap at each other, drink more beer, work out whether they are going to the next game or not, and talk crap.
For me, the two pints of caffeinated soda beverage that I've put into my system has made my brain and mouth move like a Ferrari. In other words, I'm chatting crap and watching the game at the same time. I blame the ADD, in my head. My neighbour's one of the Friends From Work. He's originally from Philly (I told a Packers friend of mine: "Don't go to the Eagles game here wearing Packers stuff. The fans will beat your ass. And you know what? He didn't go to the game." I get the impression that if the situation had been reversed, he would have donned his Brett Favre jersey and Cheesehead, fuelled his system with Jack Daniel's and Colombian export, and offered the whole stadium 'outside'. I overhear him talking to his buddy about the amount of times he's ended up in jail cells for his booze-related activities, and it affirms my worry-views. I wouldn't want to be with him in a bar in college. He was probably 'that guy'.
Looking onto the field again with the corner of one of them on my neighbour just in case he wants to return to his college wrestling days with his work colleague next to me, I recognise some of names of the players on the field. There's [St Louis QB] Jordan Ta'amu! He used to the QB at Ole Miss until last season! There's [Roughnecks WR] Sammie Coates! He played at Auburn! Didn't I see him play for the Steelers (he did, and wasn't very good)? There's [Roughnecks WR] Cam Phillips, who played for Virginia Tech! There's [St Louis WR] L'Damian Washington! Damn he was good at Missouri! These guys - and their colleagues - were good college football players. They were hardly the last-taken kids on the playground football game.
And because it's professional sports, any friendship goes to the wayside. There's still the mouthing-off, brutal hitting, blocking, great wide receiving and displays of athleticism that I could never muster.
The XFL doesn't try to eliminate any of that and it somewhat encourages it (apart from the receiver who took off his helmet in the end-zone and cost his team 15 yards, that wasn't cool).
But it also comes with the 'same but different' attitude in the rule-making, too.
The new XFL is allowed two double forward passes on one drive, allows a player to catch the ball with one foot inbounds, a guy to spot the ball to make sure plays goes quicker, and it also simplifies the catch rule. The kick-off rule tries to make sure that players run the ball back more but also don't have the massive collisions that you get in the NFL. There's the extra-point rule, that 'kicks out' the booted extra point and replaces it with the choice to have a play from the 2, 5 or 10 yard line that if successful will result in 1,2 or 3 points (Houston ignored our screams of 'Go for Three!'). Personally, we wish that teams would have to go for a two-point conversion on every TD, but the '1, 2 or 3' rule is hardly the rocket science that they have at NASA down the road.
But the best? The TV replay. For years we've complained that TV replays don't get shown to the crowd. The fanbase until after the event. Everyone loses their temper. Fans come out pissed off. It seems as though the umps and league are combining in a cloak and dagger affair designed to annoy everybody. The English Premier League's been at it too, and has succeeded in annoying everybody. In the XFL, there isn't that problem. When Philip Walker, the Roughnecks quarterback got up and shot off for a 20-yard gain after seeming to have been tackled, there was some doubt on the officials' mind on whether he'd touched the ground or not. So they go to the TV booth. Everyone in the stadium can see the umps and booth talking to each other, and it's on loudspeaker so we can be talked through the conversation. There's not screaming, crying and deliberation. The hometown fanbase let out a frustrated 'Dammit' because of the cancellation of a good play, but the lack of controversy was refreshing to say the least.
After the game, there was a palpable sigh of the relief when the Houston came through 28-24. 90% of the crowd had stayed. The lower bowl of the stadium was sold out. The fanbase had enjoyed it. There were no fights, but there wasn't the security stopping fans from chiding each other that there would be in a NFL game.
And although I tried to ask different fans about what they thought about the 'product', the most important question I should have asked was: 'Did you have fun?"
But bearing in mind the grins on people's faces after the game and the cheers and the high-fives as people were leaving the stadium, the answer to these two weeks were a definite 'yes'.
