The Houston Texans announced Tuesday that there will be "themes" for every home game this season, ranging from "White Out" to "Hispanic Heritage Day." The December 1 matchup against the New England Patriots simply is called "Homecoming."
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This either is a callback to the Texans' decision to break out "letterman jackets" last year before the Patriots crushed them on "Monday Night Football" or ... well, that's not a coincidence, right?
This reminds us of last season's game between the Carolina Panthers and Washington Redskins. The Panthers pulled off the upset, with running back DeAngelo Williams saying afterward the "whole team" got motivation from being scheduled as the Redskins' "Homecoming" opponent. College teams traditionally schedule cream puffs on Homecoming weekend to all but guarantee a win. (We're not sure exactly what homecoming games mean at the NFL level, but that's for another post.)
Bill Belichick's Patriots have found motivation from far flimsier source material before, so we fully expect to hear about this again come late November.
Follow Gregg Rosenthal on Twitter @greggrosenthal.
