You may have heard this phrase before: "Once A Texan, always a Texan". While all states have a storied past, I think Texans, as a group, are the most zealous in protecting their state's heritage. Just ask one. So you can image the disdain of most Texans when it was announced that the Houston "Texans" would stay in their locker room during the playing of our National Anthem. I posted on Facebook a request to conduct a survey to determine if this NFL team should be "ordered" by its fan base to rename the team. For some reason it was taken down within hours.
Why all the clamor you ask? Perhaps this eloquent letter, written by a true Texan, will help you understand our feelings on this matter.
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An Open Letter to the Houston Texans
By Mark W. Stephens
When people think of Texans, they rightly think of our heritage. Rugged individuals who came together to forge our Republic. Heroes and fighters. Men and women void of fear. They think of the “Old 18,” eighteen men who stood against the Mexican Army as they tried to claim the Gonzalez Canon and held them off until the Texas Militia arrived. They think of the Texas women who ripped away part of a wedding dress and pieced together that infamous white cloth with a drawing of a Lone Star, a canon, and a simple four-word reply to the mighty Mexican Army… “Come And Take It.”
They think of the “Immortal 32,” thirty-two men from the Texas Militia who marched fearlessly from Gonzales to San Antonio, knowing it would be their last, to unselfishly reinforce their fellow Texans under siege at the Alamo.
They think of the couple of hundred defenders of the Alamo who CHOSE to stay and fight against a couple of thousand Mexican soldiers, knowing it was a death sentence. They think of how those few men held off the powerful Mexican Army for thirteen full days before they offered the ultimate sacrifice for the birth of the Texas Republic.
They think of men like Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie, and Colonel William Barrett Travis, the latter of whom requested reinforcements as he battled the Mexican Army. Knowing in his heart they would never come, still, he wrote, “I shall never surrender or retreat” and he let the world know he understood his fate when he further wrote, “I am determined to sustain myself as long as possible and die like a soldier who never forgets what is due to his own honor and that of his Country. And they think of that tenacious signature that has gone down in the annals of history and will forever be remembered as one of Texas’ proudest moments, “VICTORY or DEATH.”
They think of that day in April 1836, when a rag-tag group of 800 Texas Militia led by General Sam Houston surprised and attacked the much larger Mexican Army of a couple of thousand troops along the banks of the San Jacinto River and ROUTED them, with the cries of “Remember the Alamo!” and “Remember Goliad!” They captured General Santa Anna. They forced the Mexican Army to surrender, they won freedom and independence for all Texans, and they won the hearts and loyalty from all Texans in return. Forever.
These men of character and grit will forever be known as Texans. They earned that title. Those of us who follow in their boot steps and are blessed by the Grace of God to be Texan, try to emulate our forefathers, and try to bring honor, strength, and character to our beloved State and thus earn our own title of “Texan.”
Conversely, your team members wear a uniform calling themselves “Texans” - as the simple participants of a billion-dollar child’s game – and are most assuredly as evidenced by your atrocious behavior on September 10, 2020, undeserving of the title of “Texan.” To be Texan is to be courageous, strong, and brave. Texans don’t bow to outside pressure, political or otherwise. Texans kneel only to God.
You are not Texan.
On the day before the sacred and solemn day of 9/11, where we honor so many of our brave and heroic police officers and firefighters who paid the ultimate sacrifice, you took the football field prior to the playing of our country’s National Anthem, as a team.
And instead of honoring our fallen heroes of 9/11, you chose to honor rapists, robbers, and drug dealers.
Then, prior to the playing of our National Anthem, you fled from the field as a team. You turned your backs on our flag. You turned your backs on our soldiers. You turned your backs on our police officers. You fled to the bowels of the stadium locker room to cower and hide rather than show support for the Flag of the United States of America and honor our heroes here and abroad.
Texans don’t run.
Time and time again, you’ve chosen to honor common criminals like George Floyd, who was convicted of pistol-whipping and robbing a young Houston woman and pointing a gun at her young daughter while his gang robbed this poor woman and her family of all their belongings. A brutal man who repeatedly targeted Hispanics here in Houston for robbery and who ultimately died from a self-inflicted overdose of illegal drugs, while committing yet another series of felony crimes.
Can you imagine the horrors these poor Houston crime victims of George Floyd are having to endure once again because you chose to “honor” the monster who brutalized them and their families?
You honor Breonna Taylor, an alleged criminal suspect in a homicide case and member of an organized drug gang, whose boyfriend shot a police officer while she stood by his side and was ultimately shot and killed herself in the ensuing gunfight.
You honor Jacob Blake, a known woman abuser and active fugitive wanted for the brutal sexual assault of a woman, who then stole her car and her bank card, physically attacked pursuing police officers, then pulled a knife on the officers and attempted to flee in a stolen car with children inside before police officers shot him.
You honor these criminals in the pretense of “supporting” the black community. If you truly wanted to support and honor the black community, you would strongly condemn those who prey upon them. If you truly wanted to support and honor the black community, you would refuse to celebrate black criminals and instead honor their victims.
Imagine a day when little boys realize their only way to make it to the NFL is to commit vicious crimes and attack police officers so the NFL will one-day “honor” them too. That is the dynamic you are creating. By honoring black criminals, you are only perpetuating and glorifying that criminal lifestyle and empowering other vicious criminals to continue their criminal enterprise within and against black communities.
That is not Texan.
Texans don’t honor and support criminals. Period. Texans are proud to protect ourselves, our families, our neighbors, and especially those who are unable to protect themselves from such violent predators. Criminals like George Floyd flee Texas for a reason.
Just so you know, there is a federal statute that directs all Americans on how they should behave and conduct themselves during the presenting of the Flag of the United States of American and the playing of the Star-Spangled Banner, known as our National Anthem.
Title 36, Section 301, sub-section C of the United States Code regarding the National Anthem states in part, "all other persons present (other than those in uniform) should face the flag and stand at attention with their right hand over the heart, and men not in uniform, if applicable, should remove their headdress with their right hand and hold it at the left shoulder, the hand being over the heart."
This is not negotiable. You have no valid excuse nor any valid reason to show such disdain and disrespect to our country, our flag, our National Anthem, our soldiers, and our police officers, ESPECIALLY when you represent “Texans” while doing so.
I find it incredibly ironic, if not entirely hypocritical, that an organization like the NFL whose very business platform closely resembles the slave trade days of the old South where men were bought, sold, and traded based on their size and strength, believes they have the moral authority, or any other authority for that matter, to dictate social norms to others. The NFL organization and employees, both current and former, consist of burglars and thieves, drug dealers, abusers of women, rapists, robbers, and murderers. How do you choose which ones to hire, fire, or “honor”? If you’re trying to lead by example, you have failed miserably.
Texans don’t need anyone to tell them how or what to think.
Therefore, it is for the aforementioned reasons that I make a very simple, but reasonable suggestion.
Change the name of your team.
The Houston Texans in their current state, in no way, shape, or form, represent Texas or Texans. Thus, I will support any official petition to change the name of the Houston Texans by removing the word Texans, as I believe you have come to woefully misrepresent those of us who have earned and actually value the title, Texan.
Very simply, you are not Texans.
With All Due Respect,
Mark W. Stephens
