The Houston Texans are preparing as if they will be able to host the Jacksonville Jaguars in their regular season opener next weekend.
It’s most definitely not a foregone conclusion that this will happen after Hurricane Harvey laid wreck to the city of Houston this week.
Still dealing with flooding on a biblical scale, Houston itself is reeling from one of the biggest environment catastrophes in recent United States history.
And while the Texans have returned home to help with the rebuild in lieu of playing a fourth preseason game Thursday, there’s still questions about whether NRG Stadium will be able to host the regular season opener on Sept. 10.
It’s in this that two other cities have offered to play host to the Texans-Jaguars game.
“The Jacksonville Jaguars will support whatever scheduling decision the NFL makes,” Jaguars owner Shad Khan said in a statement, via CBS Sports. “What’s most important to me and everyone in Jacksonville isn’t where we’ll play the Texans on Week 1, but that the City of Houston and its people recover quickly, safely and successfully.”
Khan’s offer includes swapping home games with the Texans. This means Jacksonville would host the Week 1 game between the two AFC South rivals. Then, in December, Houston would host the last of two matchups between the teams.
Meanwhile, the city of San Antonio has also reached out, offering up the Alamodome as a possibility.
“The Alamodome has not been contacted about the possibility of moving the Texans season opener to the Alamodome, however we have made NRG Stadium management and the Texans aware that we could host the game if they should need to relocate for Sunday, Sept. 10,” the city’s director of the convention and sports facilities said, via the Houston Chronicle.
It’s great to see the sports world come together to help those impacted the most by this devastating natural disaster.
The plan for now is to have NRG Stadium host the Week 1 game. In fact, MLB’s Houston Astros will host a doubleheader against the New York Mets on Saturday.
But there could very well be further logistical and safety concerns as the Houston-area looks to recover. If that ends up being the case, the Texans will have a temporary home for Week 1.