Battle Red Blog
How do we balance entertainment and the product?
“May you live in interesting times.” — Proverb
The above phrase is frequently associated with an old Chinese proverb, but it actually derives its origins from British diplomats in the early 20th century. That phrase has all new meaning today as we embark on the next big story for your Houston Texans. The NFL is a marketing behemoth. You have free agency, the NFL draft, the schedule release, rookie minicamps, OTAs, and team minicamps.
All of these things have been designed to create maximum buzz, but when you step back and look at it, it is usually much ado about not very much. Still, TV talking heads, radio talking heads, and bloggers alike comment on these things as if they are the most important news of the week. People on the NFL flagship stations are often told to spend the majority of their air time talking about the hometown team whether there is something to say or not.
I make no bones about the fact that this has not been a horribly interesting offseason for the Texans up to this point. Sure, there are questions about the team and its players as there always has been and always will be. Will the offensive line be fixed? Will the new offense generate more yards and points than the old one? Will the Texans surround C.J. Stroud with more talent? Will he take the next step as a quarterback? These are all good questions, but we have no more definitive answers today than we had in January. So, I and other writers on this site have struggled to find engaging topics to write about.
As you can see on the site, Jimmie Ward was arrested early Thursday morning with felony charges. This probably is the most interesting story of the offseason for the Texans because it goes right to the heart of sports as an entertainment product itself. Where do the Texans go from here?
The heart of every story I mentioned above is shot through the prism of the modern journalistic world. I suppose I am a professional commentator in the strictest of senses. I am not highly compensated if barely at all, but any media critique has to be shot through the prism that I am a part of it and not simply standing aside while other folks talk about it. All of these stories have one thing in common: there seems to be an overwhelming desire for folks to come to quick conclusions.
I can’t in this case. We literally just know about the arrest. Arrest does not mean guilty. There are also tons of gray area as to what it could entail. So, no one should be making grand pronouncements about what should happen. All declarations must be qualified based on whether he is in fact guilty of any crime and what exact crime he would be guilty of in that case.
So, anything I say from...
