Houston sports fans duped, bamboozled, flabbergasted

By: Isaiah Robinson

HOUSTON – It’s not a good time to be a Houston sports fan—perhaps….

From seeing the Houston Texans lead by 24 points before halftime, to end up losing by 20 at the end of the game; then, to hear the Houston Astros fired general manager Jeff Luhnow and manager AJ Hinch for cheating, Houston fans have a lot of tough pills to swallow this week.

The Sunday afternoon playoff game against the Texans and Chiefs was a feeling of early jubilation to be up by a huge lead before halftime against a team who averaged 28.2 points in the regular season.

Who wouldn’t blame us?

We believed that the Texans could take the American Football Conference (AFC) Championship to H-Town, and we had every right to think the way we did.

Then, our jubilation slowly trickled down to confusion and frustration after a fake punt called by Texans’ head coach Bill O’Brien went horribly wrong. That ultimately gave the Chiefs the momentum to come back and whoop our behinds the way we should’ve done them.

The question now is, does O’Brien still deserve his job after the beatdown we witnessed?

The day after, the Major Baseball League slapped the Astros with their punishment, including one-year suspensions for Luhnow and Hinch, loss of draft picks in 2020 and 2021 and a $5 million fine for using technology to cheat during its World Series-winning 2017 season.

An hour after the MLB issued the punishment, Astros owner Jim Crane fired Luhnow and Hinch.

Cheaters? Us cheaters?

That can’t be true, the ‘Stros gave the city a feeling of pride, joy and healing to millions impacted by Hurricane Harvey’s flooding after we were crowned champions in 2017.

To many fans, the historic World Series win feels tainted due to the sign-stealing scandal.

For Houston fans, the road to recovery is far, but the end will be near. As for now, it’s best we all take these tough blows one day at a time.