Football fans in this city have been patient for a long time, and now they're supposed to be patient again, and their patience is wearing thin.
Their team was taken from them, then they had to wait for a new one, and the new one stunk, and then they had to wait for David Carr to be good, and then he never was, and then they didn't take Reggie Bush and, well, 1993 was a long time ago.
Patience is a virtue? Yeah, well, so is fortitude, and Texans fans are showing a little of it these days, demanding the Texans do... something about Mario Williams, who is the team's best defensive player but does not have one of the 11 sacks the Texans have made in this preseason.
I get it. I understand the feeling. We have all been in that place, where hearing just one more time that things are going to get better next month or at the first of the year or whenever things at corporate clear up is liable to put a fist-shaped hole in somebody's drywall.
It's just that Williams isn't the spot, and this isn't the time to pick it.
Williams probably has done himself a slight disservice be being so honest about his adjustment to a new position. He has said at a few different points during Texans training camp that making the transition from a 4-3 defensive end to a 3-4 outside linebacker has been difficult for him. He has even explained the technical reasons for this. The reward for his candor has involved quite a bit of "trade him" to "scrap the 3-4 altogether."
These must be the people who returned their P90X DVDs because they didn't look like Tito Ortiz after the fourth day. These are the people who bailed on Rocky after the slow first 10 minutes and gave up on Tupac because they didn't like "Brenda's Got a Baby."
I get the frustration. I feel the impatience. But it is being misdirected. There are plenty of 3-4 teams that would be overjoyed to have Mario Williams on their roster.
This is not to say Williams is going to succeed in his new position. Some of those Rocky movies were bad. I don't mean to downplay the nuanced difficulties of this adjustment, some of which have to do with Williams' body structure, which is prototypical for a 4-3 end and a little rangy for a linebacker. He also is learning new techniques and new footwork. But that's just the thing: It's new.
Admitting this was the right thing to do, if for no other reason than it allows fans to understand Williams is going through a process. Ironically, it seems to have had the opposite effect on a segment of the Texans fanbase. It seems to have created a sensation that this isn't working and therefore never will work.
As an emotional reaction, that is defensible.
This situation seems to have tapped into a specific type of paranoia that sometimes festers among disappointed fanbases, who so desperately want their team to be good (and are so used to being disappointed) that they are all too ready to bail at the first sign of trouble. As an actual managerial suggestion, though, it is loony.
Mario Williams is still 6-foot-6, 295 pounds. He is 26 years old. He is the best defensive player on the team and a top-five pass rusher in the NFL. He isn't going anywhere. But it probably is going to take a little time.
That won't make Texans fans feel any better, but it might make them a little more virtuous.
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