The game day experience has gotten worse at NRG

Yesterday’s game against the Jets was my first Texans game back at NRG since 2019. My dad has had season tickets since the 2002 season so I was fortunate to get to go to a few games every year. Even when the team was bad in seasons past I still really enjoyed going to the games and the energy inside the stadium had always been pretty good.

Yesterday’s game was nothing like I remember. First, the hype video that plays before kickoff was some weird augmented reality video of a bunch of bulls hitting an electrified ball with a jets logo on it. It felt like the production crew was just phoning it in. The player intros were so underwhelming with almost nobody in our section even standing up. The jets got a louder ovation when they ran onto the field. Toro wasn’t even on the field prior to the team running out of the tunnel. No tshirt gun, nothing really to get the crowd excited. There were maybe 25,000 people in the stadium at kickoff (not that unusual).

I’ve never heard that stadium so quite during a game. The whole thing didn’t even feel like a NFL game. I get that we suck but the atmosphere in the stadium has never been that bad.

I guess I just miss how energetic and exciting the games used to be.