After the Houston Texans kicked off the 2024-25 NFL season with a thrilling road victory over the Indianapolis Colts, KPRC 2′s Zach Lashway sat down with Texans’ owners Cal and Hannah McNair to discuss several topics, including their current ventures and their insight on the season ahead.
Girl’s flag football
Back in August, the Texans announced that they had raised more than $1.4 million to fund girl’s flag football programs across all 25 Houston Independent School District high schools. The initiative started with just nine HISD schools and is now in 12. Over the next three years, they plan to expand to all 25 campuses.
Hannah McNair, whose young daughter plays flag football, said she has seen the positive impact that football can have on girls, even at such a young age.
“So, I think it means a lot to the younger girls,” Hannah McNair said. “I have a five-year-old who’s currently playing, and she has her best friends on the team as well. You can just see their growth, just the confidence in them, even at the young age of five. Maybe one of them was crying on the sideline and scared to go in, but then she got in and she scored a touchdown, and it changed her whole life. Now she wants to be in; she’s practicing at home.”
Hannah’s ambitions for expanding football for girls extend further than high school, though. One day, she plans to work with the NCAA to sanction scholarship opportunities for girls who want to play flag football at the collegiate level.
“[The girls] are going to battle on this field together, and you know what that’s like [with the Texans],” she added. “The one thing they miss the most when they leave the league is the locker room. And you can see that in just the high school girls, and so what we’d like is for it to be sanctioned in the State of Texas.”
Cal McNair echoed those ambitions, saying that he sees the path for growth in the sport, and it gives them a chance to give back and make a difference in the Houston community. Cal’s mother, Janice McNair, even played flag football in college.
“I can see it transferring year-by-year through high school and through college,” Cal McNair said. “And it’s a great team sport. So, we’re looking forward to hoping be a part of growing this thing. It’s going to be fun.”
For more information on how to bring girl’s flag football to your school, you can reach out to the Houston Texans Foundation here.
2024-25 Texans season
The Texans kicked off their season with a big win against an AFC South division foe last Sunday. In a game that was far from perfect for either team, the Texans carved out a 29-27 victory, capped off by a pair of first downs that allowed Houston to drain the clock.
Cal McNair said that there were some areas the team needed to improve, but the squad was happy to squeak out a victory in a hard-fought contest.
“Well, that’s a good week,” Cal McNair said. “Good win on the road, division opponent, playing well. We can play better, so there’s a lot of things we can learn, but it’s a lot of fun to learn from a win. But we felt we played well. [We] gave up some big plays we didn’t want to give up, but I think we ran the ball really well, played good defense for the most part, and, you know, wound up winning. There’s no greater feeling than winning on the road, and we did it, so it was a good start.”
Hannah McNair reiterated Cal’s points, adding that the Texans’ last two non-preseason games—both of which were on the road against the Colts—have resulted in electric wins for Houston.
“They’ve both been incredible games coming down to the last play, and that’s just exciting,” Hannah McNair said. “It makes for good football. It’s fun when you win those, and we’re excited for the season and excited for all the fans to come out Sunday. We need a loud stadium. We just experience that [in Indianapolis], so we know what a difference it makes, and we want to be louder.”
NRG Stadium repairs
The roof of the Texans’ home field, NRG Stadium, sustained damage during Hurricane Beryl over the summer.
Cal McNair confirmed that one of the panels is expected to be completed in time for the Texans’ game against the Chicago Bears Sunday night.
The team is hoping that poor weather conditions from Hurricane Francine do not slow down the construction into this weekend.
“Hopefully this hurricane coming through doesn’t impact our schedule too much,” Cal McNair said. “Our fingers are crossed, but we should have the panel across the field repaired. There is a [different] panel that will impact the fans in the end zone, and so hopefully we have good weather for the fans for that game. But if it’s going to rain, please bring a rain jacket or something to that.”
At any rate, the Texans expect to have everything back to normal in time for the team’s Week 4 home game against the Jacksonville Jaguars.