Short story: I had a professor in business school who had spend his entire career in academia, which is to say, he had no common sense. So one day, I was sitting through his class (operations management), and he’s droning on about the effect of throughput on the bottom line, and he makes the statement, “As Eliyahu Goldratt showed, the purpose of a firm is to make money.”

When he said that, I just stopped what I was doing, and thought two things simultaneously: 1. Someone set out to prove that firms go into business to make money? And 2. Who the hell quotes other people for something that’s so ridiculously common sense? Do you have to quote Einstein every time you talk about the speed of light?

I bring all of this up because of the Texan’s current situation. As fans, we are drinking bleach and pulling our hair out. I’m not sure what’s running through the minds of our players and coaches, but I’m sure there aren’t too many people happy about being 4-5 with a historically bad defense. But then, I go back to my no-common-sense professor:

The purpose of the Houston Texans franchise is to make money. Not to win games, but to make money.

Don’t get me wrong, winning is highly correlated to profits for an NFL club. But it is not necessary to win every game, or even have a winning season each year, for a franchise to be profitable. Someone in the comments of a thread this week was talking about getting back at McNair, attempting to affect his bottom line. But there really aren’t too many ways to do that: season tickets are sold out, and the team’s performance – hovering around .500 again – is just good enough to get people to buy individual game tickets, which fills the stadium, which brings parking and concession stand revenues, etc. Essentially, mediocrity can still be profitable.

Of course, fans want to see their team win. That’s why it’s so important to get the fan base so pumped up each year: this is our year! We’re one step away! We’ve got an offensive genius coaching the team! And, if a franchise delivers a winning season (see: Houston Texans, 2009), the owner basically gets a guarantee that next year’s season tickets are sold, people are excited about the team during the offseason, etc. But you can alternate winning and losing seasons and still maintain the franchise. The Atlanta Falcons are a great example of that.

My bottom line is this: I have no doubt that everyone, from Bob McNair on down to the waterboy, wants to see the Texans lifting the Lombardi Trophy. But, at the end of the day, a mediocre Texans franchise will still be profitable for McNair – or any other owner.

Not that y'all necessarily missed me, but... I try to take a one-month sabbatical from all things football after the Super Bowl, to a) recharge my batteries, and b) keep the wife from claiming "sports widow" status on our tax returns.  But, seeing as how the draft is only weeks away, I'm back in the loop.

While Tim has talked about our needs at offensive coordinator, some have talked about replacing Richard Smith who, along with having the same name as our GM, hasn't fully grasped the whole "blitz" concept.

Thankfully, we've got a decent chance to pick someone up: Rex Ryan, DC for the Baltimore Ravens, has been released.  Given Baltimore's reputation for a stingy defense the last few years, I think he would be a great DC.

So, I've been commenting here for a while, and I thought I'd introduce myself.  I'm a native Houstonian who currently goes to school in Syracuse, NY (side note: winter sucks).  I'm married with three kids, 14, 2, and 5 months.  I work for Uncle Sam.  Besides the Texans, i like beer, country music, and the internet.

Now, for a relatively unbiased preview of Sunday's game (which I'll be at, BTW), I give you this article from The State, the Columbia, SC paper.

http://www.thestate.com/406/story/236711.html

Here's a tidbit that I was not aware of:

"If the Texans can get to the quarterback this weekend, they will set a team record with a sack in 12 straight games dating back to last season."

Go Texans!