Football: Former Husker kicker, offensive guard are last original Texans

HOUSTON (AP) — They’ve outlasted a head coach, a handful of assistants and dozens of teammates, including 2002 top overall pick David Carr.

Former Husker kicker Kris Brown and offensive guard Chester Pitts are the only players who have been with the Texans since their inception.

Brown and Pitts survived the struggles and growing pains of being part of an expansion team. Now they hope Houston’s eighth season will be the one in which the team finally moves into the playoffs.

“I believe it in my heart that this is by far the best chance we’ve had of all the years that we’ve been here to make it,” Pitts said. “This will definitely be the year where it’s the biggest disappointment if it doesn’t happen.”

Pitts and Brown have played in every one of Houston’s 112 games. They count Houston’s win against the Cowboys in the inaugural game in 2002 as a high point in their careers. Another favorite for Pitts is Houston’s first win over the Colts in 2006, and Brown liked last season’s win at Green Bay.

But for all the good memories, there also have been plenty of tough times. That win over the Cowboys was a rare bright spot in a season when the Texans won just three more games. Houston improved its record in the next two seasons but fell to 2-14, the NFL’s worst record, in 2005.

That led to the firing of coach Dom Capers and the majority of the team’s assistants. A good chunk of the players didn’t last through the coaching change, and Carr was released after one disappointing season under coach Gary Kubiak.

Kubiak said it’s no secret why Pitts and Brown have hung on in Houston. “They’re both good players,” he said.

Brown, a seventh-round draft pick who spent his first three seasons in Pittsburgh, said the most difficult part of outlasting almost everyone from the original squad is seeing so many friends come and go.

“You think back to the first couple of years and us getting started in the organization and all of the sudden four or five years into it, we’re already making a big change,” he said. “But that’s just part of this business, and you kind of become numb to it and immune to it a little bit. You just kind of go with the flow.”

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