I got goosebumps and the hair on the back of my redneck stood up yesterday morning when they announced on the radio that Andre Johnson got inducted into the NFL Hall Of Fame. They read off all of his stats and accomplishments and my eyes got all watery. What an awesome moment. 

I remember watching Andre get drafted in 2003. Had no idea who he was since I never kept up with college football. Only recently went back to watch some of his college games, including his final college game in Miami at the end of the 2002. Then his NFL debut against the Miami Dolphins in Miami in the 2003 season opener was just recently uploaded to Youtube, he made his debut helping to take down a defense that had Hall Of Famers that was one of the best defenses in the NFL that year they were favorites to contend for the AFC crown. Andre had some big catches on the game winning drive the baby 2 year old Texans took them down in Miami. Now that Dre is in the HOF this game is big time looking back, would probably have to creep it up into the top 10 GOAT games in franchise history.

As much as I love JJ Watt I would still have to consider Andre the definitive Houston Texans player. He was the anchor and the foundation, the heart and the spine of the team in the very beginning when this team was getting bullied and pushed around by the rest of the NFL. Andre would stand his ground. I love JJ Watt and his 2014 season was god-like, Andre didn't quite hit that peak(almost though), but the overall body of work I still lean towards Andre. You know I was marking out pretty hard for the Finnegan beat down watching that live at a Pizza Hut that day, but that moment wouldn't even crack my top favorite 25 Andre plays and moments looking back now. I was there living and dying with this team those years from 2003, 2004, 2005, the Sage Rosenfeld years, by 2007-2008-2009 the rest of the league knew he was all we had and always tried to hammer him out, but he still dominated those years and to me was hands down best player in the entire NFL. He will always be my favorite player in NFL history. I may be booking a vacation to Canton for August.

Copy/pasted from retro NFL thread, this was Andre Johnson making his NFL debut against 3rd ranked defense in the NFL with 3 HOF'ers Zach Thomas, Junior Seau, Jason Taylor in the same city where he played high school football and finished his college career with Hurricanes:


I timestamped the start of a pretty fascinating drive here from the opening day 2003 Texans vs Dolphins game in Miami. Texans are down 20-15 with 12:18 left in the 4th quarter. This isn't the game winning drive but it was a big one where they needed some points to stay in it. This is Andre Johnson in his NFL debut game as a rookie in his hometown where he played college and high school football. This was Andre's first game in Miami since he put up 193 yards on Virginia Tech at the Orange Bowl(a different stadium from this one at Pro Player Stadium) in December 2002 in the Hurricanes final home game. Keep in mind he's making his NFL debut here against the 3rd ranked defense of the NFL in the 2003 season, a secondary that was pretty loaded and a defense overall that has some Hall Of Fame talent(Jason Taylor/Zach Thomas/Junior Seau).

So this is David Carr, Dominick Davis, and rookie Andre Johnson against the Dolphins 3rd ranked defense that season that averaged 16.3 points per game allowed, down 20-15 in the 4th quarter. I really thought these 3 guys would be the Texans triplets and that they would have this team deep into the playoffs by 2005-2006. It didn't work out, but here they are driving down the field on the road putting points up against Hall Of Famers:

timestamped start of the drive from Texans own 20 yard line

Excellent debut of future HOF(should be in already), Andre was the best. 

The 2004 Texans vs Vikings games is my fucking white wale, it drives me to Captain Ahab level insanity knowing that I can not find that game. I search for it probably once a month. How in the world with all this technology in the year 2024 can I not find a 20 year old NFL game? It was right in that little dark spot where VCR's were no longer being used, it's not in HD so the NFL probably has it lost in their vaults it's not worth the money to remaster it for streaming. It's just a forgotten 20 year old hidden gem from that regular season. Randy Moss vs Andre Johnson, Texans came back from 21 points down to put it into overtime(lost it to a walk off Culpepper bomb, he threw for something like 500 yards). I have been lucky to find a few other games from that period so I still have hope, maybe now that Andre is in the HOF that game will resurface and get the love it deserves, it was all time classic.

This is all I can find:

Finally.

pduh

I still can’t believe Tory Holt isn’t in yet. Wtf.

Feb 10, 2024 13:38:34 GMT Neo Zeed said:

I got goosebumps and the hair on the back of my redneck stood up yesterday morning when they announced on the radio that Andre Johnson got inducted into the NFL Hall Of Fame. They read off all of his stats and accomplishments and my eyes got all watery. What an awesome moment. 

You've been beating this drum for a while now so I know you're stoked.   He definitely deserves it.

Imagine what he could have done with a better QB? Spending most of he career with Carr and Schaub and putting up the numbers he did says a lot about how good he was.