The Houston Texans are a professional American football team based in Houston, Texas. The Texans compete in the National Football League as a member club of the American Football Conference South division; the team plays its home games at NRG Stadium. The club first played in 2002 as an expansion team, making them the youngest franchise competing in the NFL; the Texans replaced the city's previous NFL franchise, the Houston Oilers who played from 1960 to 1996, which moved to Nashville and are now known as the Tennessee Titans. The team was founded and owned by Bob McNair from 1999 until his death in 2018. Following McNair's death, the majority ownership of the team went to Janice McNair. While the team struggled in their first decade of play, they found success in the 2011 season, winning their first division championship and clinching their first playoff berth; the Texans have gone on to win five more AFC South championships in 2012, 2015, 2016, 2018 and 2019. As of the 2019 season, they are the only franchise to have never appeared in a conference championship game.

In 1997, Houston entrepreneur Bob McNair had a failed bid to bring a National Hockey League expansion team to the city, Bud Adams relocated the city's NFL team, the Houston Oilers, to Nashville where they were renamed the Tennessee Titans. In 1996, a year earlier, the Cleveland Browns had controversially relocated to become the Baltimore Ravens; as part of the settlement between the NFL, the city of Cleveland and the team owned by Art Modell, the league promised to return football to Cleveland within the following three years. In order to out the franchises at 32, the league contemplated adding another expansion franchise; as Houston was one of the favorites for the extra franchise along with Toronto and Los Angeles, McNair decided to join the football project and founded Houston NFL Holdings with partner Steve Patterson. In association with Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, they would push for a domed stadium as part of the bid to lure the NFL back to Houston. On October 6, 1999 the NFL awarded the 32nd team at the cost of $700 million.

The Houston Texans joined the league in the 2002 season, playing at the newly-opened Reliant Stadium. With their opening game victory over the Dallas Cowboys that season, the team became the first expansion team to win its opening game since the Minnesota Vikings beat the Chicago Bears in 1961. While the team struggled in early seasons, results began to improve once native Houstonian Gary Kubiak became the head coach in 2006; the Texans finished with a.500 season in both 2007 and 2008, nearly qualified for the 2009–10 NFL playoffs with a 9–7 result in 2009. In 2010, the team started the season on a 4–2 record going into a Week 7 bye week, but promptly collapsed 2–8 in the second part of the season, finishing 6–10. In the 2011 NFL Draft, the Texans acquired Wisconsin star defensive end J. J. Watt 11th overall; the following season, former Cowboys head coach Wade Phillips was hired as the defensive coordinator of the Texans, the improved defense led to the Texans finishing 10–6, winning their first AFC South title.

The Texans beat wild card Cincinnati Bengals 31–10 in the first round of the 2011–12 NFL playoffs, before a 20–13 defeat by the Ravens in the Divisional Round. The Texans surged as the team to beat in the AFC South in 2012, starting 5–0 and holding an 11–1 record by week 14. However, they lost three of their last four games to finish 12–4; the Texans beat the Bengals again in the wild-card round, but they lost in the Divisional Round to the New England Patriots. In the 2013 NFL Draft, the Texans acquired Clemson wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins 27th overall. In 2013, the Texans started 2 -- 0 but lost every game afterwards. Kubiak was fired as head coach after being swept by the rival Jacksonville Jaguars, who themselves started 0–8. Wade Phillips filled in as head coach, but the Texans' poor form did not change, they finished 2–14, with 2005, their worst record in franchise history; the 14-game losing streak is the worst in franchise history. The Texans entered the 2014 season with a 14-game losing streak.

Former Penn State head coach Bill O'Brien became the Texans' new head coach, the third in franchise history, during the offseason. In 2014, the Texans won three of their first four games, defeating the Redskins in the season opener, the Raiders, the Bills, losing to the New York Giants, they lost three of their next four games, losing to the Dallas Cowboys, the Indianapolis Colts, the Pittsburgh Steelers, respectively. The Texans went on to finish 9–7 in the 2014 season and missed the playoffs. In the 2015 season, they were featured on HBO, on the show "Hard Knocks"; that year, the Texans started with a 2–5 record. Quarterback Ryan Mallett was released amidst controversy regarding his benching in favor of Brian Hoyer during a loss against the Indianapolis Colts. After a poor start, the Texans won their third AFC South title. However, they were shut out by the Kansas City Chiefs in the Wild Card round 30–0, ending their championship hopes for the year. On March 9, 2016, the Texans signed former Denver Broncos quarterback Brock Osweiler to a 4-year, $72 million deal.

Despite Osweiler's lucrative deal, he struggled during the entire season. After throwing two interceptions in Week 15 against the Jaguars, coach Bill O'Brien benched the offseason acquisition in favor of backup quarterback Tom Savage. Savage led a comeback effort against the Jaguars, was named the starter for the remainder of the season; the Texans clinched t

Shooting Gazette is a monthly field sports magazine published by TI Media. Shooting Gazette covers all aspects of driven shooting, both in abroad, it includes advice on gamekeeping, regular interviews with leading figures in the shooting industry, reviews of new shotguns, shooting clothing and equipment. A gundog section offers advice on training and breeding, as well as reporting on gundog trials around the country. Shooting Gazette is the official magazine of the Countryside Alliance Shooting Campaign. Will Hetherington has been the editor since July 2004. Founded in Lincolnshire in 1989 as a quarterly publication, the magazine called The Shooting Gazette, became a bi-monthly in October/November of that year. EMAP traded the title to IPC Media in 1996 in exchange for Classic Cars. Shooting Gazette

Hank Lyon is an American Republican Party politician. Lyon joined the Morris County, New Jersey Board of Chosen Freeholders on March 10, 2012, served a special one-year term on the board, becoming the youngest freeholder in the state at age 24. Lyon was reelected as Freeholder in 2014. A resident of the Towaco section of Montville, Lyon majored in economics and physics at the College of the Holy Cross. After a court battle in which Nordstron sought to overturn Lyon's victory in the Republican Party primary after his narrow ten-vote victory, Lyon was appointed to the seat, held by Margaret Nordstrom.. The court battle was due to Lyon not following election rules regarding disclosing campaign finances. Lyon ran unopposed in the 2014 Republican primary. Lyon is a member of the Board of School Estimate for the County College of Morris and the Morris County School of Technology. During his tenure on the Morris County Board of Chosen Freeholders from 2012-2018, Lyon fought to stabilize taxes, reduce debt, maintain funding for law enforcement, human services, infrastructure improvements.

In 2012, Lyon was the only freeholder who voted against the proposed county budget, which included tax hikes. As chairman of the Freeholder Budget Committee in 2013, Lyon authored a county budget that kept property taxes flat for the first time in a generation while maintaining funding for essential programs and reducing debt. Lyon championed similar budgets with zero-percent county tax increases in 2014 and 2015 budgets. During his first election campaign in 2011, Lyon opposed the Morris County solar energy program, a state and county initiative that aimed to build solar energy plants throughout the county. Lyon predicted. Shortly before he became Freeholder, the New Jersey solar market collapsed, causing the county to lose $3.4 million