Beyond the Boxscore

A pitch for Arian Foster as NFL MVP, not even Aaron Rodgers beats him

Arian Foster is the player the Texans lean on.
Arian Foster's moves added up to 234 yards against the Titans.
Photo by © Michelle Watson/CatchLightGroup.com
The Titans' Chris Johnson is no longer at Foster's level.

The most exciting player in the NFL is not God in disguise (sorry Tim Tebow disciples). He's not the super freak of a wide receiver who plucks touchdowns out of thin air in Motown. He's certainly not the dog killer turned yesterday's news for the broken down Dream Team.

He's not even the quarterback in Green Bay who cannot stop winning — or causing commentators like Boomer Esiason to lose their mind.

No, it's Arian Foster of the often-dismissed, doubted or completely overlooked Houston Texans. For pure, what-could-he-do-when-he-touches-the-ball-next excitement no one beats Foster. Who knows how long it will last. The NFL running back position — which has always been marked by short careers — is more fickle than ever in the 21st century. One day, a back seems destined for Canton.

Seemingly the next, he's struggling to bleed 18 yards out of 10 carries and getting booed in his own stadium (hello Chris Johnson!)

Foster served notice in the most emphatic way possible Sunday that Houston is home to the MEP (Most Exciting Player) if not the MVP.

Right now, Foster reigns supreme though and Texans fans need to enjoy every minute of this. It's not often that a franchise is graced with the most exciting player in the NFL. It can go generations without happening. There are cities in the league that never have been gifted with the league's most explosive player (start with Seattle, Cincinnati and Arizona and go from there).

Foster served notice in the most emphatic way possible Sunday that Houston is home to the MEP (Most Exciting Player) if not the MVP. In his franchise's biggest game since the last game of the 2009 season (when the Texans hosted the New England Patriots while still alive for a playoff berth), Foster put his darting footprints all over a 41-7 annihilation of the Tennessee Titans. With 234 yards of total offense and three touchdowns, Foster didn't just run over the Titans, he ripped the heart out of a team that fancied itself capable of blocking Houston from the playoffs.

This wasn't obscure Dallas Cowboys rookie DeMarco Murray racking up 253 yards against an pathetic St. Louis team with the worst run defense in the NFL. This was a monster performance in a big-time game — a superstar seizing first place and running away with it. And showing exactly why Bob McNair (one of the biggest Foster fans in the organization) knows he cannot hide his checkbook when the tailback's NFL-modest $525,000 contract expires this offseason.

"There's just something about Arian," Texans right tackle Eric Winston told me earlier in the season. "He has that extra something. He has a way of getting the most out of every play."

Like turning a floating touch pass from Matt Schaub into a 78-yard catch-and-run touchdown. Most starting NFL running backs would have been able to convert that play into a nice first down. Few could have transformed it into a game-busting play, one that left Michael Griffin, a two-time Pro Bowl safety from the University of Texas, looking as old school fooled as one of those always flailing vintage Tecmo Bowl tacklers.

That bit of Foster fortune turned a 10-0 game into a 17-0 one — and left Tennessee with no chance of stopping the Texans' roll.

As emphatic as the win was, plenty of questions remain about the Texans. Gary Kubiak's team continues to lose stars to injury at a freaky rate — with safety Danieal Manning's broken leg in Nashville just as potentially devastating as Mario Williams' torn pectoral. And while Houston is in first place in its division the latest it has ever been (Week Seven), it's also only one game over .500. There are 11 teams with a better winning percentage than the Texans this Monday morning and four more with a matching 4-3 record — in a 32-team league.

Houston's clearly the class of a crippled AFC South, but it's fair to wonder what that truly means.

There can be no more wonder about Foster though. Not after this answer. This was performing under extreme pressure. The 2010 NFL rushing king called himself out after last week's loss in Baltimore, branding his play "terrible." Then, Kubiak didn't exactly disagree with that assessment in his weekly Monday press conference.

In a week where everything could have fallen apart on the Texans, the pressure clearly settled on Foster. Just where he wanted it.

The Standard Bearer

Kubiak likes to talk about "the standard" the Texans have set for running the football. He went at it again in the buildup to the Titans game, noting how Houston's running game wasn't bad, it just wasn't up to meeting "the standard."

But let's face it, the standard begins with and is powered by Foster.

Sure, second-year tailback Ben Tate had his best game in weeks too, making the Texans the first team since 1985 to have two backs gain more than 100 yards against the Titans in the same game (you know, back when they were the Houston Oilers). But Tate collected many of his yards after Foster sapped the will out of Mike Munchak's formerly-surprising team.

In a week where everything could have fallen apart on the Texans, the pressure clearly settled on Foster. Just where he wanted it.

By the time, the Texans ripped off 17, 17 and 24 yard runs back to back to back in the third quarter (with the last two by Tate), the Titans were punch drunk from trying to catch No. 23.

Doing it with Chris Johnson on the other side made Foster's declaration of dominance ring even louder.

Who can forget Johnson twisting the Patriots around in a memorable 2008 playoff loss and then following up that star flash with a 2,000-yard 2009 season. Well . . . actually, a lot of people already seem to be starting to forget with the still only 26-year-old Johnson (he's only a year older than Foster) struggling to do much of anything in 2011. Including many of the folks sitting in the stands in Nashville.

That's how quickly things can go in the world of NFL running backs. This isn't about the geeks of fantasy football either. There is no fantasy in which anyone can declare Johnson a better runner than Foster in 2011.

Houston has the most exciting player in football for now. Sure, the Texans still have faults, but they have Foster. And that's a ride worth taking — to the playoffs and beyond.

Watch Foster's 78-yard catch and run against Tennessee:

unspecified

High Score

Austin named the nation's pickleball capital in industry report

Photo by Henry Selis Photo

Other Racquet Social Club is back after city woes.

It's no secret that Austinites love pickleball. A new study proves just how much by ranking Austin the No. 1 city for pickleball in the whole country. Dallas and Houston also made the top 10 at Nos. 3 and 8, respectively.

The report was published by TeachMe.To, an online marketplace for learning sports (and sometimes music) from private instructors. It used data from its own platform, USA Pickleball, Places2Play, local pickleball associations, and more. It also referred to the Sports and Fitness Industry Association (SFIA), which named pickleball the fastest-growing sport in America, with a growth rate of 223.5 percent over three years.

Similarly, TeachMe.To ranked Austin as the fastest-growing city for pickleball, and citing this as the main reason for the overall title of "the nation's pickleball capital."

It name-checked the Austin Metro Pickleball Association (AMPA) — with approximately 3,000-3,500 members — and the Austin Pickleball League (APL), estimating that overall, "15,000-20,000 people play pickleball at least occasionally in the greater Austin area." About half of those players — about 8,000-10,000 people — play at least twice a month.

The report did not include gender data on Austin, specifically, but it did note that not only are two-thirds of pickleball players female; women's involvement in the sport is also growing 50 percent faster than men's.

New courts everywhere
This probably isn't a surprise to people who have noticed the number of courts opened around Austin in recent years. By 2024, TeachMe.To's data shows 32 dedicated courts in Austin, and thanks to with a utility rate of 92 percent it doesn't look like that'll be slowing down.

In the summer of 2023, the online booking platform Swimply noticed how many pickleball courts there were in Austin compared to such great demand, and added courts to its service. In fall 2023 and summer 2024, at least two important developments expanded that availability: Other Racquet Social Club opened as a friendly, country club-like neighborhood option, and national chain The Picklr announced it's bringing five locations to Austin and Round Rock.

Perhaps because Austin is such a food-obsessed city, there seems to be some growing opportunity for food and beverage hospitality around pickleball, too. Other Racquet recently started hosting the Bill's Dips food truck, a spinoff of the popular downtown restaurant Bill's Oyster; and a pair of bars with pickleball courts, Drifters Social Coffee & Cocktails and The Pickle Pub, also opened in South Austin this year, with strong online ratings already.

The trend has even reached into real estate (see this cute house with its own pickleball court) and inspired athletes to introduce similar sports to the local market, as in the case of the padel club Paddle39. TeachMe.To's report also mentioned tech companies adding pickleball to their campuses.

Aside from growth, the study also considered lesson activity (including information about teacher availability and diversity of clinic offerings), infrastructure, community vitality, the tournament scene.

Austin had the highest concentration of all the cities of players under 40 (65 percent), as well as the highest share of national lesson bookings. At 16.90 percent, that means about one in six of the pickleball lessons contracted through this platform were in Austin. Lesson demand, the report says, is growing 125 percent year-over-year.

Elsewhere in Texas
Dallas was No. 3 thanks in part to its "central location" according to the report.

"The city's 45 dedicated courts and 85 [percent] public accessibility rate have fostered one of the most active competitive scenes in the country, with 8,500 registered league players," it says. "The combination of strong tournament presence, extensive infrastructure, and a 112% growth in lesson bookings solidifies Dallas as a powerhouse in the national pickleball landscape."

Houston made No. 8 with an emphasis on integrating pickleball with other sports.

"The city's 22 dedicated courts have seen a 92% increase in lesson bookings, driven by innovative programming that includes the nation's first corporate league system," it says. "Houston's success in integrating pickleball into existing sports infrastructure while maintaining 72% year-round utilization demonstrates a sustainable model for rapid growth."

Overall predictions
After laying out data about the top cities in pickleball, the report made some predictions. As the Austin newcomer mentioned above believes, the report also thinks padel is the next big thing. It also guesses more cities will act like Houston by focusing on hybrid facilities.

It also expects to see an expanded professional circuit and mainstream coverage, more technology used on the court, a rise in the prevalence of young players, and more opportunities in corporate wellness and real estate. "Dedicated pickleball facilities will become as common as swimming pools in luxury developments," it says. Texans will be the judge of that one.

pickleball lists