Reading the coverage of the Houston Texans...
Having given the RTC a short hiatus, we'll pack today's with stories from the past few days.
Texans safety Rahim Moore could have fallen into any number of pitfalls growing up in his gang-infested Los Angeles neighborhood, writes Aaron Wilson of the Houston Chronicle. Instead, Moore stuck to football. "A lot of my close friends were gangbangers or in gang violence," Moore said. "I just thank God I didn't have to go down that route, because I could have easily done that. The experience I had is I could either hang out with them or go play football. My love and passion for football was so much that I couldn't stray from that."
Jeffri Chadiha of NFL.com stopped by training camp this week and noted that Jadeveon Clowney's biggest challenge might be taking it slow in his return to the field. "The plan is to string days together," Texans coach Bill O'Brien told Chadiha. "There will be days when he will be a little sore. He will have to deal with that. We have to do a great job of easing him back into this. We can't throw him out there for 60 reps in the first practice. We have to have a good plan for him and we do. And he understands that plan."
Dale Robertson of the Chronicle says receiver Travis Labhart is trying to get meaner. Well, maybe not meaner . . . I'll let him explain: "I don't know if this sounds shocking, but sometimes I'm too nice out there," said Labhart, who played at Texas A&M and signed with the Texans as an undrafted free agent in 2014. "I'm not aggressive enough. But I think that's something I've tried to learn this year, to be more aggressive in a helpful way. Coach O'Brien talks a lot about keeping a competitive edge and I think my competitiveness has gotten better. It's something I've got to keep working on."
Robertson also offered this look at nose tackle Chris Neild, who has a beard that'll make Houston proud.
Brian Cushing says this has been his favorite and best training camp, writes Deepi Sidhu of HoustonTexans.com.
John Harris of the team's official website had 31 observations from Wednesday's practice. Here's one: "3. An intriguing storyline on Tuesday night's 'Hard Knocks' episode was Charles James talking with rookie safety Corey Moore. James' passion for playing the game was evident, but his point to Moore was, essentially, that Moore needed to communicate with him consistently. James implored Moore to work better together. It was, to me, one of the most important moments of 'Hard Knocks.' Of course, one of the first things I heard on the practice field today was secondary coach John Butler yelling out 'TALK!' to his players. It was a point Bill O'Brien made to me at halftime with mostly young players on defense in the second half; he wanted to hear them communicate and talk to one another."
