The preseason game between Dallas Cowboys and Houston Texans has been canceled, according to latest reports. Originally, this match was planned to be played in Houston but after heavy rain that Hurricane Harvey brought over the fourth largest city in the US it has been decided that it should be played at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, the home of Cowboys. Later on, two squads decided to cancel the duel, but, it doesn’t mean that they can’t help dealing with the aftermath of this disaster.
One of the reasons for the cancellation of this match is to allow players to return home and be with their families and help out to those in need. After Saturday game against Saints, Texans decided not to go home and instead to go to Cowboys Frisco Texas training facility to continue their preparations for the season that is soon to begin.
Here is the statement from the team about their plans:
“The Houston Texans have made the decision to travel back to Houston after local authorities have now found a safe route for the team to drive home today. The fourth preseason game scheduled for Thursday night in Dallas will be cancelled. At this time, the priority of our organization is getting our players, coaches and staff back home to be reunited with their families, many of whom have been evacuated from their homes and are currently sheltered. The team feels it is imperative to get back home to help the Houston community recover from devastation of Hurricane Harvey.
Robert, Janice, Cal and Hannah McNair will make a donation equal to the money that would have been generated from ticket sales from Thursday’s preseason game in Arlington to recovery and relief efforts.
Fans that have purchased tickets to Thursday’s game will have the option to donate the money to relief efforts or request a refund through Ticketmaster. Further details regarding refunds will be announced later today.
The Houston Texans sincerely appreciate the support shown by the Dallas Cowboys and our NFL family during this difficult time.”
Rick Smith, general manager of Texans also talked to reporters just before the team started its trip home to Houston, here is what he said:
“We did not have the option up until today to get the team safely home. So that wasn’t available to us. And so when it became available to us, we’ve got so many guys on the team that are distracted by all of the events and circumstances and things that are happening at home that it became increasingly more difficult from our perspective to ask those guys to go out and try to play a football game. I’m not so sure it would have been fair to do so. So when the opportunity arose today that we had a safe route to get home, the decision was made to cancel the game and get our guys home.”
One of the Cowboys linebackers Sean Lee talked to Steve Wyche about this situation and stated that he and the team are just fine with the cancellation and that he is glad to see that the guys are going home after all this. This is not all as several players from Dallas are making a plan on how to help out in this situation.
Many people that are somehow related to NFL decided to help out Hurricane Harvey relief. For example, J.J. Watt, a pass rusher of Texans raised more than $7 million with the next goal of raising $10 million.
