Proceeds from Texans - Cowboys game to go to hurricane relief fund
HOUSTON (AP) -- The Houston Cougars could have played their football game at Texas-San Antonio on Saturday. Instead they chose to postpone it, deciding there were things much more important than football this week with Houston besieged by catastrophic flooding from Hurricane Harvey.
"We felt like it wasn't the right thing to do in terms of where our city is," Houston coach Major Applewhite said. "Sports are important and sports are fun and its entertainment, but with casualties in our city, and the state of mind of our players and our players' families, it's not the right thing to do, to play a game."
The changes are the latest to hit Houston sports teams. The Astros were forced to play their series against the Texas Rangers at the home of the Tampa Bay Rays while the Texans are playing their "home" preseason game on the road against the Dallas Cowboys instead.
The Rice football team hasn't been home in nine days, holed up in Fort Worth on the TCU campus after a game in Sydney, Australia, over the weekend. The Owls, who lost to Stanford 62-7 on Sunday, left Houston for Australia on Sept. 20.
"Basically it's a day-to-day plan," Rice coach David Bailiff said Tuesday. "We meet every morning, and we meet every evening just to make sure we're ensuring, first their human needs. This right now is so not about football. It's about taking care of people and that's what I just told the team, too."
Bailiff isn't sure when he and his team will be able to get back home.
"We all want to be back in Houston," he said. "We just can't get there."
Meanwhile, the Houston Rockets and owner Leslie Alexander upped their donation to Hurricane Harvey relief efforts to $10 million. Alexander pledged $4 million to Houston mayor Sylvester Turner's Hurricane Harvey Relief Fund on Monday before announcing that he'd donate $10 million to help flood victims.
Other donations from teams and athletes include:
------ Astros owner Jim Crane and the Astros' foundation pledged $4 million.
------ The proceeds from Houston's preseason game against the Cowboys will be donated to the United Way of Greater Houston Relief Fund.
------ Major League Baseball joined with the players association to donate $1 million to the Red Cross and relief organizations chosen by the players.
------ On Tuesday the Astros announced that all ticket, concession and parking fees from their series against the Rangers will be donated to relief efforts.
------ The Rangers and their ownership and foundation pledged $1 million to the cause.
------ The Texans and owner Bob McNair donated $1 million to the United Way of Greater Houston Flood Relief Fund. The NFL Foundation said it would match the $1 million donation, and New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft and his family pledged to match all funds donated to the American Red Cross in support of Harvey flood relief up to $1 million.
------ The NBA joined with the players association to give $1 million to charities helping in the area.
------ Texans star J.J. Watt started a fundraising page online that has raised more than $3.65 million since its inception on Sunday. The fund was given a boost by a $1 million donation from Titans controlling owner Amy Adams Strunk. Watt's original goal was to raise $500,000, but he's now aiming to raise $4 million.
