Hurricane Harvey Displaces Pro, College Sports Teams

HOUSTON, TX — Hurricane Harvey has interfered with Lone Star showdowns, and now two fantastic professional sports rivalries in Texas won’t happen in Houston this week. The Houston Texans preseason game against the Dallas Cowboys scheduled for Thursday at NRG Stadium will be played at Dallas. The Astros-Rangers series will play in Florida, and the Rice football team can’t get home.

To top it all off, Texas high school football, which is like a religion in the Lone Star State, will have to wait at least another week to begin the 2017 season, which starts statewide on Thursday. Well, the coastal teams will have to wait. But it’s probably for the best, as most of the Greater Houston Metro area is underwater, folks are still getting rescued and the infrastructure is weakening.

The Houston Astros are off Monday, and they’re scheduled to play divisional rival Texas Rangers Tuesday through Thursday at Minute Maid Park in Houston. As both teams waited idly in Dallas, Major League Baseball announced the series would play at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida, home of the Tampa Bay Rays. (For more local news, click here to sign up for real-time news alerts and newsletters from Midtown Houston Patch, and click here to find your local Texas Patch. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app.)

Also See: Some Of The Many Ways You Can Help Harvey Victims

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Rice University played Stanford in the season’s first game Saturday in Australia, but now the Owls can’t get back home. Rice has taken refuge at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth.

The Texans played in New Orleans last Saturday, but the team couldn’t fly back to Houston, as both airports were shut down. The Texans flew to Dallas and have been practicing at The Star in Frisco, which is where the Cowboys practice.

The NFL released the following statement regarding the Cowboys-Texans preseason game:

"Due to public safety concerns resulting from the ongoing weather emergency related to Hurricane Harvey, Thursday's Dallas Cowboys-Houston Texans game originally scheduled to be played in Houston at 7 p.m. CT has been relocated to AT&T Stadium in Arlington," the league said in the statement. "Kickoff on Thursday will remain at 7 p.m. CT. Details on tickets, parking and other game day logistics will be announced later this week."

The Astros will still be the home team for the series against the Rangers, but it means they will have 19 straight road games.

Rice kicked off its 2017 football season in Australia against Stanford, which crushed the Owls, 62-7. Rice flew to Los Angeles and then adjusted its route to DFW, and now they are getting help from TCU.

“I want to thank the staffs at TCU, SMU, Baylor and UTEP who all reached out to offer whatever help we needed,” Rice coach David Bailiff said. “There is a strong brotherhood in the coaching world and it is never more evident than at times like these. While we would love to be coming home today, our first responsibility is the safety of these players. We learned some lessons in 2008 about coming home too soon.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with all those affected by the storm and the first responders in Houston.”

Earlier today the Houston Texans and Dallas Cowboys each pledged to donate $1 million to the relief effort for Hurricane Harvey. The NFL Foundation and New England Patriots both matched the $1 million.

Not to be outdone, the Houston Rockets donated $4 million to the effort.

Texans defensive end J.J. Watt started an online fundraising campaign and donated the first $100,000. The fund has already topped $500,000.

Caption: Houston Texans quarterbacks Deshaun Watson (4), Tom Savage (3) and Brandon Weeden (5) take a breather from running sprints during a morning practice at the Dallas Cowboys training facility, Monday, Aug. 28, 2017, in Frisco, Texas. The Texans are working out in the practice facility of the Dallas Cowboys because of floods pounding Houston. An exhibition game in the Texans' stadium Thursday might be moved to the home of the Cowboys.

AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez