The Houston Texans look more formidable on paper than ever heading into the 2011 NFL season. Of course, there have been similar proclamations of 'this year's the year' about the franchise making the playoffs for the first time ever. Losing Matt Schaub to an injury would be more devastating, but the Texans' chances, particularly during the early part of the schedule, will be significantly impacted by whether Arian Foster is near or close to 100 percent recovered from the hamstring injury suffered in last weekend's preseason win over San Francisco.
↵Foster said there was 'no doubt' he'd be ready for the season opener against the Colts. He said he's 'already jogging', that it was just a mild strain, and that the hamstring 'is feeling good'.
↵This isn't the first time that Foster has been hampered by hamstring issues. He has identified a carb-rich diet as a potential source for the recurring issues.
↵↵↵"I pretty much know what I've been doing wrong. I think a lot of it was my nutrition. I was cutting out a lot of carbs in my diet, trying to get leaner. Carbs are the first things that go in your muscles when you're burning energy. We've got a little plan together, so, hopefully, it works."
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Including Tuesday, Foster has 12 days to implement his new diet and rest and rehabilitate before the Texans opener against the Indianapolis Colts two Sunday nights from now.
↵As for his tweet to fans who are speculating about Foster's health as they prepare for their Fantasy Football seasons, Foster said:
↵↵↵"The fact that we're talking about Twitter is amazing to me, but my tweet got taken out of context," Foster said. "What I was saying was that people that value a digital game over a human being's health is just kind of weird to me. That's all that I meant by that.
↵"People took it as I don't care about fantasy football. I think it's good for the game. I'm on my mother's fantasy football team, so I've got to do good. I love all my fans, and if you've been following me on Twitter, you know what kind of person and human being I am."
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I understand where he's coming from, but I also don't think it's unfair for folks to care about his hamstring for 'selfish' purposes such as fantasy football. Now, if fantasy players had been tweeting that they were ecstatic that Foster was injured because a rival fantasy owner had just taken him with their first round pick, now that would be 'sick'. That's like rooting for injuries or gloating in players' injuries. Unless I'm mistaken, there hasn't been any of that.
↵It's too early for fans to be concerned about Foster's volatile tempermant, but it might be something worth keeping an eye on. Just about everything went right for Foster last season, outside of the Texans' inability to reach the playoffs. Even the greatest players of all time faced multiple setbacks over the course of their careers. Foster's first has yet to really arrive. Hopefully he'll be better equipped in the future to control his emotions a bit better the next time he's frustrated.
↵For more Texans coverage and discussion in the lead up to Kickoff Weekend, make Battle Red Blog a regular part of your reading.
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