Texans honor Uvalde shooting victims, host HS team Sunday

HOUSTON (AP) — The Houston Texans used their opener Sunday against Indianapolis to honor and remember the victims of the Uvalde Elementary school shooting.

The Texans hosted the Uvalde high school football team and wore “Uvalde Strong” decals on their helmets after 19 children and two teachers were killed in a shooting there in May.

The team joined with grocery store chain H-E-B to pay for the team to travel the 280 miles from Uvalde and watch the game from a suite. It’s part of the team’s continuing support for the community after donating $400,000 to the Robb Elementary School memorial fund soon after the shooting.

Senior linebacker Justyn Rendon said it was the first time most of his teammates had ever attended an NFL game.

“It means a lot to a lot of these guys just to get away from Uvalde in general and just enjoy being here,” he said. “A lot of these guys may never experience an NFL game like this. So it’s a real big thing.”

Uvalde coach Wade Miller said they want to do whatever they can to continue to honor those who lost their lives in the shooting.

“As far as the memory of 21, it’s important to us,” he said. “We all either lost somebody or knew somebody (that did) and ... we’re like the rest of the world, we just want to help in some way. And hopefully this helps.”

A video recognizing the team was shown on the video board in the stadium during a timeout in the first quarter Sunday. Uvalde players cheered as they were shown on the screens before a message that read: “We stand with Uvalde" flashed on the boards.

A contingent from the Texans including linebackers Christian Kirksey and Kamu Grugier-Hill visited Uvalde earlier this month and surprised the team with new uniforms provided by Nike during a team...