The Texans joined the NFL in 2002 as an expansion team after Houston's previous franchise, the Houston Oilers (now the Tennessee Titans), moved to Nashville, Tennessee. The club is one of five in the NFL that has yet to qualify for the Super Bowl, the only team in the league that has not achieved a playoff berth, and the only team that has not achieved a winning season.

A lawsuit filed by the city of Houston, Harris County, and other parties was settled with Adams paying millions of dollars for leaving town. In an interview with the Houston Chronicle, local entrepreneur and San Diego Padres owner John J. Moores, whose name was often attached to efforts to return the NFL to Houston, said that the city’s football fans would be in for a long, dry spell without football and that he did not foresee another league expansion in the next 10 years.

On March 16, 1999, the NFL owners, by a 29–2 vote, approved a resolution to award Los Angeles the expansion 32nd franchise. However, the award was contingent on the city putting together an acceptable ownership team and stadium deal by September 15; if the parties could not reach an agreement or be close to doing so, the committee would then turn its recommendation to Houston.

On September 9, 1999, the league’s expansion committee indicated that McNair and other Houston officials should be prepared to attend an October 6 meeting of the NFL owners in Atlanta. The LA effort was not completely dead as Ovitz, Roski, and newcomer Marvin Davis all scrambled to find the right deal to woo the league back in the last six days before the deadline.

In the first week of October, Ovitz announced that his group was prepared to offer $540 million for the NFL franchise. Later that week, McNair’s Houston NFL Holdings proposed a bid of $700 million to the owners. On the morning of October 6, 1999, McNair's persistence finally paid off – the NFL owners voted 29–0 to accept McNair's $700M offer and awarded the 32nd franchise to Houston as well as the 2004 Super Bowl, causing presale of Houston Texans tickets before the team even had formed.

The divisional schedule this season includes the November 8 game at 12:00 PM at Indianapolis Colts Lucas Oil Stadium, November 23 7:30 PM with the Tennessee Titans at home in Reliant Stadium, November 29 at 12:00 PM with the Indianapolis Colts at home in Reliant Stadium, December 6 at 12:00 PM at Jacksonville Jaguars Alltel Stadium. Get those terrific Houston Texans tickets for cheap through The Seats.