Fifty years ago this weekend, having just celebrated my 24^th birthday, I covered my first-ever Houston Oilers game as the beat reporter for the Houston Post. Following a 10-4 season in Bum Phillips’ debut as head coach, those Oilers carried some relatively high expectations, never mind that the 10 victories in 1975 were arguably aberrant, totaling only six fewer than the franchise had accumulated over its first five seasons as a member of the National Football League.

Still, for a few weeks anyway, they looked like the real deal, first holding the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to 100 total yards and eight first downs in a 20-0 win at the Astrodome. Of course, that was also the first game ever for John McKay’s spectaculary inept expansion Bucs, who went on to become the first of only three teams since the AFL-NFL merger in 1970 to endure an oh-fer for a non-strike-shortened season.     

A week later, the Oilers went to Buffalo and held the Bills to 168 total yards – O. J. Simpson’s 16 rushes netting just 38 – in a 13-3 beat-down. Through a 4-1 start, those Oilers, with future Hall-of-Famers Elvin Bethea, Curley Culp and Roger Brazile starting on defense, were giving up 208 yards and fewer than 10 points per game. Suddenly, folks (myself included) were seriously discussing their Super Bowl prospects.    

Alas, the next nine games that fall produced only one more W and, as everyone knows only too well, no NFL team representing H-town has advanced to same to this day. The Oilers, who lost back-to-back AFC Championship Games in Pittsburgh to close out the 1978 and 1979 seasons, left for Tennessee in 1996 and, as the Titans, would lose a Super Bowl to the St. Louis Rams to end the 1999 season. The Texans, who came into existence in 2002, are 0-for-7 in Division Round games through their 24 seasons.

But now folks – including some very credible ones – see them as for-real contenders for the NFL title. Do I? At 74, I’m not holding my breath. But, sure, OK, it could happen. And, should it happen, I’ll happily celebrate and I’m guessing wine will be involved.

That so-long-in-coming party will begin with a glass of sparkling wine, preferably from Paul Déthune, the boutique producer in Ambonnay that I fortuitously discovered at an AOC tasting in March hosted by Sophie Déthune, Paul’s wife. She knew how to sell wine and she had a product that was eminently sellable.

For the moment the Déthune Cuvee “Cuvee Prestige Princesse Des Thunes” Grand Cru Extra Brut is still available at AOC Selections. Considering the Ambonnay fruit is all Grand Cru, the $102 price tag isn’t off-putting. To use a football cliché, Déthrune still outkicks its coverage.

En route from Paris to our house in Haute Provence in April, Debbie and I dropped in to see Sophie, then headed south with a 20-bottle mix. I has been a very good summer in la belle France. Merci, Paul. 

And, because man cannot live on bubbles alone, I’m almost certain to follow with a Barolo or two from AOC, which has gone in big on rising star Giulia Negri’s excellent wines – and/or wine.com, which carries a number of my longtime favorites from the Ceretto family. I’m eyeballing their 2021 Barolo Brunate and 2022 Barbaresco Classico (shown above with one of my favorite Déthunes) at $149.99 and $60.99 respectively. The former received a score of 98 from James Suckling, who gave the latter a 92. Decisions, decisions.     

Now back to sports. Let’s talk tennis, specifically the U.S. Open final on Sunday with Ben Shelton trying to become the first American man to claim any of the Grand Slam titles since Andy Roddick won at Flushing Meadow in 2003, a full generation ago.         

As you may recall, at River Oaks Country Club in 2024 the then 21-year-old Shelton became the youngest player to win the Men’s Clay Court Championship title since, yep, Roddick in 2002. Now he’s trying to again follow in Roddick’s footsteps on a far bigger stage. A victory over Alexander Zverev would also make him the first Black man to win the Open since Arthur Ashe in 1972 and the first to triumph in a Slam since Ashe prevailed at Wimbledon in 1975.

Shelton happens to be the reigning U.S. Clay Courts doubles champion, too, having left Houston in April with a second trophy won partnering up with his former Florida Gators teammate, Andres Andrade.

“I didn’t do what I wanted to do in singles,” said Shelton, who came in as the top seed again only to be upset in the quarters by Argentina’s Thiago Agustin Tirante. “But now I’m two-for-two getting a title when I come to River Oaks. It’s really cool to get a title anywhere, anyhow on the ATP Tour. They’re few and far between. To turn it around and take the title in doubles with a good friend for many years is a very good ending. I’m super happy about this.”      

It’s worth noting that Shelton’s dad, Bryan, himself triumphed at River Oaks back in 1992, when the club hosted an exhibition tournament. And Bryan, who serves as Ben’s coach, has a Grand Slam finals appearance on his resumé, too. He and Houston’s Lori McNeil played together at Roland Garros in 1992, losing to Todd Woodbridge and Arantxa Sanchez Vicario. As it happens, McNeil works as a pro at River Oaks these days.

Shelton won his Houston singles title at the expense of then defending champion Frances Tiafoe in the first-ever matchup between two Black American men in an ATP tournament. He and Tiafoe, of course, staged a similarly unprecedented rematch at Flushing Meadow in the semifinals Friday with Shelton rallying for a 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 7-5 victory.    

Shelton had called his 7-5, 4-6, 6-3 win over Tiafoe in Houston “definitely an historical moment, a really cool moment for both of us. It’s obviously going to sting for him not going back-to-back, especially in a place he loves to play. You see him in public as this funny guy (who’s) always smiling, but he’s really thoughtful, just a good guy to be around. And he’s done a lot for getting people of color involved in the sport.”

Tiafoe, for his part, said their Houston final was “great for the sport. And it’s great to see Ben play so well. He’s young. He’s only going to get better. He’s (already) one the best servers on the Tour and he’ll fine tune his game more and more.”

As he clearly has. An Open title at the expense of the French Open champion Zverev would give Shelton his fifth singles championships in 2026 alone to go with that H-town doubles W – and a top-five ranking.

The downside for us, of course, is players ranked that highly, and coming off major titles, usually don’t pass our way again. I know this only too well because I go back as far with tennis as I do the NFL, having covered my first match at River Oaks about six months after that Oilers-Bucs game.

Yep, time flies. Cheers!