This news about Houston has completely washed away any of the bitterness due to Parcells being nominated again this week. Next to Ray Claybourn, he has always been the Patriot most missing team recognition.
What I'm really looking forward to is the fact that there will be a new generation (or three) that will learn about what, not only the kind of player Houston was, but the kind of man he was as well. The Kraft family have always taken care of their own for these kinds of events. I know they won't fail Houston here. Not only will Houston get his moment in the sun, so will many of his teammates who had the privilege to play with them.
I had the late, great Bob Dee coach me during my year with the Quincy Giants in the fall of 69.
BTW- I was never an insider within the Pats, but I did know enough to poison my impression of the Sullivan Family. Billy Sullivan gets too much credit for the start of pro football in Boston. People forget that the Pats where initially a stock company, which Sullivan "stole" away for pennies on the dollar, and then over the next 2 decades , managed to turn into the laughing stock of the league, snatching defeat from the jaws of victory at almost every turn.
So there is no "Sullivan love" from me. I just feel fortunate the franchise survived them and it fell into the hads of the Krafts like it should have 20 years earlier . Don't forget that Billy Sullivan (for some reason) never wanted Bob Kraft to own the team and worked very hard to make sure that it didn't