Former Texans on "The Amazing Race"

[HPF Bob]

One of my favorite shows is "The Amazing Race" (CBS Sunday nights) and I was checking their website to see when the premier for season 23 would appear (September 29th, 7pm Central*) and they had profiles of the new contestants.

For those who don't know (and the show is endlessly promoted during NFL telecasts so you probably do know), the show is a reality series where 11 teams of two conduct a race around the world to win a $1 million prize. On most shows, one team is eliminated by being the last to finish that episode's leg.

This season has two former Houston Texans offensive linemen - Chester Pitts and Ephraim Salaam. They will no doubt do some of their racing in their Houston Texans jerseys until watchers recognize who they are without the need for reminders.

Pretty much each season the race has two or three teams of some form of celebrity notoriety. Marcus Pollard (former Colts TE) and his wife made it to the final episode a few years ago and constantly peppered his comments with football rhetoric (i.e. "It's 4th and goal now. We gonna find out what we're made of.")

If you hate stereotyping, this show tries to be PC enough to attract all demographic groups so there is usually a gay team, 2-3 minority teams, at least one older person, one or two "freak" teams (midgets, excessively tatted, goth, physically or emotionally disabled, etc.) who all become friends during the race in the interest of celebrating diversity.

My theory is that the quasi-celebs are just there to attract new viewers and almost never win although two hockey-playing brothers did win last season. Usually, the athletes get tripped up by the brain-teaser tasks but they excel at the endurance and stamina tasks.

Just like when Jeff Kent appeared on "Survivor" last fall, I'll provide some updates and key moments while Chester and Ephraim are still in the race.

* - one of the frustrating things about this show is that it appears on Sunday nights and often starts late due to NFL games (or golf tourneys, etc.) running late but you never know how late so if you plan to record the show, allow an extra hour after the end time each episode. You can also follow it on the CBS.com website if your streaming video is good or you have an aversion to watching "60 Minutes" segments. Some of the world sites are something to behold now that the show is filmed in HD.

[barrett]

The instant I read the thread title I thought, "must be Chester Pitts."

[Nconroe]

I travelled some and saw a few of the world attractions, mostly 10-30 years ago.

So, yeah, I enjoy seeing some of the worlds great attractions, how they look now, along with the travel and reality show gamesmanship that make-up this show.

Should be interesting how our two big ex Texan Lineman do, should be entertaining and best of luck to Chester and Ephraim.

[HPF Bob]

Oh, and if you just enjoy hotties forced to strain themselves in difficult circumstances, there is a pair of ice dancers from the L.A. Kings and a pair of baseball wives.

My favorite pairs to watch are the dating/married/trying to get back together guy-girl couples because they usually have a low threshhold for holding their tongues. It used to have more of that but I guess the critics thought there was just too much fighting and they wanted more harmony on the show.

[HPF Bob]

Season premiere was tonight. The two Texans made it on the first flight to Chile where Chester got to paraglide off a cliff then row for fish in the harbor before they both arrived at the mat in fourth place out of the 11 teams. Nothing too memorable that was said.

There were two flights and the second arrived 2-1/2 hours behind the first so it was obvious that, barring an epic blunder, somebody on the second flight was going home. That turned out to be the father/daughter combo who were not good at the physical tasks and also were not good at following directions.

For the first leg, Chester and Ephraim represented themselves well and had a respectable finish. We'll see what Episode 2 has in store.

[HPF Bob]

Well, at least there were two Texans victorious tonight. Chester and Ephraim won the second leg of the Amazing Race (in Chile) and won a trip to some resort islands that they can take after the race. First they had to translate and recite a phrase in Spanish then take a cab ride to some salt mines where they busted some large salt rocks until they uncovered a clue. They then rode a bus to Santiago and had to shine shoes then pack up the shoe shine cart and return it to the vendor.

A pair of Afghan cousins actually beat them to the pit stop but they failed to pay their cabbie and were told to go back, giving Chester and Ephraim enough time to check in first.

Back at the salt mine while others were using picks and chisels, the former NFL linemen chose to just lift the rocks over their heads and smash them on the ground. That did not give them the lead but did allow them to make up for lost time.

The theatre performers were eliminated, sparing the baseball wives who, at least, got a chance to switch into bikinis before they'll eventually be eliminated. Typically, the women who spend the first two shows whining things like "I can't do this," "I'm so scared" and "This is the hardest thing I've ever had to do" don't last very long on this show.

[Nconroe]

Wish I would have watched it

[HPF Bob]

Bad week for the Texans and a bad week for Chester and Ephraim. They started the third leg in first place and wound up being eliminated - at the airport.

The nine teams flew from Santiago, Chile to Lisbon, Portugal and almost half the episode dealt with the adventures in flying between the two countries.

The NFL linemen arrived first at a travel agency and thought they had booked the only seats arriving in Lisbon at 7 a.m. the next morning. But as other teams arrived, they found out that the ticketing agent had screwed up and booked their seats a day later. The others were getting flights that would arrive at 10 a.m. or Noon.

Stuck with the Noon arrival, the agent tried to make good by routing them on two connecting flights that would get them into Lisbon at 7 a.m. but the first flight on the new itinerary ran into a four-hour delay so they missed their connection and couldn't get into Lisbon until well after all the other teams had not only arrived but completed all their tasks.

The show's host met Ephraim and Chester at the airport and informed them they had been eliminated. Usually twice a season, a leg is pre-determined as a non-elimination round where the last place finisher gets a reprieve and races the next leg with an added penalty.

If ever a team was deserving of such a reprieve, it was these two but it simply wasn't their day. The ER doctors won the leg.

As for the baseball wives, they showed they learned one thing about travelling with V-I-P spouses. You can get what you want in the executive lounge of an airport rather than waiting at the gate. This allowed them to get first on the standby list and cut ahead of three other teams. They used this trick to place third this week but not without the obligatory "this is so hard" comment on the first task.

So, this will unfortunately conclude the Texans connection with the show.