EDITOR'S NOTE:
Tight end James Casey, drafted in the fifth round (152nd overall) this April, is a former minor league baseball player who joined the Texans as a 24-year-old rookie from Rice. In his 11th diary entry for HoustonTexans.com, Casey discusses the upcoming game against Minnesota.
I'm really excited about the game on Monday. We've gone through this whole week and prepared hard, prepared like it's the regular season. We're working toward the Jets because they're our first real game, but we've spent a lot of time getting ready for the Vikings.
I'm just like a normal fan – I'm excited to play the Vikings and Brett Favre. I grew up being a huge Brett Favre fan. I had the Packers jacket and everything back when I was a kid, so I'm excited just to be on the same field as him. But we're going into it to win the game, for sure.
When you lose a game like we did last week, you always feel like you could've done better. As an athlete and as a competitor, you want to go out the next day and play another game again. You want to get on the field right way to kind of redeem yourself and play strong and put some better film out there that your teammates can see. So I'm ready to go.
Playing on Monday Night Football, that's going to be ridiculous. Every kid grows up watching Monday Night Football because it's during the school week and you get a chance to sit down with your dad and your family and watch it. Even if it's the preseason, like I've said, to me this is like the playoffs, the Super Bowl, because I could have two games left. We're going to play Monday and Friday, two games in five days. Those are our last two chances to get out there and impress our coaching staff, impress our teammates to try to make the team. So it's going to be like the Super Bowl for me.
{QUOTE}I think it's going to be an electric atmosphere. There are going to be a lot of fans in the stadium. It's Monday Night Football, it's the Vikings, it's Favre, it's Adrian Peterson. I couldn't ask for more than that. I wish time could just speed up so we can get to the game, because I want to get back out there and get in another game atmosphere, get back on the field and try to prove myself.
Somebody told me that Coach Kubiak has been saying some nice things to the media this week about the way I've been playing. Any time the coaches say anything positive, especially the head coach, it definitely makes me feel good because I'm just a fifth-round guy trying to fight for a spot on this team. For them to give me any kind of positive reinforcement about how hard I've been working, it's great.
But I know no matter what they say, I've got a lot of work to do. I've got to just keep battling out there, keep working to get all of the coaching staff and my teammates to where they can trust me to do my one-eleventh every time I'm on the field. That's the saying we had in college, "Do your one-eleventh" – do your job for your 10 other teammates that are out there. I've got to be more consistent and make them confident that I'm going to do my job as hard as I can each and every play.
Thanks to everyone for their support throughout the preseason. I'm looking forward to seeing a big crowd and a great game on Monday night.
**James Casey rookie diary archive
**8/25: Playing at Reliant Stadium; trying different positions
8/18: First road trip, first NFL game
8/12: Camp life; preparing for Kansas City
8/1: The first two days of camp; filling in at fullback
7/19: A busy week; thoughts on the MLB All-Star Game
7/10: Rookie symposium; preparing for camp
6/21: My first month as a Texan
6/14: Wrapping up OTAs
6/5: Playing golf; signing autographs
5/29: First two weeks on the job
