Mascot tears Terrible Towel, playoff hopes vanish. Now, Toro attempts to mend the curse before it sinks the Texans' next season.
The Houston Texans' 2025 season came to a disappointing end last Sunday as the team lost to the New England Patriots in an ugly fashion. The defense played well for the most part, but the offense held the team back, which became a common theme of the 2025 season. Houston followed the trend of the last two years as the group was able to get another playoff win, but failed to make it past the Divisional round of the postseason.
A lot of people are being blamed for the loss to New England. At the top of that last is quarterback C.J. Stroud, but Toro the mascot is also being blamed for the team's performance. This comes after the mascot ripped a Terrible Towel in half after Houston's win over the Pittsburgh Steelers during the Wild Card round.
Believe it or not, there is a long history of teams or players disrespecting the Terrible Towel and it coming back to bite them. The most recent example came during the 2023 season. The Jacksonville Jaguars beat the Steelers in Pittsburgh to bring their record on the season to 6-2. Safety Andrew Wingard grabbed the Terrible Towel from a fan in the stands and disrespected it.
The Jaguars finished the season with a 9-8 record, and Pittsburgh took their spot in the playoffs. The Steelers needed a win in Week 18, and a Jacksonville loss, and Pittsburgh beat the Baltimore Ravens while the Jaguars lost to the 5-11 on the road.
An older example of the Terrible Towel curse occurred during the 2008 season with another AFC South team. The Tennessee Titans and the Steelers squared off in the second to last week of the regular season, and the game essentially decided the number one seed in the AFC playoffs.
The Titans won, and Tennessee players stomped on the Terrible Towel on video after the game. The group lost the regular-season finale. The Titans were still the one-seed heading into the postseason, but they were upset at home by the Baltimore Ravens in the playoffs. The Steelers went on to win Super Bowl XLIII.
There is a ton of validity to the idea that there is a curse when it comes to messing with the Terrible Towel. Toro did that after the Wild Card victory, and then things went sideways against the Patriots.
Thankfully, Toro tried to fix his mistake, posting a video of himself piecing the Terrible Towel back together on Friday. Hopefully, this keeps the curse from dragging into the 2026 season for the Texans.