Texans DE and Bostonian Tim Bulman had a rootin'-tootin' good time Thursday at the Livestock Show.

We mentioned yesterday that DE Tim Bulman and TE Joel Dreessen were mic'd up and and videotaped in and around the Houston Livestock Show and carnival.

Bulman tried on hats, blow-dried cows and marveled at the biggie-sized rabbits, while Dreessen interviewed livestock show contestants and sales people, and tried out some of the fried treats.

Starting Monday we'll have a few video segments from the experience, but for now enjoy some photos from Thursday afternoon by clicking here.

TE Joel Dreessen (left) and DE Tim Bulman shoot an introduction for Texans TV at the carnival.

It's a gorgeous spring afternoon, so naturally, we gave microphones to Tim Bulman and Joel Dreessen and videotaped them at the Livestock Show in Reliant Center and out at the Carnival as well.

We'll have the videos up starting on Monday, and when you combine a couple of outgoing NFL players (one who hails from Boston) and the array of scenery across the way from Reliant Stadium, you'll want to watch.

Bulman (left) and Dreessen (right) ponder how they'll eat a Fried Snickers.

With the start of the Texans' offseason workout program beginning on March 29, players are starting to trickle back into the stadium. There has been a group of players here since the season ended rehabbing injuries from 2009, but other players are making their way back as well for voluntary workouts with new strength coach Cedric Smith and his staff.

I caught up with cornerbacks Glover Quin and Brice McCain in the locker room today. Both said they got some much-needed time to rest this offseason after the long haul of their rookie seasons, and both are looking forward to the opportunity to step up with cornerback Dunta Robinson now with the Atlanta Falcons. I'll have more on the two young corners soon.

Overall, there was a buzz among players in the training room and locker room this morning about the start of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament. Players shared their sleeper picks and predictions with each other, and Quin not surprisingly said that he has third-seeded New Mexico in the Final Four in one of his brackets (Quin played his college ball at UNM). Many of the players are big into March Madness, whether it's because they were standout high school basketball players themselves, are pulling for their respective alma maters or are just fans of the sport and the tournament in general.

A few more mock drafts have been released at NFL.com, including one from Bucky Brooks. This time around, he has Ryan Mathews going to the Texans, (just like our mock feauturing Bart Enis and Lance Zierlein's mock, amongst others) and that's a change from his previous one in which Houston took Texas safety Earl Thomas.

Over the last few days, we've put up Draft Vignettes that were done by the NFL Network. They feature some of the players from the Senior Bowl and Combine who are trying to get drafted, and so far we've put up vignettes about Idaho lineman Mike Iupati and Virginia Tech offensive lineman Ed Wang, to name a few.

Today it's Notre Dame center Eric Olsen, (pictured below) and his story is a unique one. His father was a New York firefighter and his mother a nurse, and both were obviously very involved in helping out after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.

The vignettes aren't necessarily about the best players in the draft, but more so about the interesting personal stories that some of these hopefuls have.

Notre Dame center Eric Olsen (55) hopes his name gets called in April at the NFL Draft.

Per John McClain of the Houston Chronicle, Texans owner Bob McNair is in favor of changing the NFL's overtime rules for playoff games and will vote "yes" on the issue at NFL owners meetings next week in Orlando, Fla.

The current overtime rules, established more than 30 years ago, call for a sudden-death format. A coin flip determines who receives the ball to start the overtime period, and the first team to score wins.

Texans general manager Rick Smith serves on the NFL's competition committtee that has proposed a new system, which would give both teams at least one overtime possession if the team that receives the opening kickoff scores a field goal. The only way that the the game could end after the first possession is if a team scores a touchdown. 

If the first team scores a field goal, the opposing team would have a chance to tie the game with a field goal of its own or win the game with a touchdown. If the opposing team ties the game, sudden death would begin.

“They’re talking about something that makes sense,” McNair said in McClain's report. “I’d be in favor of something like that, where you can’t lose by a field goal on the first possession.”

McClain notes in the article that coaches appear to be opposed to the change. McClain previously opined via Twitter that he'd be surprised if owners approve the change because "too many coaches don't want it."

The Texans would like to get your feedback on your interest in mobile applications or "apps" - software products built for mobile devices like the iPhone, BlackBerry and Android that can be downloaded for a variety of purposes.

Please take our brief survey on smartphone apps to have a chance to win a football autographed by Matt Schaub or two tickets to the Texans vs. Cowboys game during the 2010 NFL season.

Multiple media outlets have reported that quarterback Rex Grossman, a free agent who was Matt Schaub's backup in Houston last season, has agreed to a one-year deal with the Washington Redskins.

The move reunites Grossman with Redskins offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan and quarterbacks coach Matt LaFleur, who were both on the Texans' coaching staff last season.

Grossman won the Texans' backup quarterback job in a bit of a surprising development last preseason, ousting high-priority free agent acquisition Dan Orlovsky. Grossman, who led the 2006 Chicago Bears to the Super Bowl, played in just one game for the Texans. He temporarily spelled an injured Schaub on the road at Jacksonville and went 3-of-9 for 33 yards and an interception in a losing effort.

The Texans signed free agent quarterback John David Booty in January to add depth at quarterback behind Schaub and Orlovsky.

Don't forget: left tackle Duane Brown is doing a live chat today from 1-2:00 p.m., and you can ask him questions by clicking here.

Also, 49ers quarterback David Carr had some interesting things to say about left guard and former teammate Chester Pitts, who is reportedly visiting San Francisco on Thursday.

"Yeah, I called Chester and I think it's awesome. He's a great football player. I know that when we were in Houston a lot of those guys got bad rap because we gave up so many sacks and were struggling. In reality, they were moving around so much. Chester was really the one guy who stayed in his position that played every snap up until last year."

Pat Kirwan of NFL.com released his latest mock draft late yesterday, and has the Texans choosing UCLA defensive tackle Brian Price.

Coming up today from 1-2 p.m. CT (click on the photo to visit the live chat page)...

Left guard Chester Pitts, one of the Texans' 11 remaining unrestricted free agents, has reportedly scheduled visits with the Detroit Lions and San Francisco 49ers this week. Last Thursday, John Niyo of the Detroit News wrote that Pitts' agent confirmed that his client will meet the Lions on Wednesday before traveling to San Francisco. 

Lions beat writer Tom Kowalski of MLive.com wrote about Pitts' impending visit this afternoon, discussing the Lions' need for help at left guard and tracking Pitts' recovery from injury.

Pitts was a fixture on the Texans' offensive line for the first seven years of the franchise's existence. He started the first 114 games in team history before suffering a season-ending right knee injury in Week 2 of the 2009 season.

If you want to bring Andre down, you better hit him harder than that.

Andre Johnson had another great season with the Texans, cracking the 1,500 yard mark in receiving and helping to lead the club to it's best finish ever at 9-7. So it's only natural that he's involved at the top of the list of the best plays in 2009, as he checked in at Number 2 and today at Number 1.

Also, left tackle Duane Brown will be up in the Texans offices on Tuesday from 1-2:00 p.m. for a live chat with fans. It should be a pretty fun time, as some of the previous live chats this offseason have resulted in you the fans asking all sorts of stuff. TE Joel Dreessen answered a question about sharpening lawnmower blades, RB Steve Slaton was asked about which Jay Z song he warms up to, P Matt Turk talked fake punts, and the list goes on. Make sure you send in a question or two (you can do so early by clicking here) on Tuesday, because Duane wants to hear from you!

Texans defensive end Mario Williams and three other Pro Bowlers recently visited US troops in Southwest Asia as part of the annual NFL-USO Tour. The players traveled to nine bases in eight days from March 2-9 to visit with troops in the Persian Gulf, signing autographs, participating in meet-and-greets and boosting troop morale.

The first part of the tour saw the players visit an Air Force base in Qatar (check out these great photos from the USO), and the players later visited Afghanistan.

Here's a recap from the latter part of the trip from NFL director of community affairs David Krichavsky, who traveled with the group of players:

Day 5, March 6

One of the highlights of any NFL-USO tour is visiting the smaller, more remote bases that lack the creature comforts of the larger bases and very rarely have celebrity entertainment tours. These bases are usually classified as Forward Operating Bases, or FOBs. On Days 5 & 6 of the NFL-USO tour, our group did a little "FOB hopping."
 
On Day 5, we departed Bagram Air Base to travel by helicopter to Jalalabad Air Field (JAF). JAF is located in Eastern Afghanistan, near the border of Pakistan. Our group would spend the next two days along the border, an area that has seen some of the most intense fighting, as the Taliban will frequently strike in Afghanistan and then flee into Pakistan where US forces are not allowed to chase them.
 
Flying by helicopter from Bagram to JAF gave our group a great sense of Afghanistan’s sheer beauty and imposing terrain. The eastern part of the country is covered with one mountain ridge after another, separated by narrow valleys. Small Afghan villages are built into the mountains or in the valleys. There is only one paved road in the eastern part of the country, and it is a dangerous one to travel. 
 
When we arrived at Jalalabad Air Field, we were greeted by Command Sergeant Major Charles Sasser, the top NCO (Non-Commissioned Officer) on the base, who gave us a quick briefing and tour. He also "coined" the players in the military tradition and gave them gifts from the 4th Infantry Division. We reciprocated by giving CSM Sasser a limited edition game coin from Super Bowl XLIV. 
 
This was only a quick stop though, as we would return to JAF tomorrow for a longer meet-and-greet. We were soon back at the LZ (landing zone), boarding Blackhawk helicopters en route to FOB Blessing.
 
FOB Blessing is located approximately 100km north of JAF and was named after Sgt. Jay Blessing who was killed in action in the area in 2003. At Blessing, we toured the FOB and held a meet-and-greet before eating lunch at the DFAC with the troops. One of the great things about visiting FOBs is that the players get to visit with nearly everyone on base who isn't out on a mission. A definite highlight of our time at Blessing was watching the troops fire off mortar rounds (both 120mm and 155mm rounds) while visiting the artillery pits. The 155mm mortar rounds have a 200 meter kill radius -- meaning that anything within 200 meters of where a round lands will be obliterated -- and the noise when one of these rounds is fired is absolutely deafening.
 
Then it was back to the Blackhawks to fly to FOB Joyce. Joyce is located on the eastern edge of Afghanistan, less than 2km from the border of Pakistan. FOB Joyce is where we would spend the night, but it is a "black out base" -- meaning that the base isn't lit up at night for security reasons. Overall, our accommodations were very modest at Joyce. The players bunked-up, two to a room, in small plywood-constructed rooms that contained nothing more than one bunk bed with two mattresses. We brought sleeping bags to put on top of the mattresses.
 
Nevertheless, our group had an absolutely terrific experience at FOB Joyce. We met the brave men and women who go "outside the wire" on patrol as often as 6 times a week. Each time they do, they know that they are very likely to engage the enemy in some way -- where it is direct fire, indirect fire, or an IED attack. 

The battalion at Joyce had been there for 4 months and hadn't had a celebrity visitor of any kind -- a politician, USO tour, etc. So they were very appreciative of our visit. The NFL-USO tour had hit its stride as we “FOB hopped” on Day 5.

Day 6, March 7

Day 6 began with a 05:30  wake-up call at FOB Joyce. After a morning hike to the OP (Observation Post) at the edge of the base and then breakfast, our group was back on its helicopters and off to our next FOB. FOB Bostick is located to the north of Joyce, but also extremely close to the Pakistani border.  Bostick has approximately 450 US troops -- mostly Army -- but nearly 1,000 troops when you include ANA (Afghan National Army) and ANS (Afghan National Security) forces. At the very heart of the US strategy in Afghanistan is training the Afghans to take control of their own country so we can pull our troops out and go home. To this end, one of the most important jobs our troops have is tutoring the Afghan forces, and when our troops go out on missions, ANA troops almost always travel with them.
 
The troops at Bostick have seen a lot of combat action during their time in Afghanistan. We were told story after story by troops of the firefights and ambushes by the Taliban, close calls, causalities, and even deaths. Our group met a 21-year-old sergeant from Boise, ID who had been shot two days before we arrived. Apparently, the bullet went in his backside and emerged out of his hip. Since he wasn't ambulatory and able to make it to our formal meet-and-greet, the players went up to the room where he was convalescing to see him. We learned that he was staying at FOB Bostick to recover rather than going to a larger base with a dedicated hospital so that he could stick with his "band of brothers” and continue fighting with them once healed. These are the types of stories you hear all the time in the military.
 
We stayed at FOB Bostick through lunch and then traveled back to Jalalabad Air Field, or JAF. This time we held a meet-and-greet and had the opportunity to visit with hundreds of troops on base. We also met and exchanged coins with the Commanding Officer on base, Colonel George. 
 
From JAF it was one more chopper ride back to Bagram, where our “FOB hopping” had begun the day before, and where we would spend the night.

Nicole is prepping for 2010 Houston Texans Cheerleader tryouts, and she's taking Texans TV along with her.

'Making the Team' is a series we're running on Texans TV, and our first video went up a few moments ago. We're following Nicole as she gets ready for tryouts in early April and so far we've gone with her to kickboxing class, a cooking lesson, a fabric store to pick out material for her workout clothes, and just this morning we were at Hermann Park as she ran a hill workout at Miller Outdoor Theater.

We'll start showing those videos over the next few weeks, and we still have some more appointments with her.

I wrote yesterday about Texans tight end James Casey's semester at Rice University (check out this great accompanying video feature if you haven't yet). All-Pro wide receiver Andre Johnson is also back in school, taking 12 credits as a full-time student at the University of Miami.

Student newspaper The Miami Hurricane has the story, a nice read that was prominently featured on the front page of the paper's most recent edition.

“It was just something I always wanted to do,” Johnson told the paper. “I always told my mom that if I left school early, I’d come back and finish. So I just felt like it was time to come back and get it done.”

Johnson was 30 credits short of a degree in liberal arts when he left the University of Miami in 2003 after his junior season. Seven years later, he's back in the classroom.

“It’s definitely different because you haven’t been doing it for so long,” he said in the article. “To be honest it’s kind of fun to be back here. I get a kick out of just seeing people looking at me walking around campus and things like that.”