Houston Methodist Partnership | Houston Texans - HoustonTexans.com

In 2020, the Texans and Houston Methodist hosted the Virtual Play Safe Sports Medicine Summit. The summit was designed for certified athletic trainers who work with Houston-area schools to learn from the Texans medical staff and physicians from Houston Methodist and is part of the Houston Methodist Outreach Athletic Training Program. The Outreach Athletic Program puts certified athletic trainers in schools that may not otherwise have training coverage. The program reaches more than 125,000 student-athletes annually.

Eight football moms were selected prior to last season to be representatives for the Most Valuable Moms program. The moms were chosen for their passion for youth football and commitment to improving player safety. As part of this program, each mom received recognition on HoustonTexans.com, a customized game ball and a Texans Legend to represent them in an on-field experience to win additional prizes.

During the offseason, the Texans and Houston Methodist collaborated to host the Virtual Play Safe Football Clinic for families in the Greater Houston area. This clinic served as an opportunity to educate young athletes and parents on player safety, concussion awareness, nutrition, heat and hydration, and football drills in a safe way during the COVID-19 pandemic. DB Jacob Martin also shared drill tips for youth athletes to utilize to stay in shape as they prepared for the upcoming season.

The Sports Medicine Fellowship program was renamed the Houston Texans Scholars program in recognition of the support received from the Texans. The annual donation from the Texans helps three Houston Methodist fellows per year get sports medicine training. This partnership provides access for the fellows to attend national conferences, practice in cadaver labs, conduct research and have hands-on experience on Texans gamedays.

The Texans help support regionalized student physical events for middle school and high school students in districts across Houston. The goal of the program is to provide the highest-quality exams to all students across the Greater Houston area. As of publication, these events were postponed due to COVID-19.

With funding support from the Texans, the Houston Methodist team spreads awareness and information on the diagnosis and treatment of concussions to certified athletic trainers, school administrators, coaches, teachers and parents in Houston and across the country via educational events, virtual learning, videos and lectures. More than $837,000 has been donated by the Texans to support concussion outreach efforts. The Houston Methodist Concussion Center, under the direction of Dr. Kenneth Podell since 2012, has provided 320 community and school events on concussion education and booths reaching over 47,000 people. Since its inception in 2016, "EduHero," the two-hour concussion educational video, has been viewed 12,875 times across 380 Texas school districts.

Led by national concussion expert Dr. Kenneth Podell and funded by the Texans and GE, this program enables Houston Methodist specialists to evaluate and diagnose patients virtually through a secure portal alongside an on-site athletic trainer. This helps students in farlying areas get faster and proper diagnosis and treatment. Since the program's inception in mid-2016, 200 individual tele-evaluations have been performed.

This $25,000 annual grant supports the Houston Methodist Outreach Athletic Training Program, which provides certified athletic trainers to schools that are currently lacking sufficient coverage due to budget constraints. The grant covers approximately 700 hours of service from certified athletic trainers. In some of the schools, these visits are the only medical professional students may see. The Houston Methodist Outreach Athletic Training Program visits approximately 700 programs per year, including 507 schools, some as far as 150 miles from the center of Houston.