HOUSTON \u2013 As the Houston Texans gear up for their wild card showdown against the Pittsburgh Steelers, the stakes are rising beyond playoff bragging rights and into the realm of county pride.<\/p>\n
Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo has entered a friendly wager with Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato, tying local leadership pride to the outcome of Monday\u2019s AFC matchup. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve got a little bit more riding on it,\u201d Hidalgo said. \u201cI\u2019ve made friends with County Executive Sarah Innamorato of Allegheny County, and I decided to challenge her to a bet. This is a competition across teams, across counties and it\u2019s personal for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
If the Texans pull off a win, Innamorato will have to wear Texans gear during an entire session of her county\u2019s governing body meeting and send Houston a basket of Steelers merchandise including what Hidalgo jokingly described as \u201cyinz\u201d merch, a regional twist on Pittsburgh slang.<\/p>\n
\u201cI learned that up there instead of saying \u2018y\u2019all,\u2019 they say \u2018yinz,\u2019\u201d Hidalgo said with a laugh. \u201cAnd so apparently, if and when we win, I will receive a basket of \u2018yinz\u2019 \u2018merch.\u201d<\/p>\n
But if the Steelers come out on top, Hidalgo will have to don Steelers gear at the next Harris County Commissioners Court meeting and send Pittsburgh some Houston swag, including a coveted NASA jacket.<\/p>\n
The wager also includes a fashion penalty for the loser: wearing the opposing team\u2019s merchandise for an entire governing body meeting.<\/p>\n
Despite the playful stakes, Hidalgo says her confidence in the Texans is serious.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re doing so great,\u201d she said. \u201cI think we can do it, and I think we can go even farther. We\u2019ve got so many great players. We\u2019ve got the best defense, and I think we can take on their quarterback. We\u2019re right there.\u201d<\/p>\n
With county pride, personal bragging rights, and a NASA jacket on the line, Hidalgo made her prediction clear.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am betting that the Texans are going to win,\u201d she said. \u201cI know we can. Go Texans!\u201d<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON \u2013 As the Houston Texans gear up for their wild card showdown against the Pittsburgh Steelers, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":664928,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2056],"tags":[16051,96348,7,221,253,96346,2368,96349,6,96350,222,96347],"class_list":["post-664927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston-texans","tag-allegheny-county","tag-county-pride-wager","tag-football","tag-houston","tag-houston-texans","tag-houston-vs-pittsburgh","tag-houstontexans","tag-lina-hidalgo","tag-nfl","tag-sara-innamorato","tag-texans","tag-texans-vs-steelers"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115861971634318212","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=664927"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664927\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/664928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=664927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=664927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=664927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}