HOUSTON — Bob McNair wanted a hockey team, but the NHL, which preferred deserts to derricks, said no. So he ponied up $700 million for an NFL expansion franchise in 1999 and got Lamar Hunt’s permission to use the name of the Dallas AFL team that had moved to Kansas City in 1963.

It’s been a decade since the Texans first donned their deep steel blue, battle red, and liberty white, but at the moment they’re at the top of the league, their return ticket to the playoffs already secured.