Since the team’s inception, the Houston Texans‘ lackluster record and zero Super Bowl appearances might have some people questioning whether or not the team is cursed. Turns out, it’s not the Texans: it’s the NRG Stadium. Betting.com recently ranked the country’s NFL stadiums based on the player injury rates, concluding that NRG Stadium in Houston is the second most cursed stadium in the league.
To conduct its ranking, Betting.com analyzed over 72,000 NFL injury reports since 2009. Per their findings, the publication has determined the most common injury types as well as the most likely positions players will be injured in.
“In such a physical sport, NFL players experience various slips, trips and bumps in their careers, ” the report reads. “Factors such as field surfaces, altitude and temperature all contribute to injury occurrence, with certain playing venues accruing a longer injury list than most.”
The report concluded Allegiant stadium in Las Vegas to be the most cursed stadium in the league with an average of 23.92 injuries per game. In second place, unfortunately, is NRG Stadium in Houston with an average of 22.87 injuries per game.
In support of their findings, the report cited the 2016 incident concerning Jadeveon Clowney’s non-contact injury, in which players criticized NRG Stadium’s poor field maintenance, specifically holes in the ground that tripped players. As with the rest of the NFL, knee injuries are the most common type of occurrence at NRG Stadium, comprising of 6.49% of total injury reports.
As far as the least-cursed stadiums go, the report determined it to be Mercedez-Benz Stadium, home of Atlanta Falcons with an average injury rate of 17.08 injuries per game.