Foster posts critical story as Twitter profile pic

Yeah, the Houston Texans have noticed Dan Shaughnessy's column in the Boston Globe. Arian Foster is making sure everybody else notices it, too.

The Texans running back is using a passage from Shaughnessy's column as his Twitter profile picture.

The passage refers to the Texans as "fraudulent" and "terrible" and asks, of the New England Patriots' playoff game against Houston on Sunday, "Could this get any easier?"

The Patriots, of course, blew out the Texans 42-14 on Dec. 10 in Gillette Stadium, where they will play them again on Sunday.

Shaughnessy responded to Foster's Twitter picture on his personal Twitter account Monday, saying "Hey @arianfoster — Loving the avatar. Bring your A game to Foxboro on Sunday."

The trash talking then went a step further when Shaughnessy appeared on Comcast Sportsnet New England's "Sports Tonight."

"This is indicative of the problems that they have there in Houston,"
Shaughnessy said. "If you wrote something about the Giants or the Jets,
no player would respond to something that was in the Boston Globe. So
yeah, it's a little bit alarming. It's a little piece of evidence that
those guys are in trouble. I hope I'm wrong, I want a close game. I want
some competition."

Patriots coach Bill Belichick argued Sunday that the Dec. 10 game has no relationship to the one they're about to play, an argument the Texans will be glad to support.

Nonetheless, the Patriots are a 9-point favorite.