Chants of "T.J. Yates! T.J. Yates!" ring across the Reliant Stadium plaza even though it's 9 p.m. on a Sunday night and the Houston Texans game ended almost six hours ago, and 1,061 miles away. The quarterback takes the modest, slightly raised stage and grabs the microphone with a flourish Jay-Z could appreciate.

"Division champs, baby!" Yates screams out to the crowd, one that's grown to several thousand strong. These are the believers and they've waited outside for several hours in order to share their love with the players who've brought a franchise that's often made to feel second fiddle to the playoffs for the first time in team history.

When Andre Johnson, as cool and chilled as ever in all-gray sweats, takes the microphone, the longest suffering, and longest fighting, Texan is visibly moved. "I appreciate you guys, man," Johnson says as the "Andre! Andre!" gets louder and louder and louder.

This is the night Texans fans have waited for and damn, if they or the team are going to let circumstances get in the way. So what if the Texans clinched in Cincinnati? The organization is still going to welcome the fans to come out to Reliant and meet the players as they arrive home. And the players are going to embrace the moment because even millionaire professional athletes sometimes just want to feel like part of something bigger.

So there's second-year tailback Ben Tate somehow working his way through the crowd to get to the cordoned-off stage — even though he could come in through the secure glass doors behind the outside platform like most his teammates who appear if he wished. And there's left tackle Duane Brown stopping his car in the middle of the parking lot to sign autographs for throngs of surprised fans.

"I thought this would be something I could share with my kids," Texans fans Gary Weaver says, a five-year-old on his shoulders and two teenagers at his side. "This is something they'll always remember."

Some big kids are unlikely to ever forget it either. Including a 24-year-old rookie quarterback whose mom couldn't watch him engineer that 80-yard, game-winning, playoff-clinching touchdown drive in Cincinnati.

If you think of Yates as some soft-spoken rookie quarterback just happy to be taking snaps for the Houston Texans, you need to think again. For Yates is comfortable on the big stage — whether it's taking the huddle down six points with 2:33 left or commanding the attention of everyone at a pep rally.

As tailback Arian Foster likes to say of Yates, "That may be how he is around you guys (in the media). But in the locker room, he's pretty loud."

He is a quarterback. A postion where only leaders — whether it's done Tim Tebow, Eli Manning or Michael Vick style — truly excel. It's pretty clear the Texans have a leader in this third stringer turned difference maker too. Two games into his NFL career, Yates has two wins, two game-winning fourth quarter drives and one 300-yard day.

"There's nothing (Yates) cannot do from a talent standpoint," Texans coach Gary Kubiak says in his postgame radio interview. "I told the guys . . . you all worry about your spots, because this guy's going to keep getting better."

Kubiak coaches Yates so bold, much bolder than he coached Matt Leinart in Leinart's one half as the starter. On Sunday, Kubiak calls a play-action pass that has Yates throwing out of his own end zone. He calls for passes on first down, encourages Yates to go for big plays down the field.

On the winning touchdown pass — that six-yard slant to Kevin Walter with two seconds left — Yates perfectly executes a play the Texans worked on in practice on Friday. He notices the Bengal linebackers dropping back and flings the ball to Walter as quick as he can. But not too quick.

There's nothing overly rushed about T.J. Yates.

It's enough to make an already confident team feel Super.

The Promise

When nose tackle Shaun Cody appears in front of the crowd outside Budweiser Plaza, he looks like he could have bounced here from Cincinnati, without the aid of a jet or a police escort from the airport. The most excitable Texan (with apologies to Connor Barwin) is ready to channel Namath.

"How about those Texans, baby!" Cody screams. "We're going to win the Super Bowl, baby!"

Has a 6-foot-4, 301-pound man ever gone Namath before?

For his part, Barwin spends his time, dancing and clowning — and advancing his pet cause. The former Cincinnati Bearcat may have made one of the biggest plays of the game back in Cincinnati, dislodging a quarterback from Katy (Bengals rookie starter Andy Dalton) from the football to set up an easy Texans touchdown and start the second half comeback. But Barwin is more interested in fueling his Twitter movement at the moment.

"I only want to say one thing," Barwin says, "Bulls On Parade! Bulls On Parade!"

That's the nickname (first written about in CultureMap) that the Texans defense has embraced as its own, after Barwin Twitter sourced it from his followers. Handmade signs touting "Bulls On Parade!" dot the Plaza, right alongside all those official $35 locker room AFC South champion T-shirts the fans scoop up in the Team Shop.

Still, this is a mostly impromptu party — the best kind. The music booming from the speakers set up besides the stage that's maybe a foot off the ground? Those tunes are supplied by a Texan employee's personal iPod. One of the police officers brought in for security is even moved enough to volunteer to take pictures for several fans so they can have a better look, a better souvenir of the night.

And no one thinks of leaving when the 8 p.m. expected arrival of the team gets pushed back.

"We've been waiting on this for a long time," Johnson says later. "It's been hard. We've been through some dark times. But you made us stronger."

One of the best touches of the rally is how the healthy Texans work to make sure their injured teammates are involved. Johnson, out with a hamstring injury again, is still given the spot worthy of the all-time greatest Texan. But outside linebacker Mario Williams, who has been out for the season since early October, gets pushed up onto the small stage to speak as well.

It's a loud night for everyone. Fitting of the new quarterback. Fitting of those Bulls. Fitting of the champs.