HOUSTON -- At a team luncheon when he was with the Oakland Raiders, Houston Texans punter Shane Lechler got to see behind the mask.
The gorilla mask, to be exact.
"That guy is a doctor in San Jose," Lechler said, of one the many members of the famed Black Hole that makes up the Raiders' home crowd. At games, he wears a gorilla mask. They sometimes let him know what their game-day costume is.
"Or they'll give you a business card that actually has it on there," Lechler said, laughing. "That's what's kind of eerie. Their own business card."
The costumes are part of what make Oakland's home field a big advantage for the Raiders. The Texans haven't been there since 2010. Houston also played in Oakland in 2008 during left tackle Duane Brown's rookie season, when a man in silver and black face paint heckled Brown all game.
"He was letting me have it for the full 60 minutes," Brown said.
Brown actually responded.
"I didn't know any better," Brown said. "The second time I went out there, I didn't pay any attention to it."
Lechler, who is in his second season with the Texans, is trying to treat his return to Oakland without much fanfare. It helps that there's been so much turnover there as Lechler barely recognizes most of the team, as well as the organization that drafted him in the fifth round in 2000.
"I know Antonio (Smith) because I was here with him," Lechler said. "...I'm ready to kind of get in, hopefully get a win and get it over with."
His fondest memories came from the 2002 season when Oakland played in Super Bowl XXXVII.
"I got to play with the league MVP at quarterback," Lechler said. "We had one of those teams that it was just a lot of fun. I'm not sure we were the most talented team every Sunday, but we got the job done every Sunday."
There will be one weird element for Lechler -- he's never been in the visitor's locker room in Oakland.
"I means a lot going back -- the organization definitely means a lot to me," Lechler said. "But hopefully I can stay here in Houston for as long as I was there."