The Texans added three players

Hundreds of Berlin residents braved the heat to watch a parade featuring dance teams, officials and youth football teams in Tate's honor on Main Street before gathering at the park for a picnic.

"It's exciting that a local young man has made it to the NFL," said Betty Nichols, a Berlin resident, as she waited for the parade to begin. Nichols wore a sign over her Baltimore Ravens T-shirt that read "Today I'm a Houston Texans fan."

Tate grew up in Berlin, getting his start in football in Pop Warner teams. Part of the family -- which is so large no one seems to know how many members there are -- still live in the area.

However, Betty Upchurch, the great-niece of Tate's grandmother, Ellen Tate, drove 11 hours from Cleveland with her husband to attend the celebration.

"We decided since it was such a historic event in our family that we would come," Upchurch said.

Ellen Tate agreed, adding that she couldn't be more excited for her grandson.

"I never thought I would live to see a day like this," she said. "I'm so proud."

Tate comes from an athletic family. Several of his relatives have been NFL hopefuls, and his grandfather was a strong player in the Eastern Shore's Negro Baseball League years ago, where he played alongside now County Commissioner Jimmy Purnell.

"The whole family are great sportsmen," Purnell said, adding that he got to know Tate driving to track meets and football games as a student at SDHS.

The family organized the festivities with the town to serve as inspiration for children to work hard and follow their dreams.

Tate is already a role model to his cousins Ernest and Zion Shockley. The boys, ages 11 and 7, watched as many of Tate's college games as they could and plan to follow his career with the Texans. They also use the advice their older cousin has given them -- to "just work hard" on the football field while playing for the Berlin Dolphins, a team of the Salvation Army Football League.

The running back's determination is still remembered at Andre Johnson Stephen Decatur High School, where he played until junior year, said Tyler Hartrim, 17, a quarterback on the team.

"His attitude, definitely," Hartrim said. "His work ethic too, he was constantly in the weight room."

The Texans added three players to the roster since the last checkup on May 9.  Those players are shown below in green.

There were seven undrafted free agents released during the period.

The NFL off-season roster limit is 80, but the Texans will get a roster exemption for Brian Cushing.

That means the Texans football jerseys will be able to carry an extra player (53 plus Cushing) into Week 1 to help offset the loss of the 2009 Defensive Rookie of the Year, who is suspended without pay for the first four weeks of the season.

Players not under contract (currently Kareem Jackson, Ben Tate and Garrett Graham) do not count against the 80 man roster limit.  But there's just enough room on the Texans roster and no cuts will have to be made when the three remaining rookies get around to signing their deals.

In the summary below, you will see two numbers in parenthesis following the position names.  The number on the left (in black) is the current number of players on the roster at that position.  The number on the right (in red) is the number of players the Texans took into Week 1 of the 2009 season at that position.