Tag Archives: socks

AAF, NFL, XFL

James II, Charles (2) ‘Socks’

Acquired: IP 2020, Houston Roughnecks Season Ticket Holders Kickoff Party
See Also: Charles James

Charles James has continued to stay busy as a defensive back playing football and keeping the dream alive since his last stop in Houston going back to 2016. He joined the Colts for a game in 2016 and then spent the 2017 off-season with the Bills and the Jaguars.

After a year out of football, Charles found a home in the Spring league of the Alliance of American Football (2019). Charles was the old vet in a very young secondary, for the Memphis Express, posting 18 tackles and 5 pass deflections. In the final contest against the Orlando Apollos, Charles had his best game with 6 tackles and 4 pass deflections- as the Express almost upset Orlando, but lost in the closing seconds.

Charles next joined the XFL for the 2020 season originally with the St. Louis Battlehawks. He’d be traded to the Houston Roughnecks before the season, and added to an already capable secondary. In 4 contests Socks had 7 combined tackles and a pass deflection, before the league was ended by COVID.

James as a defensive back by nature is skilled in the art of smack talk, and with the XFL being very upfront and personal with sideline interviews you know they were bound to catch some quality audio from James, and indeed they did.

During the league’s week 4 contest against the Dallas Renegades- Renegades QB Landry Jones had a particularly poor game, throwing 3 interceptions in the first half. As the camera rolled on the sidelines, Socks blurted out to the camera crew, “Get that quarterback the f*** outta here!”

I met James at the Roughneck’s Season Ticket Holder Party. He was very grateful to sign autographs and meet fans, and he very much enjoyed his short time in the AAF.

I lobbied hard to get Charles an official football card from Topps, but surprisingly he was neither included in the AAF or the XFL card sets. About a year after the AAF folded I went ahead and designed Charles his card out based on the above shot he signed. Looking back I wish I had thought of doing this sooner, as I am sure he would have appreciated this card.

NFL

James II, Charles ‘Socks’

mem15 cjames IIAcquired: IP 12/15/2015, Go Texans Store

Charles James’ star shot to fame in 2015 with the Houston Texans appearance on the HBO show Hard Knocks. Socks was originally a free agent signing of the New York Giants back in 2013, but didn’t make the roster in 2014.  Charles signed as a free agent with the Texans in the offseason. With his colorful and frankly ugly socks, memorable soundbites, rags to riches story, childlike enthusiasm for the game, and play during the preseason, it was easy to cheer for Charles James to make the roster of the Texans. He even got to contribute at runningback, blazing his way for a long TD against the Saints that was called back! The problem is – he didn’t make the team. The Texans were confident with their current lineup of defensive backs, so the turk saw James on the last day of camp. The Texans hoped to float him through waivers so he could join the practice squad, but the Ravens signed him instead to theirs. The Texans reshuffled their defense due to injuries and signed James to the active roster taking him back from Baltimore in October.  James was excited about returning to Houston where he immediately joined the special teams and as a nickel back on the defense.

A really nice guy, Charles James was happy to sign anything and everything fans put in front of him. He engaged each one of us and is grateful that he is back in H-Town.

The second stop on Lance and my marathon tour of Houston was at the stadium Go Texans store. Honestly I didn’t think we were going to be able to squeeze everything in, but it worked out well. It also helped that we were the first people in line for the Whataburger event earlier that day, but Lance got worried about his car and really wanted to get James so we took a shot. The line moved quickly and we were in and out the door in 15 minutes putting us on the way to the third leg of the trip.