Getty Images

The Texans and Cowboys won’t play in Dallas tomorrow night after all.

Instead, the game has been canceled. The reason is apparently to allow the Texans to travel home, as parts of Houston are starting to clear after the devastation of Hurricane Harvey.

That’s a surprising decision because the NFL had specifically stated that the game would go on, in Dallas, where the Texans have been practicing all week after they were displaced by Hurricane Harvey. The NFL even said NFL Network would televise the game to help draw attention to hurricane relief efforts.

Now the league is backing off that. The Cowboys and Texans will surely be relieved not to have to go through with it, as no team wants to play its fourth preseason game. But the league has some explaining to do about why it waited until the day before the game to make this decision.