Hatred is a learned behavior that is passed down from one generation to the next. For the McNair family, it’s a tradition. So it should come as no surprise that their franchise is in shambles. After all, racism and mediocrity go together like peanut butter and jelly.
According to a report from ESPN, Texans owner Cal McNair — son of the late Bob McNair, who once doubled down on his criticism of Black players taking a knee, saying that he “can’t have the inmates running the prison” — paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to a search firm to help the team fill its general manager vacancy. But instead of hiring one of the two candidates of color presented to them — Omar Khan and Louis Riddick — the younger McNair ignored the firm’s recommendations and hired Nick Caserio, a white man.
Andrew Berry of the Browns and Chris Grier of the Dolphins are the only two Black general managers in a league of 32 teams with a workforce that’s over 70 percent Black.
Rumors and reports are flying about how pissed off Deshaun Watson is about McNair’s decision. It’s already been reported that Watson wanted Houston to hire Eric Bieniemy. As of now, the Texans are the only team with a head coaching vacancy that has yet to contact Bieniemy for an interview.
Bieniemy is Black, if you hadn’t figured it out by now.
Everything is falling apart for a team that just finished 4-12 with two of the best players in the NFL, and the ownership’s hatred of people who aren’t white is the reason.
This is the same franchise that hired, and fired, Bill O’Brien. A coach that allegedly made insensitive comments to DeAndre Hopkins during a meeting about his “baby mamas,” which is coded language used to describe Black people. O’Brien also decided to trade Hopkins, arguably the best wide receiver in the league, to Arizona for basically nothing. Interesting.
But, to be fair to O’Brien, it appears that he wasn’t liked by many in the locker room, regardless of color. In October, ESPN confirmed that J.J. Watt and O’Brien got into a “verbal blowup at practice” because the coach had “lost the team.”
However, while all of these things have taken place in Houston over the years, Watson had never publicly involved himself with any of it. He’d decided to stay away from anything controversial.
But then, Deshaun Watson woke up. As one of the faces of the league, he slowly but surely started to use his platform. We saw him marching and protesting over the summer. He’s found his voice and is realizing his power.
Don’t ignore the fact that Miami is the only team in the NFL in which the head coach and general manager are both Black.
In September, I used Watson as an example of how race plays a part in why franchises draft sorry white quarterbacks. Watson had just signed his four-year, $177.54 million deal, with $111 million guaranteed, and he illustrated the absurdity of the NFL as he and Patrick Mahomes — both Black QBs — are the two highest-paid quarterbacks in the league per year, while the Chicago Bears are stuck with a white quarterback they took over both Watson and Mahomes. The Bears aren’t even sure whether Trubisky factors into their future.
In October, I used Bieniemy as an example of how Cal McNair could hire him to clean up the Texans’ image problems off-the-field when it comes to race, plus his play-calling skills along with Watson’s talent, could lead to a perfect marriage. Oh well, I tried. Coming into this season, Bieniemy had interviewed with seven teams over the past two cycles, according to a report from USA Today Sports. That number is now up to 11 and counting.
In a few weeks’ time, the Houston Texans could have missed out on the hottest general manager and coaching prospects on the market, as well as having their star quarterback force a trade, all because they refuse to hire Black people.
Racism is truly bad for business.
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