Steph Stradley Goes Off On Easterby, McNair And Their Choice of Caserio As GM

She wrote this in response to Caserio's press conference for publication in the Houston Chronicle for all Texans fans to see. She is not happy.


I have seen every significant press conference since the beginning of the team. Given the attention to this one, the topic, the timing, the misery of the fans and players, the trust and confidence needed to be earned, this, by far was the worst press conference in almost 20-year history of the team.

Since the announcement of the formation of the Texans, I have followed the team closer than is medically advisable.

Firstly, because I enjoy watching football and having a local team to watch and the energy from that. But also, as sort of a case study of how to build a sports organization from scratch, and more specifically, what works and doesn’t work for winning NFL football.

The strategy of that on every level is fascinating to me. Eventually, by default, I ended up being a person who paid too much attention to the Texans so others don’t have to.

“Please wake me up when they are going to be good.”

When you read this, please read it in the descriptive and not the pejorative. I am unemotionally dissecting the events of the day because just describing it factually is bad enough and requires blood pressure medication and the like for some.

Ultimately, I would like for the energy around the team and the fanbase to be better, for winning football to happen, and read this with that author’s intent.

You already have enough going on. I don’t want to make it worse.

What were the main takeaways from the press conference?

I was not able to ask a question in the press conference because it was limited to 45 minutes and I wasn’t called on. Before writing this, I reached out to the team to see if I could get comments on any of these subjects which was not able to be accommodated.

There will be another press conference — hopefully for fans better than this one — when the coach is announced.

Texans chairman and CEO Cal McNair talked about how important culture and trust were for the team. He talked repeatedly about how things aren’t that bad, without discussing in depth the existing culture issues and the bad energy from the players.

He said this would not be more of Patriots South.

The new GM, Nick Caserio said his vision for the players to be “selfless,” “team and others before self.” He used many examples of the Patriots to support his views. He reinforced how important Jack Easterby has been in his life personally, and that he is going to rely on him but not for personnel.

He discussed in depth his college football career which showed his enthusiasm and in practical terms, ran out the clock of the press conference.


Key lessons

What are the lessons that should be learned by the Texans but apparently were not by the choice in Caserio and his embrace of Easterby going forward? So many but here’s some.

Anyone taking the Texans head coaching job is going to have to be cool with Easterby. Good luck.

During the process, Cal McNair said this was going to be the GMs decision, and clearly Easterby is staying.
So many quality coaching candidates, who have options on where to go, are marking the Texans off their list unless they are fine with this, and/or wildly overpaid.

By far, the biggest winner of this Texans press conference was Nick Caserio and Jack Easterby’s shared agent.

Keeping someone’s with Easterby’s background and the ear of the owner, and the pain he has caused this organization makes Caserio look like someone just rewarding his pal versus someone who understands this organization at all.

Much much more. The girl's on FIRE!

 
Those Easterby clips were wicked funny and it was the kind of funny where you laugh because you are
so damn happy that it isn't happening to you.

I've always been fascinated with cult charismatics and they all eventually come to the same sort of end where the
house of bullshit they've built up comes crashing down and takes a lot of gullible people with it in the process.

It's like watching a balloon being overfilled. The rubber is strrrrretching and everbody is looking
for something to hide behind.

The Texans were built on cash obtained by the late Bob McNair from selling power plants to Enron, but his son
Cal is definitely not the smartest guy in the room. Get your popcorn ready because this is going to be a failure of epic proportions.

:popcorn:
 
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