MUCH MORE TO BE REVEALED ABOUT THE HOPKINS TRADE
Star receiver was unhappy with contract — and friction with O’brien was growing
Some day, some way, we might get the real goods on the biggest surprise leading up to and including the start of the NFL’S 2020 new league year — which opened with the free agent market on Wednesday at 4 p.m.
Tom Brady’s decision to leave New England and sign with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers? There are still a lot of unanswered questions with that one, but it’s still the No. 2 surprise.
For whatever reason, there was plenty of speculation Brady was looking to move on. The shock isn’t that he did, it’s that the genius Bill Belichick couldn’t figure out a way to appease
Brady when having him walk as a free agent will cost the Patriots US$13.5 million in a “dead money” cap hit.
The biggest surprise of the week still has to be the Houston Texans trading Deandre Hopkins to the Arizona Cardinals. Anyone who says they suspected the move was coming couldn’t do so with a straight face.
Hopkins, Houston’s first round pick (27th overall) in 2013, is coming off two straight years with 100 receptions. He has surpassed the 1,000-yard mark in five of his seven seasons, while eclipsing the 1,500-yard mark in both 2015 and 2018.
Some say he has the surest hands in the entire league.
To obtain Hopkins, the Arizona Cardinals switched fourth round picks with the Texans and unloaded David Johnson, a once great running back they were probably going to cut, and a second-round pick.
Now, Bill O’brien didn’t get the GM title thrown on to his head coaching duties in Houston because he’s a stupid man. And he has bosses who had to approve the trade. So there’s got to be more to it than the story making the rounds on Wednesday.
During ESPN’S morning show Get Up, NFL analyst Mike Irvin said that Hopkins told him he had been likened to Aaron Hernandez by O’brien.
That would be the same Aaron Hernandez who was a very good tight end for the Patriots when O’brien was their offensive co-ordinator, the same Aaron Hernandez whose promising career came to an end at age 23, when he was convicted of murder, the same Aaron Hernandez who hung himself in his prison cell four years later.
Irvin said Hopkins told him there was a bit of a “power struggle” because O’brien thought he had too much influence in the Texans locker-room.
In a meeting to discuss the situation, Irvin said Hopkins told him O’brien said: “The last time I had a meeting like this, it was with Aaron Hernandez.
“Michael, that blew my mind that he would even bring that up,” Irvin said Hopkins told him. “I’ve never been in any trouble. “I don’t know why he would equate me with Aaron Hernandez.
“And from there,” Irvin said, “the meeting just deteriorated.”
Irvin also said O’brien took issue with the mothers of Hopkins’ children.
“He told Deandre that he doesn’t like that he has his baby mommas around sometimes,” said Irvin. “And I think from there, the relationship just went bad.”
Shortly after the Irvin interview, Hopkins took to Twitter.
“This is being blown way out of proportion,” he wrote. “As
I’ve said before, I enjoyed and am proud of my time with the Texans. I have the utmost respect for Coach O’brien and that will not change.
“Now I’m ready to play of the Cardinals.”
Now, just as it’s very likely Hopkins wanted to calm the waters for fear of having the trade fall through before becoming official later in the day, it’s also very difficult to believe O’brien would play the Hernandez card.
If he actually did, and really doesn’t understand that it was wrong, and the relationship did deteriorate, why would O’brien have to rush out and trade his best player for what had to be the first offer he was presented?
It was known that Hopkins was unhappy with his current contract and wanted a raise from the US$81 million, five-year deal he signed in 2017. According to the Houston Chronicle’s Aaron Wilson, however, the conflict between Hopkins and O’brien was much deeper than a financial divide, and there had been a “growing friction between Hopkins and O’brien for years.”
OK, that happens. That’s a legitimate reason to get rid of a player. But if it’s been going on for years, why did O’brien have to trade Hopkins now?
Some day, some way, maybe the real goods will get out.
But for now, it’s easy to imagine this trade ultimately costing O’brien his job.
I’ve never been in any trouble. I don’t know why he would equate me with Aaron Hernandez.