It’s about time McNair showed he’s the boss with strong move

The boss’ son is indeed a BOSS. Who knew?

We all underestimated Cal McNair.

The son of the man who is responsible for the NFL’s return to Houston so soon after the Oilers packed up and left town has often been characterized as a legacy, not a leader.

He looks a lot like Big Enos, but has played the role of Buford T. Justice Jr.

He had a title and no power. But in firing Texans head coach and general manager Bill O’Brien on Monday, Cal McNair made a call that any good leader would have.

He let us all know that he is the sheriff.

It is about time.

Now let’s see if he goes out and hires the best of the best to run the organization. A housecleaning is in order.

Maybe Janice McNair pressed her son to rid the organization of O’Brien. Doesn’t matter.

O’Brien’s ineptitude should

have led to his firing years ago.

He was just good enough not to be bad, but never so good that he wasn’t bad.

He built a power base within the organization — yes men and women who allowed him to make mistake after mistake — that will hurt it for years to come.

O’Brien’s entire operation seemed to be as much about a power grab as about winning football games. Sure, he wanted to win, but to him winning started with control.

He coached politics better than he coached football.

While most of his players like and admire him — he is an “us against them” players’ coach — several players who were respected members of the organization before O’Brien arrived were treated as outsiders.

A number of former Texans employees, in a variety of departments, say they were categorized as either with him or against him. Their quality of work was secondary to subservience.

The McNairs granted O’Brien the dictatorship he desired, but his absolute power didn’t produce anything close to a championship.

O’Brien was arrogant, brash and impulsive. That isn’t why he should have been fired.

He deserved to be fired because he wasn’t getting the job done. He was not a good head football coach.

He was not leading the Texans to a championship. In fact, his leadership has the team headed in the opposite direction.

McNair needs to hire a real general manager and a better head coach. As per O’Brien’s design, neither of those positions can be filled from within the organization.

Romeo Crennel is a good choice to jump in as midseason interim coach, but at 73 years old he isn’t a long-term solution.

Hiring any of O’Brien’s front-office sycophants to lead the football business would be a mistake. The Texans don’t need new blood somuch as they need better blood.

An O’Brien cleanse is in order.

While it would be foolish to sprain a muscle stretching to applaud something that should have happened long ago, Cal McNair made a difficult decision when doing nothing is the norm.

Prior to being named chairman two years ago, McNair was vice chairman of the organization for 10 years. Chief executive officer was added to his résumé just last year.

In his official bio, the team describes him as being “actively involved with the football operations” and “part of the Texans’ search committee,” since its inception. In other words, he has been there while decisions were being made, but he hasn’t made many.

The Texans were Bob McNair’s team. Cal McNair was Bob McNair’s son.

Monday, McNair let it be known that he is indeed in charge.

We couldn’t tell that in recent years. McNair hid in the background, while O’Brien was the face, voice and conscience of the Houston Texans.

Since Bob McNair passed away almost two years ago, O’Brien has been the most important person in the building.

O’Brien had such free rein that despite the Texans’ proudly held label of being a class organization, he cussed out fans and was at times belligerent with media, with little to no censure from the team owner.

There was a running joke that O’Brien had blackmail material that allowed him to be rewarded at being so bad at his job. It was more sad than funny.

On Monday, Cal McNair regained control of his family’s organization.

Bob McNair would be proud, even though, unless there was an unprofessional personal interaction, it is unlikely he would have made this call.

He didn’t like paying off contracts, and O’Brien has a guaranteed deal for two more seasons after this one.

Bob McNair allowed Dom Capers to run the string on a 2-14 season in 2005 before letting him go, and he waited until the Texans had lost 11 games in a row before firing Gary Kubiak in 2013.

The late Texans owner viewed patience as a virtue.

Just two years ago, when the Texans started 0-3, Cal McNair was happy and calm and spouted the clichéd “take it one game at a time” narrative.

What is so different about 2020 when the Texans fired O’Brien the day after the team lost to Minnesota to fall to 0-4 on the season?

Cal McNair wrested ownership of the team his family owns from O’Brien.

What will he do with it?