Milwaukee Journal Sentinel - Packer Plus
Texans fire coach O’Brien after 0-4 start
The Houston Texans fired coach and general manager Bill O’Brien on Monday.
The firing comes a day after Sunday’s 31-23 loss to the Vikings dropped the Texans to 0-4 for the first time since 2008.
After assuming the role of general manager in the offseason, O’Brien received almost universal criticism when he shipped superstar receiver DeAndre Hopkins to Arizona for running back David Johnson and draft picks.
The pressure on O’Brien only intensified as the Texans limped out to the terrible start with Johnson struggling as their running game was the worst in the NFL and with the defense allowing the most yards in the league.
O’Brien was in his seventh season in Houston where he compiled a 52-48 record. He won the AFC South four times in his tenure, including the past two years.
Team owner Cal McNair announced the decision Monday and thanked O’Brien for his work with the team.
Romeo Crennel, who was the team’s assistant head coach, will serve as interim coach for the rest of the season.
Ramsey, Tate unlikely to face team discipline for fight: Los Angeles Rams cornerback Jalen Ramsey and New York Giants receiver Golden Tate are unlikely to be disciplined by their teams for their postgame fight at SoFi Stadium, judging by comments from both players’ coaches Monday.
The NFL still might weigh in with fines after it investigates the clash rooted in a family feud between Ramsey and Tate, the uncle of Ramsey’s two children.
“I spoke to him, and (I was) just making sure that we’re all on the same page that we can’t allow some of those things to get in the way and have something bad happen for yourself or this football team,” Rams coach Sean McVay said Monday night. “These are grown men, and I didn’t get into the he-said, shesaid.”
Giants coach Joe Judge said his players told him Ramsey had initiated the al
tercation, although that wasn’t clear to other observers at the stadium. Neither Tate nor Ramsey spoke publicly Monday.
“All I can say is the account I got from a number of our players was that there’s a history, obviously, between them,” Judge said. “There was a punch thrown. Golden was defending himself. I was told he wasn’t the one who threw the punch.”
Ramsey and Tate fought shortly after the final whistle Sunday in the Rams’ 17-9 victory over the Giants in Inglewood. They had already engaged several times on the field during the game, and Ramsey made a spectacular, bonecrunching hit on Tate on a key third down in the fourth quarter.
Although neither Ramsey nor Tate appeared to walk onto the field looking for a fight amid the postgame handshakes, they immediately stepped to each other when the players between them parted. Both men appeared to participate in the scrap as they grabbed each other and went to the ground.
Their teammates broke it up relatively quickly. Ramsey returned to the field
shortly after the other players cleared out, pacing the turf and talking intermittently on his phone.
McVay said he hadn’t heard whether the NFL will discipline either player. Judge said the Giants probably wouldn’t discipline Tate, while McVay said the Rams would handle the matter internally.
The two Nashville-area natives have a feud around Ramsey’s former relationship with Breanna Tate, the mother of Ramsey’s two young children and Golden Tate’s sister.
Ramsey and Breanna Tate, a former track athlete at Ole Miss, broke up last year, reportedly while Breanna Tate was pregnant with their second child. Golden Tate made his displeasure with Ramsey known on social media, and it boiled over in their first on-field meeting since then.
Sharper’s bid to have sentence tossed fails: Disgraced former Green Bay Packers safety Darren Sharper’s latest effort to have his 18-year federal sentence tossed out in a drug and sexual assault case involving multiple women was rejected last Thursday by a federal appeals court judge in New Orleans.
Sharper had gone to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals after a U.S. district judge rejected the claim that he was not adequately advised by his previous lawyers on the consequences of his 2015 guilty plea.
“Sharper has failed to make the requisite showing as to any of his claims,” 5th Circuit Judge Stuart Kyle Duncan wrote in a brief order denying Sharper a “certificate of appealability” enabling him to pursue the appeal.
The federal conspiracy and drug charges involved his drugging of two women so he could rape them.
His sentencing judge said similar allegations involve as many as 16 victims in multiple states.
The allegations led to charges in Louisiana, Arizona, California and Nevada and, eventually, to a “global” plea deal involving state and federal courts.
Sharper, 44, played for the Packers from 1997-2004.
Haynesworth faces charges: Former Tennessee Titans all-pro defensive lineman Albert Haynesworth was arrested last Monday after he was accused of threatening and yelling at his ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend.
Cleveland, Tennessee, police officers responded at 4:34 p.m. to a report that Haynesworth was yelling at his ex-girlfriend, according to a statement from the police. The woman told officers Haynesworth had driven there from his home in Franklin, Tennessee, about 160 miles away, after making threats to physically harm her and her boyfriend. No physical assault was reported, according to the police statement.
“After being told multiple times to stop yelling and cursing, Haynesworth was taken into custody, charged with domestic assault and disorderly conduct and transported to the Bradley County Justice Center,” the statement reads.
A spokesman for the sheriff ’s office said Tuesday that Haynesworth had been released on $1,500 bond.
Haynesworth played 10 seasons in the NFL. He spent his first seven seasons with the Titans, who selected him No. 15 overall in the 2002 draft.