Skip the piousness and give Rice a call
Notwithstanding the preposterous claim that they are happy with their running back situation, the Texans need help at the position.
Arian Foster is out for a while after undergoing groin surgery Friday. Their other backs are unproven and/or unknown.
Yet owner Bob McNair and general manager Rick Smith, who spent a few days in Richmond, Va., with the team at the end of last week, haven’t been asked whether the Texans are interested in signing Ray Rice.
Why? Because it is understood the Texans won’t sign a player like Rice. Supposedly, they are not that kind of team, and he is not their kind of player.
The Moral High Ground is a fascinating place. It can be a mountain or a molehill, depending on the day of the week, and it is almost always crowded with horrendous traffic, thanks to so many passing through.
If Rice were coming off a productive season, we could get a better indicator of which NFL teams are renting P.O. boxes in the Moral High Ground to benefit from the upscale ZIP code.
The Texans appear to be one of those teams. In this case, it might be costing them.
Rice, who was below average in 2013 and sat out the 2014 season after being suspended when video of him punching his fiancée (now wife) made national news, is only 28 and probably has some good football left in him if given a chance to play.
While this might not be a match made in heaven — or on a dot-com, as so many are these days — the Texans should at least grant the former Raven a workout. But they haven’t even considered it.
Rice would come cheap — the veteran’s minimum salary — and is hungry to rebuild his reputation, on and off the field.
He isn’t a long-term solution, but the Texans have a short-term problem. And a major one considering their quarterback position is down to journeyman Brian Hoyer and Ryan Mallett.
Despite sitting out last season, Rice is third among running backs in receptions since 2009. He could help Hoyer or Mallett in passing situations.
What would it hurt to take a closer look at Rice?
By not doing so, the Texans aren’t being smart. They aren’t doing all they can to win. Unless you’re talking about some mythical “good guy” championship. That is important to them, more so with HBO’s “Hard Knocks” cameras all over the place at training camp.
On CNBC last September, McNair said NFL teams should have a zerotolerance policy when it comes to players who commit acts of domestic violence. Players like Ray Rice.
“There’s always a second and third chance for them,” McNair said. “What we need to say is zero tolerance. We’re not going to put up with it. We don’t on our team.”
Really?
Remember Green?
Where was that “zero tolerance” when Ahman Green was on his third or fourth chance after several domestic violence incidents and arrests, the latest of which was just two years before he signed a $23 million contract with the Texans in 2007?
There was no outrage around town. Ticket sales did not plummet. Advertisers didn’t flee.
Does a videotape make that much difference?
Let’s not trivialize the subject matter by comparing offenses. The point isn’t to say that based on police reports, Rice is a better option as a freeagent running back than Green was a few years ago. This is about the Texans doing all they can to win football games — and thus doing their due diligence on an available player at a position of need.
The Texans should want to find out if Rice can play. He wasn’t good in 2013 but says he played through injury all season. He led the NFL in yards from scrimmage from 2009-12 and might have just enough to fortify the Texans’ backfield until Foster returns.
Are the Texans so image-conscious they would rather field a weaker team than deal with the backlash of bringing in a player like Rice, who aside from one awful and indefensible act has been a solid citizen?
Do they want to win football games or avoid bad publicity from opportunists who have their speeches prepared and picket signs on order, with the printer waiting to “insert team name here.”
To many, Rice will forever be defined by a dreadful few seconds. He has only himself to blame.
Still, there are many arguments, legal and moral, in favor of his being given another chance in the NFL. Rice isn’t close to being the worst among NFL miscreants.
Good out of bad
Unofficially banning Rice from the league won’t change the world. If the interview he gave to ESPN’s Jemele Hill last week is any indication, Rice’s message about domestic violence could change lives.
The Texans shouldn’t consider signing Rice so he can deliver that message. They should look at Rice to see if he can tote the rock and deliver touchdowns.
Who knows? Maybe he could help them win games and influence people.
That’s higher and smarter ground on which to stand.