Chaos continues to engulf franchise due to Easterby
As of 9:30 p.m. Wednesday, Jamey Rootes was still listed on the Texans’ official website as the franchise president, just below co-founder Janice McNair and CEO Cal McNair.
Someone better tell the Texans.
And the McNairs. Rootes, the team’s longtime president once best known as Bob McNair’s right-hand man, abruptly resigned Wednesday morning.
Resigned is the nice, polite, old-fashioned way of putting it.
Easterby’d is the mod
ern slang that the smart, hip kids use.
One day you’re happily locked into a prime role with one of the NFL’s 32 teams, helping place hundreds of millions of dollars into the pockets of Houston billionaires.
Then you are Easterby’d either because you got knifed in the back while looking the other way or simply woke up on a January morning and decided real life was too short and you were done with the drama.
Is Janice McNair paying attention to the intricate details of this absurd Shakespearean play?
Will Cal McNair finally wake up and realize that if the Texans are serious about keeping Deshaun Watson in local red and blue, getting rid of the Texans’ villain could be the easiest and fastest way to fix a broken culture and change the plot?
To be continued … For now, let’s stick to the facts.
What do ex-general manager Brian Gaine, ex-head coach/GM/offensive play-caller Bill O’Brien and ex-Texans wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins, among many others, have in common?
The Texans’ executive vice president of football operations, who recently doubled as the team’s interim GM after O’Brien was canned.
Once Rootes’ name is removed from the Texans’ front office, Easterby will reside just below Janice and Cal McNair on the staff directory. Technically, new GM Nick Caserio is above Easterby. But since Easterby directly influenced the hiring of Caserio — which led to Watson’s requesting a trade — and played an integral role in the unproven David Culley becoming the Texans’ new HC, it should read McNair, McNair, Easterby on the franchise’s depth chart. Complicated, I know. But that’s just how it goes when constant chaos follows the hiring of a character coach/team chaplain.
The moment Easterby helped push Rootes out of Cal McNair’s small inner circle, it made sense for Rootes to start searching for a trap door.
Find an exit. Open the hatch. Get out.
But this quickly? This way?
As Queen sang: Another one bites the dust.
The Texans’ press release: “Throughout Rootes’ tenure (20002021), he was responsible for all of the Texans’ business functions. He oversaw the team’s efforts to secure stadium-naming rights and sponsorship, coordinated radio and TV broadcasting relationships, engineered the club’s successful ticket and suite sales campaigns, led the creation and launch of the team’s identity and developed the team’s highly acclaimed customer service strategy. Under his leadership, the Texans have consistently been recognized as one of the most valuable professional sports franchises both in the NFL and globally.”
So why walk away now, just when things are really getting interesting on Kirby Drive?
You know the answer because you’ve been reading about the drama surrounding Gaine, Hopkins, O’Brien, Watson and many more in the past 20 months.
What connects all the diverse names?
What unites all the dysfunction disguised as constant change? Easterby, of course. He didn’t fire Rootes. Just like he didn’t officially fire O’Brien or Gaine or trade Hopkins for peanuts.
But the Texans keep changing — their latest incarnation was a horrible 4-12 football team — and the unpredictable Easterby keeps being elevated by McNair.
Who needs enemies when you have a manipulative co-worker like this?
Rootes had no involvement in on-field football decisions, so the 2021 Texans will keep moving forward (with or without Watson).
But the rotten smell keeps reeking, and the seething frustration of 2020 hasn’t gone away in the new year.
Rootes suddenly resigning from the Texans was unthinkable a couple years ago. He truly believed in the warm, uniting power of the organization more than anyone else on Kirby. If you pointed out that the Texans always disappointed in the big games under the bright national lights, Rootes immediately pointed to the packed stands and season ticket waiting list. And all the J.J. Watt jerseys on the backs of still-proud supporters. And the smoking tailgating lots.
Rootes eagerly smiled, shook hands, sold tickets, filled seats and got millions to buy into the Texans.
If Rootes had a fatal flaw, it was that he was too optimistic about a team that still hasn’t won a divisional round playoff game.
In February 2021, Gaine is gone, Hopkins is gone, O’Brien is gone, and Watson badly wants out.
The McNairs’ trusted right-hand man has now followed all the old names out the same door.
While you keep tweeting #FireEasterby, McNair keeps listening to and being swayed by the untrusted Texan who must be named.
Easterby.