Texans star LT Duane Brown is on record as being one of the veterans that worked to keep the team from staging a complete walkout after owner Bob McNair called them “inmates” at last week’s owners meetings.
After a spiritless attempt at an apology, Brown is continuing to speak out against McNair, now speaking on his memories at how the team owner reacted in 2008 when President Obama won his first election, via PFT:
“He came to talk to the team,” Brown said regarding the owner. “He was visibly upset about it. He said, ‘I know a lot of y’all are happy right now, but it’s not the outcome that some of us were looking for.’ That was very shocking to me.”
In hindsight, McNair’s comments last week shouldn’t have come as a surprise.
Brown went on to point out another explosive sports story where he found himself looking at McNair with the side eye for how he reacted with the team.
When ex-Clippers owner Donald Sterling was recorded dropping all kind of racist fire on Magic Johnson, & eventually lost his team for being outed as a racist, McNair used it as a teaching moment for his team.
It’s what McNair was teaching that was the problem — according to Brown:
“The message was more to be careful who you have private conversations with, because things that you think are confidential can spread like wildfire,” Brown said. “In my mind, it would probably have been better if he said ‘don’t be a racist’ instead of ‘be a racist in private and make sure it doesn’t get out.’”
One thing is for sure, the control that McNair & others don’t want the players to have, is being leveraged more & more when situations like this happen.
Maybe Duane Brown was already pissed at Texans brass for his recent contract issues, but when McNair called players ‘inmates’, he unified a huge bulk of the team against him.
He may the owner, but last time I checked, Bob McNair doesn’t catch passes or rush QBs, & now instead of just being pissed at Texans protests; he’ll have to figure out how to keep his team from a complete mutiny.