Texans GM Rick Smith taking extended family medical leave

I don't understand the complaint that's being made.

He stepped down and was kept on insurance for a full year despite not working for the organization anymore. What were they supposed to do?

It is insurance fraud to cover an employee that is not actively at work beyond PTO policies.

You may hate the way the system works because of COBRA and all that, but that's the system. I really don't understand what the Texans were supposed to here, just keep him on insurance forever and pay for it and break labor laws?

 

Also, who is it being portrayed by?

 

Nah. They made it look like he was on leave and then fired him. If they were going to fire him, they should have just come out and done it. They knew it would have been bad press so they timed it the way they did.

 

He was on leave for a year. How long are they supposed to keep him on leave?

 

Rick Smith was not blind-sided by what happened... and if he was... if he truly believed he'd have a job/contract waiting for him, without putting anything on paper guaranteeing that... how smart of a GM is he really supposed to be?

This was a pre-arranged settlement to not only allow Rick to tend to his family issues, not lose benefits, and maintain some dignity/respect without the embarrassment of getting fired... and the Texans had every reason to move on from him as GM.

 

It's pretty much done the same way everywhere.

 

Cal reminds me of the old stories about GWB tooling around Houston in his little red mercedes convertible...

 

I think it depends on what there agreement was. Were they in semi regular contact?

Honestly it is hard to know without the full context.

 

What a weird situation.

It was great of the Texans to allow him to take essentially a full year off (paid?) to take care of his family.

But then halfway through it they tell him he's not welcome back at the end of the leave as was (I assume) promised.

So it's like they did him a favor, and then kicked him in the nuts.

Need to know more about their agreement and who exactly pushed Rick out (BOB?) to come to any real conclusions.

 

Rick should have known better then to presume there was some sort of wink-wink/handshake deal. As it is, his contract was up... without any extension being offered or discussed.

We all felt at the time it was a PR move more than anything else... that he was getting a demotion, but not explicitly announced as a demotion. If we all suspected it, why was he incapable of seeing that?

It just makes him seem more gullible and easily manipulated... not exactly the best qualities I'd want in a GM.

 

I remember distinctly him saying at that presser something about "this is not the end of my tenure with the Houston Texans", but then literally everybody else knew and assumed he was done as GM. I'm assuming he thought he could come back in some other role, but yeah it was obvious that was never going to happen with OB there.

So either he is naive or he said that knowing that he might have a fight with the team on his hands later.

 

The way the media made it seem like he was some close extended member of the family being a godfather of one of the Mcnairs does make it look like he was done dirty. I understand expecting his GM job back is pushing it, but you’re a billionaire and can’t supply your close friend with a job after helping his wife fight cancer???

 

Ironically most people criticized Bob McNair of that sort of favoritism... now we want to vilify Cal because he fired somebody who happened to have a tragic death in the family, even though they kept him on for a year when they didn’t have to?

 

Not vilifying Cal, it’s his team he can do what he wants. I’m just questioning the media’s portrayal of Rick smith’s supposed relationship with the McNairs. The way it was handled doesn’t seem like they were as close as we thought. Idk for all we know they could still be on good terms behind the scenes, I hope that’s the case

 

It's business

 

they could "hire" him to some $1 paying position and give him insurance if they really wanted.

you'd deny your friend with cancer insurance to save some money? they are a private company, they can do whatever they want.

 

No, they can't. That is insurance fraud. The law requires you to be actively at work for more than 30 hours a week receiving compensation. The exception to that is if you are on approved leave (FMLA, etc.) When the time runs out on those leaves you can extend your coverage through COBRA.

They aren't denying him insurance. He could keep COBRA for nearly 2 years.

 

Discussing topics like this with the inherently biased fans is so difficult.

Cant have an up in the air GM. This ain't a McDonald's franchise, its the NFL. Both parties did what they had to. Sad about Smith's wife but the league goes on

 

This isn’t a McDonald’s franchise... since when? Texans are the closest thing to it if I’ve ever seen one

 

Since they started printing dollars