If Watson want's to go to the Jets it's solely on the agent. I don't believe for a second that any of this has to do with winning if NY is his preferred destination. This team over here is a complete mess, but Watson needs to stop acting like he is a 10 year vet and this is his last chance to win anywhere. He has every right to ask for a trade, but don't insult the city of Houston's intelligence by saying all I care about is winning, send me to the Jets.
I would imagine the answer to that question is waaaaay above our pay grade. You know, with Cals and GMs and Easterbys and agents and Watsons and such.
This has Houston Oilers written all over it again. Trade a beloved star level QB (Warren Moon), fans hating on the owner (Bud Adams), fans stop showing up to games, and franchise becomes a lame duck team in the city. Houston football, doesn’t matter which team just makes you want to vomit!
Is that how it went down? They traded Moon and it snowballed from there? I was 11 and paid more attention to 97.9 the box and their tribute rap songs as the winning streak continued, than the drama behind the scenes.
While Moon was still very productive (borderline elite), and ended up having at least 3-4 more productive years... he was turning 38, they'd already failed in the playoffs in every possible way, and the overall core was trending towards the end of their careers (Munchack, Matthews, Givens, Jeffires, Childress, Dishman, Fuller). This was also the beginning of the salary cap era... so there was even more logistics when it came to keeping big money players beyond their prime. Obviously Carlson was not the answer, or some Aaron Rodgers just waiting his turn till the old man was out... but putting them in position to draft McNair just 1 year later, and them making a SB within 5 years, ended up being the "right" move in the grand scheme of things.
Maybe all it takes, sometimes, is for a franchise to hire a highly regarded offensive/defensive coordinator to convince a franchise QB that his team is serious about winning? If you're Deshaun Watson, easily a top 5 QB in this league, and your franchise was given a jump start on hiring a head coach because the previous one was canned in the middle of the season...but squandered that opportunity through multiple comical ****-ups...wouldn't you look at your team and wonder if they care about winning? Sure they might care but the incompetency or lack of urgency is pretty concerning. It says more about the Texans that Deshaun would put the Jets on his list of team than it does about himself.
This story made me sick to my stomach. Yet not even a blip on ESPN. DW4 possible trade destinations is the top headline though.
The Watson camp will need to put out something other than song lyric tweets and instagram memes... sort of like they did when they found out people were organizing in protest in his name. The story has already jumped the shark... reminds me of the Astros cheating scandal. The media, doing their bidding, is starting to get backlash from not only Houston fans but other fan bases getting a little tired of the same story being focused on, with very little new info, and now journalists taking it upon themselves to stoke the flames by propagating the photoshops and trying to incite fan bases against each other (Jets vs. Dolphins). The NFL will likely let this play out for only so long... without pressuring one side or the other to come clean.
What's the NFL's policy on domestic violence again? A 2 game suspension or something ridiculous like that?
No. It was about Adams' demand for a new dome to be built downtown "or else I'll move the team." He had pulled the very same thing less than 10 years before and we renovated the Dome at taxpayer expense, ripping out the iconic scoreboard. We were still paying interest on the bonds when he made this demand for a new stadium. He presented the city with a plan for a new multi-purpose dome to be built downtown..said the Rockets were on board. One call to the Rockets made it clear they were not...that they had zero interest in playing in a dome. When the city called his bluff, he signed a one-year agreement negotiate only with the city of Nashville for a new stadium there. When that agreement expired, he came back saying he was moving the team...that he had a deal to build a stadium there. Houston's mayor then pledged to get him an open air stadium to be built downtown...he turned it down and left for Nashville. No one in the business community stood up for him. No one used their weight to help him. The man had burned every bridge he had in this town. He moved his franchise to Tennessee to be put in a stadium that isn't much better than what most division 1 universities play in. Currently, the Houston Texans sit at #10 in franchise value in the NFL, valued at around $3.3 billion according to Forbes. Bud's franchise sits at #28 in franchise value in a league of 32 teams.
I'll always remember the only time I met Adams. It was when I was working at an optical chain near the Galleria and our store was famous for it's 2 for $99 deal on glasses. The man bought 6 pairs of glasses and opted to not put anything extra into them, even declined thinner scratch resistant lenses.
Yep... what a short-sighted decision at a time when they thought franchise values were simply tied to new stadiums. This was right on the cusp of media rights exploding which made market size the end-all/be-all of franchise values in the NFL. Houston being top 10 back then (and now #7, I believe) will always keep it as a viable pro sports market, but especially the NFL.
