No one is making this argument. But to argue the Texans aren't part of the problem - and, worse, to pretend they're part of the solution because, hey, at least they hired a Black coach - is to be blind to reality.
Racism accusations have lost all power because they are made far too frequently and almost always without merit by the dumbest people alive. It's better to just ignore that kind of stupidity.
I think you make some valid points, but that first one isn't one of them. White people now have all sorts of different reactions to race. But anyway, we're never going to plumb the racial inner working's of management's pea brains in their last two coaching hires. We can just lob opinions around. That's best done in D&D, while the Texans forum is for 24/7 b****ing.
Edit: I removed my snarky response to HN because I made it out of irritation not representative of the conversation. The NFL has a race problem. Black coaches are not given the same opportunities as white coaches. Subliminal racism exists even where overt racism doesn't. Networks work against black coaches even when racism isn't the culprit because most of the people doing the hiring are white and part of white fraternities and social structures. Hiring Lovie Smith and firing him after one season was a bad move and another in a line of embarrassments for an organization that has continued to embarrass itself since the Kubiak era ended. The Lovie Smith situation is not emblematic of racism at the Texans.
While he was a good guy and all that, you have to concede that Culley was not qualified to be a head coach. He'd never coached above the assistant level and was clearly in over his head and his in-game decisions confirmed that. He was also set up to be the fall guy by Nick, Jack and Cal. As we look at the Texans today it is obvious that their plan all along was hire Culley and watch him fail so they could hire Jack's boy McCown. However, Brian Flores screwed this up with his lawsuit which forced them to scramble at the last minute. That's why they settled on Lovie. You didn't even hear Lovie's name until that Saturday night before the announcement of his hiring. Lovie was their fall guy number 2. And it really doesn't matter who gets the job next because he will also be setup to fail so Nick can cover his ass once again.
No it only counts when they are given the very best job opportunities. Why isn’t Buffalo and KC firing their honkeys to give out the best opportunities? The nerve!
None of this has anything to do with the Texans having now fired two consecutive Black head coaches after a single season. Let me ask you a sincere question: why do you want to "yeah, but..." this? Why is it so hard to stop, consider what's happened, and take stock of it? Racism doesn't only pertain to people wearing hoods and burning crosses. It is baked into our institutions and practices in a way that's so ingrained, it's easy to miss. This is a terrible look for the Texans and a real gut-punch to Black coaches everywhere who are fighting for the same opportunities as their white counterparts. A Pep Hamilton press conference doesn't make this any better. It's problematic. And, remember, this is all happening because the Texans really wanted to hire Josh McCown, a white guy with literally zero coaching experience.
I have nothing against Lovie dude seems like a very nice guy but this was definitely the right decision. And after what happened yesterday he definitely needed to go
I'm glad Lovie is gone. He was not good. Not even remotely. He wasn't as bad as Culley, but I personally saw enough to believe whole-heartedly that he was not going to make this team better moving forward. So, having said that, to me the real question is should Caserio be fired for hiring these two guys that were so quickly proven to not be up to the task they were given? Maybe. I do feel like the Culley hire was a special circumstance and that the team was in such disarray that no one of any real talent would have taken that job. So that almost felt like a mulligan to me. The Lovie hire is much more on Caserio. There were better options, and if they truly didn't hire a guy like Gannon because they wouldn't let him choose his own coordinators, then that is bad decision making and shows a clear example of Caserio overstepping his responsibilities and trying to micromanage the coaching. But I've only seen that from one Twitter account who I don't know, so it could all be bullshit. It would not surprise me, however, if it was not about ALL coordinators and more about the team wanting to keep Pep. I have a feeling after one season of the offense still looking pretty inept after Pep's play calling will cure that problem. So in the end I'm kind of on the fence but feel like Caserio should get ONE more chance to hire his guy as a coach. There will be no special circumstances this time. If it doesn't work out, Caserio should be gone. The whole racist discussion is not one I have any interest in delving into. To me, that is a very serious and personal thing to accuse someone of, and we would all need a much closer connection with all these people to be able to make that claim and I doubt any of us have that connection.
This just goes to show why you should never hire a token. You might think you are appeasing the simple minded racists who are only interested in the skin color of the coach, but if you end up needing to fire the token for incompetence, the same simpletons you attempted to appease will be back on their BS in an instant... and even louder than before. You should ALWAYS hire based on competence rather than any other factor. If morons call you racist for not picking a token, fine, let them. Those kinds of idiots are going to do so anyway, at least you might have a competent head coach.
Awesome he is just too conservative - good guy, good coach for veteran team, not for this one....we need a ground up rebuilding dude...... And, I hope race doesn't come into the discussion as it should be merit - but I am sure it will that is 2 African American coaches that are 1 and done in a row....not a good look. DD
They were lame ducks and everyone knew it.The NFL’s overall minority hiring practices at HC is what it is. (The Texans wanted Mckown.) But if your drafting a Young QB and you know you didn’t want Lovie long term, this was the best thing. Changing multiple coordinators and Head Coaches on a young QB could stunt his growth no matter who it is. But this next HC hire has to be for the development of the QB you draft, so it has to be an offensive guy who is give time, no matter what he looks like.
"Lame ducks" implies they knew they weren't going to be good, right? And not being good is the easiest path to finding a QB, which is obviously priority 1 for any bad franchise. So why did your hire last year have to be lame duck?...Would there have been zero benefit to getting your guy in and letting him start to build his organization and culture so that when you do land that franchise QB, the foundation is already in place? Claiming Love Smith, especially, was a lame duck, makes this look worse - you hired the Black coach to be your fall guy.
Texans hires two token coach to avoid criticism of racism when they really wanted to hire a white coach with literally no experience. Ima laugh if McCown gets more than a year to coach this sht team. This is really like how racist people act. Oh I can't b racist I hired black coaches/have a black friend
Wrong! They were hired to be scapegoats. Culley was hired even though he clearly was not qualified to be a head coach so just how was that an opportunity? His hiring was part of their scheme to hire McClown. Unfortunately (for them) Brian Flores' lawsuit derailed thier plan which forced them to scramble at the last minute and so they turned to Lovie (who also was set up to fail). There never was any opportunity here for both men here as Cal and Nick were never really serious about putting together a winning organization. It was all some sort of bullshit PR to bamboozle the fanbase.
Had they hired Demeco and then Bien my and fired them each after one year then I could get behind this statement. This was Culley who must have had 2 trillion to one odds to ever be a head coach and old, washed up Lovie Smith who hasn't been a good coach in two decades. These were the most obvious sacrificial lambs in the history of lambs. The only thing they did wrong was firing Culley. Shoulda just kept the one sacrificial lamb for two years.
