I’ve got a son arriving in March. A lot of family friends have given us Texans attire for him, including a Watson jersey. We have narrowed it down to 2 names, my favorite of the 2 was Jack. Basically, in the span of 4 months, Cal and Easterby have ruined a lot of this excitement for me, the name hurts now and I need new clothes. **** them both.
If Easterby is such an inspiring speaker, why not put him out before the press to defend himself and the organization? The drama queens at ESPN are trashing them daily. You would think the organization would want to make a P.R. pushback. The ship has already sailed on the instinct to keep things “in house.”
This. For somebody who's strength is apparently "dealing with people", he has been far from impressive throughout this whole ordeal. From DM'ing people on twitter to calling moms to absolutely zero presence in press conferences or interviews... I thought "speaking in front of an audience" and making everybody feel good was his forte. We're starting to approach two "Office Space" like conundrums that directly apply to JE... one is the guy who apparently has people skills and deals with people, but he doesn't. And the guy in front of him is asking, "What would you say you do here?"
If Watson won’t communicate with the Texans except through press leaks and James Harden’s mom, then go ahead and communicate with him through the media. Give an interview and say glowing things about Watson. Say he is big in the community and the face of the franchise for the next 25 years. Say you will never trade him and hang up the phone when other teams call after watching Get Up and hearing that he could be traded for a bag of beans. Say we won’t trade him even if he holds out for a whole year, which you don’t think will happen because Watson is a competitor and not a quitter. Say you showed him a commitment by signing him to a mega deal just five months ago. Admit the Hopkins trade was a fail but say we are under new management and are trying to build a winning culture. Come on guys, this is not that hard to spin.
Easterby doesn't "deal with people". He's a performer. A stage performer. His entire professional life is appearing competent in set pieces and planned arrangements. Put him in front of the press and he would absolutely melt down. The only person he "deals with" is his boss, and he's apparently extremely good with that. Everything else is a one-way street. And all those streets lead to "More Power for Jack Easterby" Boulevard. There's a reason everyone outside of top management hates this guy's guts. Why nobody is paying attention to the massive amounts of smoke billowing out of the offices on Kirby beats me.
You nailed it here. This is a huge public relations game. Watson's camp wants to create a villain in the Texans organization - or maybe create two villains. This gives cover and helps rationalize Watson's trade demand and potential holdout. It protects Watson's image by shifting the blame to others... Know that this is a strategy. Personalizing a villain is really important to creating an effective PR strategy. Most fans don't even think about the PR agenda when reporters/commentators publish information - but there is always an agenda... and so the fans go along with it without even knowing that they are being purposefully influenced. The real blame lies at the feet of Bill O'Brien, not Easterby, but B.O.B. is gone now and therefore it doesn't do much good for Watson's cause to trash O'Brien. I like Watson's on-field performance and hope we can keep him. These PR strategies are ugly. But business is a battlefield - especially with this much $$$ at stake.
If Easterby melts down in the glare of the public or offends Watson with his comments, then McNair can scapegoat him and fire him too. But it is time for Easterby to sink or swim out in public. I’m completely baffled how they have sheltered him in the face of withering public criticism.
And, by not exposing himself (ahem), it allows him to play victim. "All those meanies, Cal - they don't know what's in my heart. LET'S PRAY!" He's right; they're wrong and there is ZERO chance he's going to jeopardize that narrative in any way. I can't fathom why anybody falls for it - but... 74MM people just voted for another con man grifter, so...... We are going to look back at *this* offseason, when they had the opportunity to really push this franchise forward with competent GM/head coach hires and lament every single second of it. I cannot believe how badly they have bungled a relatively easy lay-up.....
I despise this Jack Easterby just as much as the next guy, but all the pooping on religious people/figures isn't really warranted. Jack Easterby is a con-artist, Joel Osteen and a lot of others are looked at as unfavorable as well, but lumping them in with "all preachers and life coaches" as being con-artists just isn't accurate.
I think the distinction between the Osteens/Easterbys of the world and your friendly neighborhood minister is fairly self-evident. Religiousity as a whole is going to take some collateral flak here, because it is being injected into and leveraged against something people care deeply about. Don't take it too personally I'd say.
imo they are different degrees of the same thing. i don't think anyone is capable of performing those types of roles completely selfless with full transparency. so there is a con even at a minimum but i think that's rare. most trend toward no transparency and completely selfish cons. all of them.
Yup. deshaun Watson is the only problem here. after he is gone draft or trade for any of Darnold, Wilson, Lawrence, Jones, heck even Jake Fromm.
I hear ya, and I agree. I don't really take it personally, I just think a lot of people have been projecting their anger on religious folks and Easterby/Cal instead of just the latter. I guess my point is that what we should be learning through all of this is that Easterby is the con, not religion. But I digress.... getting rid of Easterby would inject so much more confidence and energy back into our fanbase, the mere fact that this hasn't been done or at the very least had his role changed kinda speaks volumes about Cal's competency....
