Sure, but at least when they hired culley, no competent coaches were taking the job. You can blame O’Brien, Easterby, Cal, and Deshaun for that.
Pretty sure no one is saying they should have kept Lovie. Virtually everyone who's criticizing them now was criticizing them when they hired Lovie. And when they fired Culley. And when they hired Culley. Each move makes the problem worse and were forced by the previous one. At this point, these decisions - including firing Lovie - makes the job less appealing to any black up-and-coming coach and could limit your talent pool and cost you in the hiring process. The Texans deserve to be repeatedly criticized at every step of the way for these idiotic moves. That doesn't mean Lovie should not have been fired.
O'Brien was long gone and Caserio was hired in time to run that coaching search. Sure, a lot of questions about the franchise at the time... but that's why you hire a head of football operations that knows what he's doing and convince/project his vision on to candidates for a job that doesn't come around regularly for some. If they were too incompetent to land anybody, so be it. They then made the situation worse by hiring a minority fall-guy.
That's revisionist nonsense - someone like Bienemy would have jumped at the job, for example. The Texans *chose* the crappy incompetent guy that no one even considered as a HC candidate.
I’m not so sure about that. Although at this point you could argue he should have if given the opportunity because no other team sure as hell thinks he’s a good fit for HC. It’s not revisionist nonsense. You acting like there were plenty of good HC options that were willing to take the job with how bad of a situation it was then is laughable and ignorant.
I both a) called out their bullshit at the time: and b) was very critical of what a poor hire Smith was:
I'll just repeat what I said last year at this time. They better be damn sure they get their top coaching choice. If they didn’t already have someone lined up before firing Culley Lovie then it’s another strike against management. There is no reason to go from one stop gap coach to another. It would be Texan like to fire their temp coach and then settle for another one. It's crazy that the team is in the exact same situation as last year. Seriously, Culley was half a game better with worse talent. Firing Culley to end up hiring Lovie is major incompetence. I'm not sure what has changed to where they end up making a better hire.
Your logic is absolutely ****ing laughable. It’s a masterclass in stupidity. By your definition, no organization with the worst roster should be allowed to consider hiring a minority HC, bc you know, they’re set up for failure. Let’s talk about being set up for failure. How about Lovie Smith refusing to take advice or input from players and his coaches? How about Lovie Smith taking the best cover corner in the draft and using him like an undrafted free agent? How about repeatedly playing conservatively until we need to lose, going balls to the wall and scorched earth on the way out the door? The reality is neither David Culley nor Lovie Smith were going to be hired by any team in the NFL. They are beneficiaries of the Texans incompetence, not victims. In Culley’s case, while he was highly salaried compared to the average individual prior to being HC, the “systemic racism” set him up with a financial windfall that has him living easy now. And I’m supposed to somehow feel bad for either of these guys, or believe the Texans are some evil organization that is overtly racist bc of how this was handled? Give me a ****ing break. And btw, if the Texans do hire Demeco Ryans, or even if he is their top choice, all of your takes look even that much worse.
The Texans' white owner, who hasn't earned a damn thing in his life, hired and paid a Black coach to take the fall for his own incompetence. Twice! Why is this so hard for you to see? And why do you feel obligated to cap for Cal McNair, a gigantic failure who's done nothing but run this franchise further into the ground? And absolutely an organization with the worst roster should absolutely hire a minority HC (who is arguing otherwise?). The key is then giving that minority HC the same opportunities and resources white coaches get. The Texans did not do that. Twice! Again, you don't have to wear a hood & burn crosses to demonstrate racist behavior. Hiring B2B Black coaches - with the intention of firing them because neither was a long-, or even mid-term solution - and not recognizing the implications of that, at the very worst, signifies white privilege, as do arguing these past two years haven't been problematic. You're hearing more and more Black voices weigh in on this - maybe you should listen to what they have to say?
It has been reported/rumored that the owner wanted Lovie to be the 20222 Texans DC. Since Gannon demanded that he must be allowed to hire his own staff ( I don't blame him), he did not accept the job. If this is the case, the owner screwed the pooch. Caserio might even be angling to get fired because the owner is an idiot. One of the things that I felt that Bob McNair did right was to avoid turning over the HC/GM. His logic was that the most successful teams fix their org versus doing a wholesale replace. Both Kubiak and OBie had long successful tenures, albeit no rings. My preference is to ride with Caserio ... but ... if Caserio is the sole reason for the last two HC hires, he can go.
Texans are a s*** show but people making it a race thing is just stupid. Two black head coaches were given an opportunity back to back, they just happened to fail. People complained about Lovie all year long but suddenly his race is the issue. Demeco is likely on the top of their list, but Demeco is too smart to come here and eff up his career. Rick Smith was the GM of this team during the only era this team was any good, the premier front office position. The best QB the Texans ever had was black in a traditionally white position, and that QB quit Houston. The QB the Texans will likely take in this year's draft will be black. It is getting more and more common for coaches to get fired after one season and sometimes even less. Hackett is white and didn't even make it a full season. How many times has Josh McDaniel been canned? Adam Gase got axed quickly. Lane Kiffin? Matt Patricia? Gimmie a break.
Racism doesn't mean anything in this country anymore. Caserio out of fear of being called a racist hired two coaches he didn't want, they didn't work out and now he and the organization are being called racist. I'm a Lovie guy, he wasn't fired because he was black he was fired for the same reason Culley was fired, because he refused to make changes to his staff. Pep Hamilton didn't suck because he's black, he sucks because he ****ing sucks, -see Andrew Luck. Was it racist when Pep was fired from the Colts, Browns or Chargers? For those calling Cal racist, if Cal is racist which owners aren't? And since all the owners are racist will yall stop watching football?
Im not denying racism. I am sure some or many old rich white owners have some racist mindsets and behaviors. But I think you have to really Stretch it with these situations to attribute this mishandling to anything other than incompetence. Whatever you think of Cal I doubt his “innate racism” was the driving force in sabotaging his franchise both on the field and with the public.
