For the second consecutive year, the Houston Texans have made a Black head coach one-and-done.
That development didn't sit right with many NFL fans and journalists -- including prominent ESPN host and Audacy podcaster Stephen A. Smith.
On Monday morning's episode of "First Take," Smith called the Texans organization an "atrocity" and "embarrassment" for its treatment of Smith.
He even went so far as to say Black head-coaching candidates should not listen if the Texans were to call.
“The Houston Texans organization, I’m going to say something loud and clear over the national airwaves and I don’t give a damn what anybody thinks,” Smith said, according to Brandon Contes of Awful Announcing. “African Americans need not apply. This is not an organization that has been fair to African Americans.
"As far as I'm concerned, if you're an African-American, and you aspire to be a head coach in the NFL, there's 31 teams you should hope for. You should hope beyond god that the Houston Texans never call you -- not as long as [general manage Nick Caserio] is in there. Because it's an embarrassment, and something needs to be said about it."
Lovie Smith was pushed out after leading the Texans to a 3-13-1 record in his lone season at the helm.
After an uncharacteristically aggressive performance in his final game, speculation swirled that Smith was giving his soon-to-be former employers the "middle finger" by salvaging a win over the Colts, thereby denying the Texans the first overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft.
Back on "First Take," cohost Michael Irvin agreed with Stephen A.'s analysis, and added that it was always the plan to have a placeholder coach to scapegoat for a down year in 2022. The Texans were reported to be close to hiring former quarterback Josh McCown last offseason, before they apparently backed off after being named in Brian Flores' bombshell racial discrimination lawsuit.
"You said you don't know why the GM still has his job," Irvin said. "I would say, he still has his job because this has been the plan. How do you hire two African-Americans, leave them one year and you get -- you know the mess that Houston is. This is what we've always talked about. This is what I've heard Stephen A. and people in this business talk about all the time. We get the worst jobs, and we don't get the opportunity to even fix the worst jobs because we get fired -- just like Lovie, just like Culley last year.
"I don't know any white coach who would take the job, unless you give him some guarantees. But the African-American coaches can't come in with that power, because 'Lovie wouldn't have gotten another job. This was his last chance to try to get back in the NFL.' So you have to take what's on the table, to try to change it. And all of this because he won a football game. ..."
Irvin added that he would have had a serious problem with any coach or teammate of his who was on board with tanking for the sake of draft position.
Meanwhile, Stephen A. questioned why Caserio wasn't sacked along with Lovie.
"The other element that gnaws at us as Black men is the treatment of Nick Caserio. What Black executive do you know would have that latitude? ... You fire one coach, David Culley, after one season, and then you want to bring in a dude who's a volunteer assistant at a high school to be your coach. You couldn't retain Deshaun Watson, you couldn't get him for wanting to get the hell up out of there, because you had a guy in Jack Easterby, who was ultimately fired. You considered McCown because of his relationship with Easterby.
"The latitude that Caserio has been given to make one mistake -- where are the Houston Texans going? They're no better. They're worse than they were. Now, I will say this, if you're Lovie Smith, that's not a game that you needed to win personally, to get that No. 1 overall pick. But, Caserio shouldn't have his job. I'm trying to figure out why he's still employed as the GM for the Texans."
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