DeAndre Hopkins interviewed with GQ magazine for its September issue and he addressed topics ranging from fashion, to his upbringing and what life is like for him in the NFL.
Hopkins, who was drafted by the Texans in 2013, was candid about the difficulty of performing with subpar quarterbacks prior to Deshaun Watson's arrival two years ago.
He said he was upset after Watson was injured in 2017 and the Texans didn't seriously consider signing Colin Kaepernick, especially given how desperate the team's quarterback situation has been over the years.
.@DeAndreHopkins is the NFL's most underrated receiver—and dresser https://t.co/D1owcSzsye pic.twitter.com/qZweG0NDFQ
— GQ Magazine (@GQMagazine) September 3, 2019"Yeah, I was upset," Hopkins said in the GQ article. "Everybody needed to give Kaep a look. He can help a team win. I've seen a lot of quarterbacks that's not as good as Kaep, but teams don't want the heat behind them."
Hopkins expressed resentment that lower caliber receivers were making it to the Super Bowl because they had talent at quarterback and called Watson's arrival "one of the happiest moments I have playing football. That's sad."
"You don't understand what I've been through," Hopkins said. "Nobody understands, and I keep it to myself. I don't bash people in the media, like other people. Before Deshaun, I used to be frustrated…all the time, just saying, "How am I in this position?"
There were also interesting comments about Hopkins considering sitting out a game against the Seattle Seahawks after the late Bob McNair's comments leaked about player protest against racism and social injustice. McNair reportedly said allowing the protests was like "inmates running the prison."
"I'll take my ass home," Hopkins said. "I went home. I ain't going to practice today. Hell no. I was about to not play in the game."
When asked if he'd sit out the game, Hopkins said:
"Hell yeah, I was about to sit out the game. But I definitely wasn't going to practice. A couple of my teammates about to follow me, but they called them back up to the stadium. They tried calling me, but I wasn't going back. Hell no.
"It's hard for people to understand what that means, when your family was slaves. You can't relate to something like that if your great-uncle's not telling you stories about their parents or their grandparents and what they went through. Not even too long ago, people couldn't even drink out of the same water faucet. Not even 100 years ago."
You can read the GQ article in its entirety here.
