John McClain said the quiet part out loud.
“The Texans were set to hire Josh McCown as Culley’s replacement,” wrote the Texans’ top beat reporter in an article filed to the Houston Chronicle. “But they called an audible after one of their finalists, Brian Flores, filed a lawsuit against the NFL charging, among other things, racial discrimination in the league’s hiring and firing practices.”
McClain, who has been on the Texans’ beat since their debut season in 2002 (he also covered their predecessor, the Houston Oilers), isn’t speculating here. He’s stating a fact, confirming what we all knew to be true—that Lovie Smith wasn’t the Texans’ first, second or even third choice to replace David Culley as head coach. The Texans even tried to legitimize McCown by having him interview for the Jaguars’ job that eventually went to Doug Pederson. But the optics of hiring McCown, a white candidate with zero coaching experience, amid the league’s Brian Flores saga would have been a bad look for an organization that’s weathered more than its share of PR disasters in recent years.
Flores had been viewed as a serious candidate due to his New England ties—top executives Nick Caserio and Jack Easterby are both Patriots alums—but was eliminated from consideration after suing the league for alleged racial discrimination. “Once Flores filed his lawsuit, pointing specifically to the Dolphins, Giants and Broncos but including the Texans and every other team, he wasn’t going to get hired by the people he was suing,” writes McClain. “The Flores lawsuit caused teams still needing head coaches to step back and reevaluate. The Texans knew they were going to get ridiculed for hiring McCown, who has no college or NFL coaching experience. Hiring him at the expense of a more experienced minority became a deal breaker, so they reached out to Smith.”
Though some might praise Houston for hiring a minority candidate in Smith, a former NFL Coach of the Year with the Bears in 2006, do the Texans really deserve credit for doing the right thing when everyone knows they wanted someone else? “Smith was going to continue as the associate head coach/defensive coordinator under McCown, but the Flores lawsuit caused the Texans to reconsider,” notes McClain. “There were reports McCown turned down the job, which isn’t true. Although he’ll never admit it, Caserio changed his mind.”
While Culley lasted just one season in Houston, McClain expects Smith to have a much longer leash. “Lovie Smith can go 0-17 in his first season and not get fired.”
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