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Oddly enough, the departure of JJ Watt from the Texans does not include a press conference. Watt presumably did not want one.
Instead, the owner, Cal McNair, called several members of the media and in all likelihood read from discussion points or note cards about the decision to release Watt – and the decision (for now) to keep Deshaun Watson.
The reporters, as we know, received a Cal call, including Peter King of NBC Sports, Adam Schefter of ESPN.com, Ian Rapoport of the NFL, Albert Breer of SI.com, John McClain of the Houston Chronicle and Aaron Reiss of TheAthletic.com.
McNair’s message to most if not all of the reporters was, among other things, that ‘there was a lot of misinformation’ about Watson, and that McNair expects Watson to be a member of the Texans.
So, what is the wrong information? All we know now is that Watson asked to be traded, that Watson made every effort to contact him, that GM Nick Caserio did not draw a line in the sand during the press conference that coach David Culley did not introduce. , and that the Texans have since been trying to create the impression that there is a line in the sand.
Again, what is the wrong information? Why not say so? Why not correct the record instead of painting clumsily with a broad brush that someone has committed the whole picture wrong?
The fact that McNair actually had a loose script for his various phone calls reminded me of McNair’s radio interview in July 2019, which asked a host in the Texans’ flagship station to criticize McNair for doing business -cliches read from a prepared text.
“Did anyone understand a word that Cal McNair just said?” Matt Jareck said at the time. ‘I had to listen to this thing 20 times in a row to find out what he meant. . . And by the way, you can see that he reads this thing on a postcard. . . . This is classic PR. . . Thread together a statement that means nothing. ”
It sounds like even more PR was shown three days ago as McNair tried to force the Watt era while enchanting the party over Watson.
To sum up, there is a lot of misinformation out there, the Texans are not telling anyone what it is, and they expect Watson to continue to be a member of the Texans.
This is what I expect: the Texans will continue to imagine the same dysfunction that brought them to the point where their franchise quarterback wants out. If I’m wrong about it, just call me, Cal.