There is one big reason why this 2023 Renaissance season for Houston Texans football feels so good. There is also one big reason why the previous three seasons felt like an interminable living hell. Ironically, those reasons for completely opposite vibes are the exact same thing — former Executive Vice President of Football Operations, Jack Easterby.
From the middle of 2019 through the middle of the 2022 regular season, life as a Texans fan was miserable, and at times, embarrassing. It was embarrassing for many of us to root for a team that was essentially being run (and run so, so poorly) by a former team chaplain who had no business gaining the power he did. Many good people left the building in that era.
Along those lines, though, the franchise finally waking up, and whacking Easterby during the bye week in 2022, has directly led to a 180 degree turnaround in the perception of the team. Moving on from Easterby begat hiring DeMeco Ryans in January as the team’s head coach, and eventually the team drafted C.J. Stroud, and now we are off to the races.
In short, the presence of Easterby drove all of us to drink, the depressing way. The removal of Easterby led all of us to drink, in the celebratory way. So why am I bringing this up? Well, because Will Kunkel of FOX 26 recently did an interview with franchise icon (and three time Hall of Fame finalist) Andre Johnson, in which we get a glimpse into what may have finally jarred the McNairs into removing the cancerous tumor that was Jack Easterby.
Here is a great cut from the interview on Andre Johnson discussing his relationship with current CEO and owner, Cal McNair, along with admitting that there were tough conversations between him and Cal about Easterby:
If Andre Johnson criticizing the Easterby sounds familiar, remember back to January of 2021, when Deshaun Watson demanded to be traded (about two months before Watson’s Q rating in Houston did a complete flip from hero to villain, when the massage lawsuits began flying), and Johnson fired the ultra rare (for him) Twitter scud missile (now deleted)) right at NRG Stadium:
If I’m @deshaunwatson I will stand my ground. The Texans organization is known for wasting players careers. Since Jack Easterby has walk into the building nothing good has happened in/for the organization and for some reason someone can’t seem to see what’s going on. Pathetic!!!
— Andre Johnson (@johnson80) January 12, 2021
This was major stuff back nearly three years ago — Andre Johnson, the most popular player in franchise history saying the Texans waste players’ careers. Yikes. Obviously, in Johnson’s eyes, Easterby was to blame for Watson, who’d just signed a record breaking contract just four months prior, wanting out. This interview from Kunkel would seem to indicate that Andre took his public thoughts to a private conversation with Cal McNair. Thank God.
These days, the relationship between Andre Johnson and the Texans seems as good as it’s been since he retired. The team is vehemently campaigning for him to gain Hall of Fame induction, Johnson is around the team all the time with his former teammate, Ryans, as the head coach, and Johnson, as recently as this past Sunday, was watching the Titans-Texans game from McNair’s suite.
Times are no doubt better for all of us that root for the Texans, and perhaps, as it turns out, one of Andre Johnson’s most legendary acts as a Texan was doing his small part to remove the team’s biggest problem back in 2021.
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This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2024.
