Houston Texans’ owner Bob McNair completed his overhaul of the team’s management yesterday by naming former Denver Bronco’s assistant Rick Smith as the second general manager in the Texans’ five year history. Smith replaces Charley Casserly, who resigned last month amidst widespread criticism regarding the Texans’ player personnel choices and a disastrous previous season. McNair began the overhaul earlier this year by firing head coach Dom Capers and replacing him with former Broncos offensive coordinator and Houston native, Gary Kubiak.
The hiring of Smith also completes an interesting change in management philosophy for McNair, who originally went with the strong GM management approach in hiring Casserly as the Texans’ first employee. Casserly was the public face of the team’s management, much more so then former head coach Capers. Although that approach placed most authority in football operations in Casserly’s hands, it also sealed his fate as he became increasingly verbose with the media over the past season in attempting to deflect criticism over the team’s horrifying performance. My sense is that Casserly’s manipulation of the media during the team’s horrendous season did not sit well with McNair, a classy man who does not appreciate such public posturing.
With the hiring of Smith, McNair has completed the adoption of the Broncos’ management system in which the head coach has the decision-making authority on personnel matters and the GM serves in a support role. Under the Texans’ new regime, it’s clear that head coach Kubiak is calling the shots, just as Broncos coach Mike Shanahan does in Denver.
What’s particularly interesting about the shift in the Texans’ management philosophy is that Kubiak is getting far more power as an unproven coach than Capers ever received when he became the Texans first coach five years ago with a much more impressive resume than Kubiak. Capers took the expansion Carolina Panthers to the NFC title game in only their second season, and he was a successful NFL defensive coordinator before and after his tenure in Carolina. On the other hand, Kubiak’s sole NFL coaching experience prior to receiving extensive authority under the Texans’ new management approach is that of being the trusty sidekick to the Broncos’ Shanahan, who delegated limited authority to underlings in regard to running the Broncos’ offense.
In light of the foregoing, do you think the Miami Dolphins’ defense — which is now coached by Capers — might be hitting with a little more, might we say, “enthusiasm” when the Dolphins come to town on October 1 to play the Texans?

As noted in this post from over a month ago, one of the worse-kept secrets in Houston sports circles over the past several months is that Houston Texans General Manager Charlie Casserly would — take your pick — either resign or be fired after the completion of the annual NFL Draft of college players in April. This Megan Manfull/Chronicle article today confirms that Casserly is gone.
Inasmuch as the Texans on-field performance over the club’s first four seasons has been the poorest of any recent NFL expansion franchise, the fact that Casserly is being shown the door is not a surprise to anyone except the Chronicle. For some reason, Chronicle NFL columnist John McClain has been maintaining the facade that Casserly’s leaving is voluntary when there is a strong probability that it is not. “There have been reports that Casserly will be fired, which isn’t true,” writes McClain. “If he leaves, it will be his decision.”
H’mm. Apparently it never occurred to McClain that the eminently classy Texans owner Bob McNair might be willing to throw Casserly a bone by allowing him to say that his leaving is voluntary rather than a firing. The fact that McClain’s relationship with Casserly apparently does not allow him even to acknowledge that possibility reveals that he really shouldn’t be writing about the matter in the first place.
Update: McClain won’t give up on his theory that Casserly was not pushed out, even though there is little question that Casserly’s contract — which had only a year left on it — would not have been renewed.

Withering under the logic of Texas A&M’s complaint (picture on the left) in the university’s copyright infringement lawsuit over its revered 12th Man slogan, the Seattle Seahawks gave in and entered into a settlement with the Aggies under which the Ags will allow the NFL club to continue using the phrase “12th Man” so long as the Seahawks acknowledge in doing so that the copyright on the slogan belongs to the Aggies.
The 12th man tradition began at Texas A&M in the 1920s, and the Seahawks adopted it in 1984 when they retired the no. 12 because of the help that their noisy fans provided in the old Kingdome Stadium. The Seahawks’ use of the 12th Man slogan became more prominent this past season during a successful playoff run when the volume at Qwest Field was so loud that more false-start penalties were committed there than in any other NFL stadium. As a result, the Aggies demanded that the Seahawks refrain from using the slogan and then filed a lawsuit.
Both sides of the lawsuit attempted to spin the settlement favorably. A&M Chief Marketing Officer & Vice President for Communications Steven B. Moore emailed this message to A&M alums :

“I’m pleased to inform you that, after months of negotiations, the university has reached an amicable agreement with the Seattle Seahawks resolving the controversy regarding the use of Texas A&M’s 12th Man trademark. Under the agreement, the university has granted the NFL team a license to use the 12th Man trademark in a seven-state area in the northwest that encompasses the current primary broadcast area of the Seahawks. As is the case of all licensees, the Seattle Seahawks will pay the university a licensing fee and will state publicly that Texas A&M owns the 12th Man trademark each time it is used.”

On the other hand, Seahawks CEO Tod Leiweke said:

“You won’t see any change. In certain places we will acknowledge their license and trademark. [. . .] Once they got into it, they realized it was the real deal here. It wasn’t a one-time marketing slogan . . . there was something real and authentic here.”

Meanwhile, a friend of mine — a fervent Aggie booster — emailed me with this reaction to the settlement, which is apparently shared by a number of Aggie faithful:

“The Ags gave up, just like [Head Coach Dennis] Franchione‘s defense.”

Chronicle sports columnist John McClain makes the following rather odd observations at the outset of his column today on the quality of the Texans’ picks in the just-completed NFL draft of college football players:

“First of all, let’s reiterate that our first two choices were Vince Young and Bush, but that being said, it’s clear to anyone who knows anything about the NFL that the Texans had a terrific draft on paper.”

McClain then follows that prediction with the following observation:

“No one can accurately judge this draft until several years down the road, and anyone who pretends he can is a charlatan.”

McClain then proceeds to pretend to judge the Texans’ draft.

Although the University of Southern California football program has had a pretty good run under Coach Pete Carroll over the past several years, there is little question that events over this past weekend have confirmed that the USC program is in full-blown retreat mode.
The warning signs began appearing immediately after the Texas Longhorns beat the Trojans in the BCS National Championship Game in early January. This hilarious Bill Simmons article after that game revived the “Coach Fredo” (after the frustrated oldest son of the Corleone Family) nickname for Carroll that East Coast pundits had tagged him with during his less-than-stellar coaching stints with the New York Jets and New England Patriots.
But that was nothing compared to what has occurred over the past couple of weeks in the run-up to this year’s NFL draft of college football players. As this NY Times article reports, it started about a week ago with various media outlets reporting that Reggie Bush’s family had been in a house owned by a San Diego man who was hoping to handle Bush’s marketing work, which prompted Bush and his handlers to make some ill-advised public comments. That resulted in the owner of the house disclosing publicly that he had made over $100,000 in cash payments to the Bush family and that he plans to file a $3.2 million lawsuit against Bush for fraudulently inducing Michaels to spend more than $300,000 under the premise that his sports marketing company would be representing Bush.
Inasmuch as those allegations, if even half-true, would be major violations of multiple NCAA rules and regulations, that giant sucking sound you hear is the Trojans’ 2004 National Champtionship Trophy beginning to be pulled back to NCAA headquarters in Indianapolis.
But that wasn’t all.

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Although perhaps not always fulfilling, things are certainly always interesting over at Texansville.
In a stunning development, the Texans ignored conventional wisdom and threw today’s National Football League draft into chaos by signing North Carolina State defensive end Mario Williams instead of USC running back and Heisman Trophy winner Reggie Bush as the no. 1 pick in the draft. The ESPN.com report is here and the Houston Chronicle’s John McClain’s story is here.
Although Chronicle sports columnist Richard Justice is typically apoplectic (see also this blog post) about the Texans’ decision to select Williams over Bush, the decision is not all that surprising. For their entire existence, the Texans have come into each season with the same basic problems — the team could not protect its own passer and could not put pressure on the opposition’s passer.
Despite those constant problems, the Texans were able to muddle through their first three seasons with the appearance of overall improvement, but then backslid in Season Four last year as the chronic problems became too much for the undermanned franchise to overcome. Thus, when contract negotiations between the Texans and Bush’s agent stalled this past week, the decision to attempt to address the Texans pass rush problem with the 6′ 7″, 295 lbs. Williams — who is about as fast as Texas QB Vince Young — was really not unreasonable at all.

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I may have missed it, but I didn’t see the following news reported in ProFootballTalk reported by any of the local media:

Mathis Pulls a Winslow
A league source tells us that Texans receiver Jerome Mathis is sporting casts on both hands and bandages on his wrists and arms due to a recent motorcycle accident.
The accident happened recently, and nearly a year to the day after Browns tight end Kellen Winslow auditioned for the role of Superman by flying over the handlebars after attempting a reverse wheelie. Winslow suffered far more extensive injuries, including a torn ACL that knocked him out for the 2005 season.
Per the source, the injuries to Mathis appear to be limited to his arms. The source added that Mathis looks like “a mummy from the elbows down” (which raises all sorts of interesting bathroom issues).

Mathis, who excels at returning kick-offs, was the only member of the Texans team to make the NFL Pro Bowl All-Star game this past season.

This NY Times article from over the weekend discusses the ups and downs that prospects endure in the run-up for the annual National Football League draft, but even that did not prepare me for this:

For the first time, there is legitimate reason to think that USC running back Reggie Bush is not going to be wind up in Houston, the city that currently holds the No. 1 overall pick.
This does not come from one source or from one team. This comes from multiple sources, from across the league, without any agenda to push.
The mounting evidence includes this:
As of Monday, the Texans had not had any contract discussions with Bush and his representatives. None.
Yet the Texans have approached North Carolina State defensive end Mario Williams, trying to see if he would be receptive to discussing a deal.
But the evidence goes beyond contracts. When Bush was in Houston, a certain segment of the organization never introduced itself to the running back. This might not be unusual, but if the organization was convinced it was taking a certain player, it should be rolling out the welcome mat with everyone trying to make the player feel as at home as possible. This, according to those who know Bush, did not happen.

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This SI.com article reports that Logan Young, a University of Alabama football supporter who was convicted in 2005 for money laudering and racketeering in connection with bribing a high school coach to induce a top high school football recruit to play football from the Crimson Tide, was found brutally murdered in his Memphis, Tenn. home this past Tuesday.
Interestingly, Philip Shanks, a Memphis attorney involved in a lawsuit stemming from the resulting NCAA sanctions over the Young affair, was attacked in his office and left unconscious in May 2004. No one was ever charged in that incident.
Update: Memphis police are now contending that Young’s death was the result of a bizarre accident.

ProFootballTalk.com is reporting that embattled Texans General Manager Charlie Casserly will be replaced as the Texans GM after the upcoming NFL Draft:

A league source tells us that the Houston Texans plan to fire G.M. Charley Casserly after the 2006 draft. Casserly has been the franchise’s only general manager, joining the team more than two years before the Texans every played a game.
The plans to part ways with Casserly, we hear, are common knowledge within the upper reaches of the organization.
The move isn’t all that surprising. Owner Bob McNair brought in former Broncos, Giants, and Falcons coach Dan Reeves as a consultant late in the 2005 season, and charged Reeves with the task of, among other things, evaluating the team’s roster. Since that’s usually the G.M.’s function, it wasn’t a good sign for Casserly’s long-term job security.
And it’s not unusual for a team to hold on to a football executive through the April draft in lieu of firing him at the end of the season. Casserly, in January, was privy to much of the team’s free agency and draft strategies. He could have landed with another team and coughed up all sorts of sensitive information.
Casserly has spent nearly 30 years in the NFL, including 23 with the Redskins. He reportedly is under consideration for a position in the league office. His contract with the Texans runs through June 2007.