Super Bowl Domination

Chapter 1555 A Farce

During the offseason, there is constant noise.

It's like this every year, and every year a new story unfolds without exception. Some teams stand under the spotlight and become the stage for farce, some teams quietly hide behind the scenes and control the whole situation, some teams avoid the storm and watch the fire from the other side, and some teams sneakily take advantage of the fire.

Visible and invisible excitement is always going on.

This year, it's the Houston Texans --

Unexpected but reasonable.

The so-called surprise is that the Houston Texans have been on an upward trend since the 2017 season. Watson is also generally regarded as the cornerstone quarterback of the team. In the just-concluded 2019 season, the team reached the conference finals for the first time in history. This young team seems to have finally got on the right track.

Logically speaking, the team's offseason should be mainly stable, without any major storms, but I didn't expect to be under the spotlight.

The so-called reasonableness is because the style of head coach O'Brien is tough and domineering, and he has the final say. After being given the position of team manager last season, he has been in power and gradually turned the locker room into a one-man show. After the team made history last season, it reached its peak.

There are many players in a professional football team with different personalities. How the head coach controls the locker room is also a science. Although they both have a tough military management style, Belichick can be successful with the New England Patriots, it does not mean that O'Brien can also be successful with the Houston Texans.

The spark of controversy came from star wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins.

In the 2019 season, Hopkins was undoubtedly the Houston Texans' top wide receiver and a top player in the entire league; however, the last time Hopkins renewed his contract with the team was in 2017, for five years and $ million. Although it was a top salary at the time, four years later, the contract was not good enough and Hopkins asked for a restructuring of the contract.

Obviously, the Houston Texans don't want to see this.

The problem is not that Hopkins asked for a contract restructuring, but the way the team handled it. If the team was not satisfied, they could have sat down to negotiate. But O'Brien was very tough and completely refused to negotiate with Hopkins, and even publicly humiliated Hopkins in the team office:

O'Brien compared Hopkins to Aaron Hernandez:

A former professional football player who went to prison for murder.

This made Hopkins extremely dissatisfied, and he had a direct conflict with O'Brien in the locker room.

Subsequently, rumors circulated within the Houston Texans that O'Brien refused to negotiate with Hopkins and was instead prepared to trade him directly, spreading rumors to sell Hopkins.

One stone caused a thousand waves!

There was an uproar in the Houston Texans locker room. It was rumored that a group of players jointly wrote a letter, united to find O'Brien, hoping that O'Brien would change his mind.

Unfortunately, it failed.

To be more precise, O'Brien harshly rejected this group of players with a tough attitude, and became more convinced that Hopkins must be traded. Hopkins is a cancer and a pest, and only when Hopkins leaves can the locker room return to peace.

The bad thing is that these rumors did not stay in the locker room. They were leaked every now and then. The news from insiders exposed the bottom of the Houston Texans locker room. One piece of news after another not only made O'Brien lose face, but also made the Houston Texans a joke.

The managers of other teams took advantage of the situation. They were not kind lambs. Seeing that Hopkins and O'Brien were incompatible, O'Brien should have been eager to get rid of Hopkins as soon as possible, so they began to lower the price one by one, and the league's top wide receiver was bargained like pork.

O'Brien was furious. He thought that Hopkins was behind everything. Emotion destroyed reason, and impulse and recklessness prevailed. The ending was -

The free market has not officially opened yet, but news that Hopkins is about to leave the Houston Texans is already flying around.

But what no one expected was that the real climax of this farce had not yet arrived.

The free market opened, and the Houston Texans and Arizona Cardinals reached a deal, with Hopkins going to Arizona in exchange for running back David Johnson, a second-round pick and a future fourth-round pick in Houston, causing a sensation throughout the league.

Speechless.

First, David Johnson has long passed his prime and has a high contract. Trading Hopkins for Johnson will not ease the pressure on the Houston Texans' salary cap.

Second, a second-round pick? A second-round pick is far below Hopkins' actual market value.

NFL professionals can all see that O'Brien was too lazy to even have a proper negotiation in order to get Hopkins out. This emotional and reckless behavior is unwise and unprofessional. More than one expert said it was "one of the worst deals in history."

The Houston Texans' locker room was in chaos and it was rumored that Watt and O'Brien had a direct conflict.

This is no small matter. After all, Watt is a flagship figure for the Houston Texans.

The entire team was in a panic. After having just created the best record in history last season, they never expected to experience such a sudden turn for the worse during the offseason.

Reporters went to interview Watt as soon as possible. It was rare that Watt did not hide his anger in front of the media.

"I don't want to rebuild again, I want to win."

Everyone knows that Watt spent nine years with the Houston Texans and devoted his youth and life to this city and this team.

The young Houston Texans have gone through many reconstructions over the years, and their fundamental goal of starting over again and again is to make an impact on the Super Bowl championship. Watt has fought side by side with the team through countless ups and downs. In the 2019 season, they finally made a breakthrough and advanced to the conference finals. Everything seemed to be finally on track, and their bright future was slowly unfolding. However, they faced such turmoil again during the offseason.

No wonder Watt was angry.

This is J.J. Watt, the true soul of the Houston Texans, and it's well known that O'Brien can't handle Watt the way Hopkins can.

However, what happened next was beyond expectations. Just when everyone thought that this farce had come to an end, it took an unexpected turn and continued to go crazy, rushing all the way towards the cliffs, seemingly completely out of control.

Michael Irvin, an ESPN reporter, has a close relationship with the Houston Texans locker room, and many previous news came from him.

This time was no exception. "Deshaun Watson was furious about the fact that he was left out."

Obviously, the Houston Texans quarterback was very dissatisfied with the fact that the spotlight of this farce was focused on Hopkins, O'Brien and Watt, without asking for the opinion of himself, the cornerstone and core of the team, from beginning to end, and he expressed his dissatisfaction to the management.

(End of this chapter)