The Patriots Accuse the Texans of Tampering. #JusticeforNewEngland
Source – It seemed like a fight possibly was coming between the Patriots and Texans over Nick Caserio, and the gloves officially have been dropped.
The Patriots have filed tampering charges against the Texans, according to Adam Schefter of ESPN.
The charges relate to Houston’s attempt to hire Caserio to be the team’s next General Manager. Schefter notes that the NFL will commence an investigation, gathering information relevant to whether and to what extent the Texans communicated with Caserio absent permission from the Patriots to do so.
One potential source of information/evidence could be, in our view, last Thursday night’s ring ceremony at the home of Patriots owner Robert Kraft. Former Patriots executive Jack Easterby, now a key member of the Texans’ front office, attended the event. Communications between Easterby and Caserio could become proof of impermissible discussions regarding the job — especially since the job became vacant the very next day.
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The league also will surely look at records of any phone calls or electronic communications between Caserio and Texans employees or intermediaries. Contact between Caserio’s agent and the Texans also become potentially relevant.
I ain’t mad at the Houston Texans, just because they tried to pilfer Nick Caserio like he’s Jared Carrabis and Jack Easterby is Joe Zarbano. So what if Caserio has been Belichick’s right hand man on personnel matters since Scott Pioli left for Kansas City in 2009? What would expect the Texans to do? Develop a GM from within their own organization? Hire some mid-level assistant from another organization? Come up with something original, God forbid?
That is way too much to ask. Houston, like every other team in the league, has one plan for success. And that is to find someone who’s worked with Belichick. Patriots assistants are the Infinity Stones of football, and everyone is under the delusion if they find one and wield it, it’ll bring them power. I get it. We’ve been dealing with these brain drains since Charlie Weis and Romeo Crennel left in 2004. So let’s not kid ourselves it’s going to stop any time soon.
One little thing though. Tamering is as illegal AF. You don’t come into another man’s rented tent, eat his food, drink his champagne and accept his Super Bowl ring and then try to steal his contractually committed employees away. Hell, when someone shows me hospitality, I don’t help myself to a beer in his fridge without asking. Hiring away someone’s Director of Player Personnel in his own home is worse than trying to bang his wife.
But all I ask in this is the information. ALL the information. Or what Roger Goodell likes to call transparency. Or as dead Texans former owner Bob McNair put it when Ginger Satan was demanding Tom Brady’s private phone:
“What escalated the whole thing is that Brady and the Patriots were going to cooperate fully, and then when it came down to it, they didn’t. If it was J.J. Watt, I think he would have been cooperative, and it wouldn’t be a question. … I don’t think J.J. would destroy his cellphone.” …
You know, when you look back on it, if Brady had just said, ‘Look, my guys know I like a softer ball, and that’s what I like, and so they do it. But I don’t go out and check the pressure of the balls.’ … I don’t think there would have been an issue. It would have been a problem with the guys on the training staff who deflated the balls, and the Patriots would have got some kind of minor penalty; it wouldn’t have been a big deal.
So true, dead guy. So very, very true.
And in your former owner’s spirit, let’s have it, Texans. Hand over your phones. Show us your texts. All of them. The way JJ Watt would. Admit your guilt and we don’t think there’ll be an issue. You’ll get some minor penalty. It won’t be a big deal.
Which, by the way, is what will happen even if the Texans don’t admit it and still get proven guilty. Because if there’s one thing we’ve learned, Ginger Satan doesn’t consider it a violation when the team being tampered with is the Patriots. When the Jets tampered with Darrelle Revis, the best player in their franchise’s history, the most important defensive player in the AFC East and a Super Bowl champion who was still under contract with New England, they got slapped with a $100,000 fine. 100K. Basically what they paid Revis for every down he played. So I know we’re not going to get anything approaching justice here. I just want … transparency.