COVID-19 waits for no man. Just ask the Tennessee Titans. The notion of a player or coach getting infected with the novel coronavirus was a scenario all 32 NFL teams had to war-game in July and August as the possibility of playing pro football amid a pandemic became more and more realistic.
According to Houston Texans chairman and CEO Cal McNair, the club going through the scenario of who would take over as coach if Bill O’Brien was positive for the virus gave them the confidence to make the switch to Romeo Crennel after an 0-4 start.
“He’s our associate head coach, and actually we had gone through the exercise a little bit of thinking through the virus and what happens in different positions on our staff if someone caught the virus and was out for a couple of weeks and how we would handle that,” McNair said. “And, so, in fact, Bill felt strongly that Romeo was the right guy and talking through all our options, we absolutely agreed with that. And, so, this wasn’t exactly the same reason or rationale for making the change, but we had thought through this and made the change.”
McNair has a belief in the roster which features Pro Bowl talent in quarterback Deshaun Watson, left tackle Laremy Tunsil, defensive end J.J. Watt, and inside linebacker Benardrick McKinney. McNair partly made the change to Crennel as interim coach to get the team back to having fun.
Said McNair: “I want to see the defense flying around. I want to put the ‘Rock Boy’ band back together. I want them to play their songs. I want Justin Reid to take a pick back 99 yards. I want to see Deshaun playing an air guitar and he’s got a great dance in the end zone my wife really likes to see. And these are things I want to get back to. I want to get back to having fun. I want the guys flying around. I want playing fundamental and that will lead to wins and get us to where we’re going to go.”
The Texans know what they have in Crennel after having him in the building since 2014. Houston sports fans are hopeful to have more fun on Sundays in the form of wins starting in Week 5 against the Jacksonville Jaguars Sunday at 12:00 p.m. CT at NRG Stadium.