Houston Texans coach and general manager Bill O’Brien is not ruling out the possibility of NFL players staging walkouts during the NFL regular season.
According to Aaron Wilson of the Houston Chronicle, O’Brien is keeping an open mind when it comes to the chance that NFL players could walk out of games as the entire NBA, the NHL, and some of Major League Baseball did on Thursday and Friday.
“I would say anything is possible,” O’Brien told reporters on Saturday during his meeting with the Houston media. “Just speaking for the Houston Texans, I’m really proud of these guys that are on our team. We have a lot of really good veteran guys that are really passionate about football, really passionate about what’s going on in the world.”
O’Brien’s words echo those of Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll, who said earlier this week that, yes, “Anything is possible” regarding player walkouts.
“I mentioned to the players, this the season of protest. So we’ll handle ourselves as we do,” Carroll said Wednesday. “But this is a protest that doesn’t have an end to it until all the problems go away, and we solve issues and stuff. So we’re going to do our part and continue to work to stay actively involved and continue to stay in touch with the situations that are going on by staying on the topics, just in hopes that we can be there to help and support when we can and have influence where we can. The whole Black Lives Matter thing couldn’t be more obvious how true this whole movement is, and how much focus and change needs to come. It’s just so clear. I hope we can do something to help.
“The one thing we’re not, is we’re not numb to it. We’re in tune, the guys are feeling it, it’s topical, and we know that we have to do something. Like everybody that cares on the right side of this whole issue, you worry that you can’t do enough, you worry that you can’t be effective enough to create the change that we need. So we’ll continue to stay on it and continue to talk and do what we can.”
The Texans’ first scrimmage at NRG Stadium took place during the first night of walkouts. While the team had a discussion earlier that day about the circumstancing plaguing the country, most notably the turmoil in Kenosha, Wisconsin, stemming from the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man, in the back.
“The thing that really strikes me as a coach is you’re always in a rush you want to make sure everything is going well you’re thinking about the next play, the next three plays from now, but these players they’re not in a rush,” said O’Brien. “Our players are really thoughtful. They want to think about things. They don’t want to rush to make any decisions on anything. It’s been really enlightening to me.”
For NFL players to have a walkout would be impactful as there are only 16 such games throughout the entire season. If NFL players were to have a walkout during sweeps for television, it would be even more of a hit than the NBA and NHL playoff games being postponed.