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Four Remarkable Things Texans Owner Cal McNair Has Done to Skyrocket in Popularity

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There was a time, not all that long ago, when being a Houston Texans fan made you a target of ridicule, a source for the pleasure of those who dabble in schadenfreude. Put simply, it really sucked being a Texans fan from 2020 through 2022, when not only did they win a paltry 11 games over three seasons, but they did so by making decisions and doing things which defied any sort of logic.

The NFL is full of teams who are bad teams, despite doing things that seem logical on paper. The Texans were the team doing things that you could tell from jump were bad ideas — prompting Bill O’Brien to GM, trading DeAndre Hopkins for nothing, allowing Jack Easterby to have a 713 area code. At the eye of the storm was owner Cal McNair, who ultimately answers for everything Texans-related, good or bad.

Back then, it was a whole lot of BAD. Every tweet the team sent out , even if it had nothing to do with McNair, would elicit dozens of “Sell the team!” replies, and sometimes, oftentimes actually, in far more colorful terms than that. For a while, it looked like there was no way out.

Then, like a gift from the football heavens, along came DeMeco Ryans to coach the team. Then, from there, along came angel number two, in the form of C.J. Stroud, and next thing you know, the Texans are winning games, and the very same owner who probably needed security surrounding his River Oaks home two years ago, that guy can’t go out in public now without fans telling him how awesome he is.

Two great hires, in the two most important spots in a football organization, and the Texans are off to the races! Now is the time for Cal McNair to enjoy the fruits of being a POPULAR NFL owner, and man is he doing a good job of that! Let’s start with this past weekend and go backwards chronologically with the four biggest things, aside from hiring Ryans and drafting Stroud, that Cal McNair has done to enhance his skyrocketing popularity:

4. Shotgunning a beer at the Luke Combs concert (Saturday night)
In case you missed it, Cal McNair joined several Texans players on stage at the second of two Combs’ concerts at NRG Stadium, and joined the award winning artist in a celebratory shotgun of a cold beer:

Incredible, and here are the best and somewhat unknown parts of this video. First, I was told by a source close to Cal that he had to be told exactly what “shotgunning a beer” was, which is incredible considering he played college football at Texas. Second, Combs wanted all the players to shotgun a beer, but Cal stepped in and said that it was in-season, the players are training, and he would do it on their behalf. The icing on the cake, the punt of the beer can at the end, was not planned. What a scene, man!

3. Cal’s impromptu “man on the street” interview with the School of Hard Knock (Earlier this summer)
What better way to give off that “every man” vibe than to allow an interviewer to walk right up to you and pepper you with questions about your business — like, literally about Cal’s actual corporate business. This is a level of comfort that Cal McNair did NOT have a few years ago:

My favorite part of this video was at the end, when Cal says his advice in negotiations is knowing “when to walk away,” as he is literally walking away from the interviewer. Hilarious.

2. Cal’s handling of the leaks of secret pictures of the team’s new uniforms (March 2024)
Back in March, the team had a private showing of their new uniforms for a handful of media members, team employees, and select season ticket members. I as one of the people present, and I can vouch that they asked us to turn in our cell phones before the presentation. Well, there was one bad apple in the room who managed to sneak in a camera and post an awful picture of the new uniforms on an average Joe, like you or me:

Instead of fretting about, Cal just one upped the leaker and posted way cooler pictures of Nico Collins and Tank Dell sporting the uniforms:

1. Cal’s cookout (summer tradition, began August 2022)
This is actually something Cal McNair decided to do back in the summer of 2022, right before the Lovie Smith-coached season. He decided to hold a cookout in the practice field parking lot, and give free burgers to fans who attended the final practice:

I love this one for a couple reasons. First, as I said earlier, Cal started doing this back in 2022, when times were still pretty rough for the Texans. So this wasn’t him riding the wave of Ryans’ popularity. Ryans was still the defensive coordinator for the 49ers at that time. Second, I have served as the primary assistant for Cal McNair at these cookouts, and if I may say so, I’ve become quite the burger flipper!

Can’t wait to see what popularity trick Houston’s favorite son pulls out of his hat next! Winning something like 12 or 13 games this season would do just fine.

Listen to Sean Pendergast on SportsRadio 610 from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. weekdays. Also, follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/SeanTPendergast, on Instagram at instagram.com/sean.pendergast, and like him on Facebook at facebook.com/SeanTPendergast.

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Sean Pendergast

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