NFL Blocks Houston Texans Attempt to Ban Reporters From Practice
The Houston Texans apparently want to ban reporters from practice so badly that they informed media covering the team that they would be ending training camp weeks early. The NFL stepped in and blocked the ridiculous move.
The Texans told reporters they would be ending training camp on Thursday, two days before their preseason opener. The move was an attempt to switch into regular-season mode so they could ban reporters from covering practices. The NFL recognized it as a way to circumvent league rules and shot down the attempted change.
League rules say that daily practices must be open to the media through August 26, but teams can limit access of local media members during regular season practices. The bumbling Nick Caserio-Jack Easterby regime clearly thought it was going to outsmart everyone and instead the team's decision-makers got exposed for being idiots.
The Texans are an absolute dumpster fire and this is just the latest example. They've botched so much over the past few years and brought in Caserio in an attempt to clean things up. Now they've got a quarterback in Deshaun Watson who may never play for them again. Oh and they pulled this garbage in an attempt to somehow avoid bad press.
I'm not sure what the Texans are trying to hide from reporters but it's clearly something. It's not like head coach David Culley's schemes are going to be so groundbreaking that laying eyes on them would literally break the minds of the assembled media. He's a 65-year-old receivers coach with Lovie Smith as his defensive coordinator. I'm sorry if I have a hard time believing that he's wildly protective over his designs on either side of the ball.
This feels like Houston sending a shot across the media's bow that negative coverage won't be tolerated. And if the stories coming out of camp -- like all the reporting about Watson actually participating despite his ongoing legal jeopardy -- are negative, the team will just find ways to block access. The result of this latest course of action has been, you guessed it, more bad press. Because the Texans can't get out of their own way.