On Friday morning a comment that had been said by Houston Texans owner Bob McNair, wherein he used the slightly altered idiom "Inmates should not run the prison," (instead of "run the asylum") to refer to recent NFL player protests impacting the league's bottom line, made headlines after it was included in an ESPN the Magazine story. According to ESPN that comment left the room "stunned," and precipitated an argument between Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and NFL executive/ex-player Troy Vincent.
Shortly after the original story was published McNair issued this apology:
On Friday afternoon the story continued to play out, as Texans players told ESPN that they contemplated staging a walkout to express their disapproval with McNair's choice of words during a practice that started half an hour late due to the resulting fallout. The team learned of the comment when Coach Bill O'Brien relayed it to them in an effort to prevent them from being "blindsided" by it later.
According to that same report 10 players did walk out of the facility, including Pro Bowl wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins, whose absence was said to have been a direct result of McNair's comments:
Several of the players who left returned, and the players that considered staging a walkout had to be talked out of that decision by coaches. "When it happened, there's a thousand emotions going through your mind," Pro Bowl tackle Duane Brown said. "Obviously, one of the emotions is to leave the building immediately. [But] we decided to go to work. The situation's not over. It's something that we'll reconvene and talk about again, but we had practice today."
O'Brien, who said that he's "100 percent with these players," said that he expects Hopkins to be on the team flight to Seattle on Saturday.
Additionally, according to Brown, the team has not decided what they'll do for the national anthem, but he did say that he "can't stay quiet about it." For Brown's full comments, check out the ESPN story here.
The Texans will play the Seahawks at 4:05 ET this Sunday.
