When chairman and CEO Cal McNair fired coach and general manager Bill O’Brien on Oct. 5, one of the driving motivations was to infuse more fun into the coaching staff and roster.
Though the Houston Texans are 2-6 on the season, winning two of their last four games after an 0-4 start, the team is still finding ways to have fun.
During Friday’s practice, the portion that was open to the media, interim coach Romeo Crennel played catch with defensive end J.J. Watt. The 73-year-old legendary NFL assistant even rolled out to throw a pass to Watt, who actually has three catches for four yards and three touchdowns among his career stats.
Texans @JJWatt and Romeo Crennel playing catch Friday. RAC has still got it on the rollout play pic.twitter.com/gvwhiQzRNZ
— Aaron Wilson (@AaronWilson_NFL) November 13, 2020
Playing catch with Watt is just a microcosm Crennel is having during his fourth coaching gig, interim or otherwise.
“I love it,” Crennel said. “When you take into consideration the pandemic and everything that goes along with that, it makes it more difficult. But, the thing that coaches enjoy about coaching is the staff that you work with, the players that you are coaching that you work with, and we’ve had a great group of guys here.
“They work hard, they’re enthusiastic. Even though the record is not what we want it to be, we still feel like we can get something done in the latter part of the season.”
The Texans hope to get something done against Crennel’s first coaching stop, the Cleveland Browns, where he was the man on the sidelines from 2005-08, even leading Cleveland to its most recent winning season with a 10-6 record in 2007. If Houston can prevail over the 5-3 Browns, it will be the Texans’ first winning streak of the season, and it will bring even more fun into the organization as they seek to stay in the playoff hunt despite a horrendous start to the 2020 campaign.
