The aura and vibes around the Houston Texans took a drastic swing upwards in 2023 under first-year head coach DeMeco Ryans and rookie quarterback C.J. Stroud. It has been a long time coming for the Texans to become relevant in the NFL again and they seem to be on the right path in search of the organization's first-ever Super Bowl.
Nothing is built overnight and that goes for the Texans as well. Yes, they were able to see success in just a year with a new head coach and quarterback, but you will have to look a little further back to when Cal McNair was named CEO and Chair of the organization for where it started.
McNair came in and immediately got to work and just this year he was elected to become the majority owner of the team because of efforts to bring the Texans back to prominence.
In a recent question and answer event on Reddit, McNair asked the Texans faithful to come with whatever questions they had for him and to kick things off he was asked about the importance of former players such as Andre Johnson and Johnathan Joseph having roles within the team and the impact it has on them.
"Our former players have always been very important to our family. These are the guys that laid the foundation for us," McNair wrote during his Reddit Q&A. "There's an emphasis on our full Legends program so they can be a resource for the younger players, and this allows the retired guys to stay around the game. With DeMeco being a former player himself, the connection is better than ever."
Bringing in former players will always bring some energy into an organization, but keeping them around has also been shown to pay dividends. Not every former player is built to have an actual role on the team, but even if they don't, the current players need to see what the former players gave to the organization for them to be in the positions they are today.
McNair and the Texans have a great thing going at the moment and likely are in the best position to contend for a Super Bowl in quite some time. Now it will be up to the coaching staff and players to put everything together to achieve that lofty goal.
