Houston Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson tore his ACL last week, and now team leadership is admitting that they briefly considered bringing original anthem protester Colin Kaepernick to Texas as a replacement.
“We talk about the roster and what’s out there every day, Rick [Smith] and I,” Texans head coach Bill O’Brien said, according to ESPN.
When pressed on whether or not they talked about Kaepernick, O’Brien added that “everybody gets discussed.”
O’Brien added that Kaepernick is “a good player,” but avoided the question as to whether the team would offer him a slot if need be.
“I’ve studied him from when he was coming out of college,” O’Brien told the media. “When we scrimmaged against them and then obviously when he was in professional football when we scrimmaged against them last year when we went out to San Fran.”
O’Brien reiterated that “everybody is discussed,” but didn’t address how his boss, team owner Robert C. McNair, might feel about offering a contract to Kaepernick.
Last month McNair was one of those NFL owners who lined up against the constant national anthem protests that Kaepernick invented last year. McNair seems to have joined Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones to oppose the league’s lenient treatment of the players and their protests.
For instance, at the end of October, McNair was reported as having said allowing the players to continue their protests was like “having the inmates running the prison.”
While McNair later apologized saying that he didn’t mean to equate the players to “prisoners,” it is clear he is not happy with the anthem protests.
Meanwhile, the former San Francisco 49er has been sitting out the season, a free agent, after walking away from his contract with San Francisco. He recently filed a grievance against the NFL, alleging collusion.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.
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