What was Texans coach Bill O'Brien so mad about? The Lions may have backed out of a trade
We’ve seen plenty of glimpses of draft rooms over the first two days of the draft. We’ve seen Kliff Kingsbury with the coolest house in the NFL, and Bill Belichick’s dog seemingly running the New England Patriots draft.
What we haven’t seen much is any NFL coach or general manager getting angry when the cameras cut to them. They’ve all been pretty cool. But Houston Texans coach and GM Bill O’Brien really wasn’t happy about whatever was going on in his draft room during the third round.
The ESPN-NFL Network broadcast cut to O’Brien when Houston was on the board for the 90th overall pick. O’Brien was on the phone. Then something went awry and O’Brien wasn’t happy.
O’Brien hung up his cell phone, then whoever he was talking to started to get an earful. O’Brien threw up his hands and started yelling and pointing. Because there was no sound, we didn’t know what happened Then we went to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell in his easy chair to announce Houston had selected linebacker Jonathan Greenard.
The underrated part of O’Brien’s silent (to us) rant was his son sitting to his left. We’ve seen many coaches and general managers joined on screen by their kids for picks. They’ll hug or give high fives or do something fun. O’Brien’s son looked over during his dad’s meltdown but kept his same expression, probably knowing he was on camera. Then his dad walked out in a huff. O’Brien is an emotional guy has has had some outbursts with the media, going back to his time at Penn State.
John McClain of the Houston Chronicle filled us in. O’Brien was angry the Detroit Lions backed out of a trade at the last moment.
Texans had a deal with Detroit for the 90th pick but Lions backed out at last instant and Bill O’Brien was furious. You could tell by his reaction on TV. They selected OLB Jonathan Greenard with their pick.
— John McClain (@McClain_on_NFL) April 25, 2020
Well, at least he might have. According to Kyle Meinke of MLive, no such trade was ever in place.
Just got off the video call with Bob Quinn. One quick note: He says there was never a trade in place with Houston, has no idea why Bill O'Brien was so mad
— kyle meinke (@kmeinke) April 25, 2020
This probably isn’t the first time a team was mad at another for backing out of a deal. It’s just the first time we got to see it unfold in real time — that is, if there was even a deal to back out of.
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