Easterby Exposed

Congratulations, Texans fans! One of the last remaining remnants of the old regime is gone. Jack Easterby has been fired.

Easterby’s contract was going to expire at the end of the year and inside sources claimed that the Texans were not planning to renew his contract. For some reason the Texans simply could not wait any longer. While we do not know why the Texans fired Jack Easterby instead of waiting for his contract to expire, it is worth noting that the organization did not try to hide this story on a “Friday evening news dump”. Instead, they announced the firing on a Monday morning so the world could know.

There has been quite a bit of disinformation in the past twenty-four hours, and I’ll try to clarify some of it in this piece but be forewarned: some of the information will make you think you are reading TMZ because of the speculative nature of many of the events being discussed. Before we get to the more salacious stories, let’s look at how Easterby even ended up as an executive in Houston in the first place. Let’s start from the beginning.

In 2005 Easterby was a tutor at the University of South Carolina and was hired to be the character coach of the Gamecocks men’s basketball team. He later worked with the women’s basketball team and in 2010 he started working with their baseball team as well.

In 2011 Easterby became the chaplain for the Kansas City Chiefs. During his time there Jovan Belcher, an undrafted FCS All-American linebacker, killed his girlfriend with a handgun. Belcher then drove to the Chiefs’ parking lot where he ran into Romeo Crennel, the head coach of Kansas City at the time. Belcher held a gun to his head while Crennel and Gary Gibbs, the Chiefs’ linebacker coach, pleaded with Belcher to put his gun down as police were called to the scene. Belcher disregarded their pleas and shot himself in the head. Not only did the Chiefs have to deal with a murder-suicide, but Belcher’s family exhumed his body to test for CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy) and sued the Chiefs for wrongful death after the medical report showed a positive diagnosis.

Easterby was there to pick up the pieces at a time of great vulnerability.

In 2013 Easterby was hired by the New England Patriots following the arrest of tight end Aaron Hernandez who was accused of murdering Odin Lloyd. While Easterby was in New England he helped the Patriots with draft evaluations, mentored new players and held religious services. Easterby was with the Patriots for five years and during that time Hernandez was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. While Hernandez was in prison he was indicted for the double homicide of two other individuals. Even though he was acquitted of these additional murder charges, Hernandez killed himself. No concrete motive was ever established, however police speculated that Lloyd, who was dating the sister of Hernandez’s fiancée, uncovered the truth about Hernandez’s bisexuality and he was worried that Lloyd would disclose this news to others. It was a tragic event that affected the organization on many levels.

Easterby was there to pick up the pieces at a time of great vulnerability – again.

Easterby helped the Patriots win three SuperBowl rings even though there were frequent distractions resulting from the Aaron Hernandez crisis which went on for five full years. The players as well as Bill Belichick talked very highly of Easterby and said he was a major reason for their success. Easterby was incredibly close to some players. He had players and other staff members over his house for the holidays and had easter egg hunts for their children. He even performed a wedding for defensive end Derek Rivers and his then-girlfriend, Lauren. He performed a small ceremony so Rivers could live with his girlfriend without “living in sin” during his rookie season. Easterby later performed a much larger ceremony for them in the off-season.

Easterby became such a hot commodity that he hired Bob LaMonte of PSR (Professional Sports Representation Inc.) to represent him. The organization represented sixteen NFL executives including:

• Rick Smith when he was an executive Vice President of the Houston Texans
• Howie Roseman, the executive Vice President and General Manager of the Philadelphia Eagles
• Chris Ballard, the General manager for the Indianapolis Colts
• and even our own Nick Caserio, the General manager for the Houston Texans

In 2019 the Texans outbid other NFL teams like the Miami Dolphins for his services. Almost immediately, Easterby started to put his hands in everything he could including personnel decisions, media access, player mentorship and the general overall state of the Texans. Five months before the Texans hired Easterby, Bob McNair died of skin cancer.

Once again, Easterby was there to pick up the pieces at a time of great vulnerability.

By the time Easterby arrived in Houston, Bill O’Brien had created a culture of chaos. Cal McNair, who became chairman and CEO of the Texans, did not even conduct a press conference with the media. Bill O’Brien was attempting to avoid the media as much as the NFL would allow. There was no face for the Texans leadership. Everyone noticed just how much power Easterby had in the organization when quarterback DeShaun Watson answered a question about left tackle Laremy Tunsil. Watson said:

O’B and Mr. McNair and Jack are just trying to make sure that this team is where we want to be and they know exactly what we need in that locker room.

Watson grouped Bill O’Brien, Cal McNair and Jack Easterby as equal members of the Texans leadership. In the very first days and months of his arrival, both Bill O’Brien and Deshaun Watson continued to speak highly of Easterby. Texans fans thought he could be the savior of the franchise despite the fact that he refused to talk to the media.

Watson was not the only one to speak highly about Easterby. Bill O’Brien gushed about him publicly as well.

I’ll be honest with you. I knew that he was one of the smartest guys in the business, but I really didn’t know how smart until I was around him — and what a great person he is. He’s got a great energy about him and he’s very bright. Great organizational knowledge of how to structure an organization. Everything from the cafeteria to the weight room to contracts to roster decisions. He has a good knowledge of football, personnel, skill sets, what we’re looking for. He’s probably — he doesn’t want to be in the media, so he’s not going to be happy with this quote. But he has an in-depth knowledge of a lot of different things relative to football. And then he has a great way about him.

Texans fans did not know exactly what Easterby did, but they did know he helped the Patriots win three SuperBowls and that was all that mattered.

In the DeAndre Hopkins trade the Texans acquired David Johnson and a second-round pick. The Hopkins trade is widely believed to be one of the worst trades in the modern NFL era. Two days after Hopkins was traded Michael Irvin told ESPN about a conversation he had with Hopkins. Irvin said he was stunned by the trade, so he called Hopkins. It was not until the second phone call that Hopkins opened up to Irvin. Hopkins said O’Brien was concerned about the influence he had in the locker room. O’Brien also lectured Hopkins about his “baby mamas” and said he didn’t want his children and their mothers at practice. However, the worst part of the conversation was when O’Brien told Hopkins his lifestyle was not acceptable. O’Brien said “the last time I had to have a meeting like this, it was with Aaron Hernandez”.

Now why would Bill O’Brien compare DeAndre Hopkins with Aaron Hernandez? Before I answer that question, I need to remind you of the warning in the beginning of this article. Unfortunately, when Easterby is discussed every Texans reporter turns into their own version of TMZ. It was widely rumored that Hopkins had bisexual tendencies and this was not acceptable behavior to Easterby. It is also likely why O’Brien compared Hopkins to Hernandez. While Hopkins lived in Houston fans reported that they witnessed Hopkins with other men. In private small circles, Easterby would say “We need to move on from that person”, referring to Hopkins. Whether Hopkins bisexuality was true or not, it seems Easterby believed it enough to force him out of the organization.

The TMZ-like reporting doesn’t stop there. There were reports by multiple publications that Jack Easterby was so involved in some of the players’ lives that he would send text messages to their mothers if he couldn’t reach them and alert their family of any potential bad habits. When this story first broke, people assumed this was why Watson requested a trade. No adult man wants his employer to text his mother about his actions. After the sexual allegations were made public, fans doubled down on the belief the player involved in the story was Watson. After all, it does make sense. If Easterby was aware of Watson’s sexual behavior he could have very well alerted Watson‘s mother, but this is not true. In fact, the anonymous player in the story was likely Kenny Stills and I’ll explain why.

Another widely believed rumor was that public relations expert Amy Palcic was having a sexual relationship with wide receiver Kenny Stills. Easterby did not like their activities and used Palcic as a scapegoat, and fired her by telling Cal that she was responsible for leaks that made the organization look bad. The reality is that Easterby was leaking information to the media himself and lying to Cal about who was leaking the stories. Amy Palcic was fired and a few weeks later Kenny Stills was waived. About a month after Amy Palcic was fired, Sports Illustrated wrote another story about Easterby’s rise to power and it is quite likely Palcic was a source for many of the specifics discussed in that article.

In the following days and weeks I expect even more information to come out about the snake, the con man, the coward that is Jack Easterby.