We thought that Chronicle sports columnists had gotten past spinning for Texans general manager Charley Casserly.
Then we read Richard Justice’s latest:
Dom Capers should do something bold this morning. Like fire Vic Fangio.
Maybe it’s too late for Capers to save his own job. Maybe the Texans are too far gone.
Bob McNair may already have decided to fire them all. That means you, too, Charley Casserly.
We interrupt for an unpopular opinion.
Casserly should not be fired.
Got that?
He was more than competent when he was getting players for Joe Gibbs. It was only after he was turning players over to Norv Turner and Dom Capers that his competence became an issue.
He should get a second chance to hire a head coach. And this time, he should add a first-rate group of assistant coaches.
One of McNair’s fundamental mistakes has been cutting corners in putting together a coaching staff. Casserly has made mistakes, too, and if there was someone better available, McNair would be justified in hiring him.
Except there’s not. Unless 69-year-old Ron Wolf wants to come out of retirement and unless Scott Pioli wants out of the contract he just signed with the New England Patriots, there’s no franchise-turning general manager out there.
Casserly knows the league and knows what’s wrong with the Texans. He wanted fundamental changes as far back as last winter. He had lost confidence in offensive coordinator Chris Palmer. He had questions about Fangio, the defensive coordinator, as well.
He also became convinced the Texans weren’t doing a good job of teaching and developing their young players at some positions.
It was Capers who decided to keep his coaching staff intact. It was Capers who put his job on the line for them.
[snip]
Casserly has already begun working up a blueprint for 2006.
The Texans are suffering from a dearth of talent, and Charley Casserly is responsible for the poor decisions on talent acquisition (as Justice’s colleague John Lopez has pointed out). That’s the bottom line. The last thing he should be allowed to do is draw any more blueprints!
It’s fairly ludicrous for Justice to write that only two (unavailable) people could do a better job than Casserly. The rest of the excerpt seems just to be spin from Casserly. One wonders how Bob McNair and his partners feel about Casserly whining so openly to a reporter, and so much of the whining making it into print.
It’s even stranger considering Justice’s contrary advice in late October:
Bob McNair has offered no hint about what he’ll do. But if he cleans out the coaching staff without firing general manager Charley Casserly as well, that would be ridiculous.
No matter what you think of the coaches – and it’s hard to say anything good – the Texans simply don’t have enough good players.
That must have embarrassed Justice at some point, because he has since changed the copy on his blog to this:
Bob McNair has offered no hint about what he’ll do. But if he cleans out the coaching staff without asking some tough questions of general manager Charley Casserly as well, that would be ridiculous.
No matter what you think of the coaches – and it’s hard to say anything good – the Texans simply don’t have enough good players.
Nice try at rewriting, but that’s one reason we excerpt rather than just linking. You never know when the Chronicle will simply whitewash something, with no warning.
Justice had it right the first time, before he apparently changed his mind.
