Latest news with #McNair
USA Today
3 days ago
- Sport
- USA Today
Texans plan to induct co-founder Janice McNair to team Ring of Honor in 2025
A fourth member of the Houston Texans is headed to the Ring of Honor in 2025. Texans co-founder and Senior Chair Janice S. McNair will be the fourth member inducted into the team's Ring of Honor, the team announced Saturday ahead of their open practice for the media. The induction will take place during halftime of Houston's Week 9 matchup against the Denver Broncos on Sunday, Nov. 2. 'My parents brought football back to Houston more than 20 years ago and ever since, my mom has given so much to our city and our organization,' Texans Chair and CEO Cal McNair said in a statement. 'There is no one more deserving of being the next member of this illustrious group than mom. She continues to be our team's biggest fan, and I know how proud dad would be to see her name join his in the rafters of NRG Stadium. I can't wait to celebrate her induction into the Ring of Honor this season.' McNair, who helped with the parameters of bringing a team back to Houston following the Oilers' departure, will join her late husband Robert C. McNair, Hall of Fame wide receiver Andre Johnson and three-time Defensive Player of the Year J.J. Watt in the Ring of Honor. Johnson was inducted as the inaugural member in 2017. McNair, the former Texans Co-Founder and Senior Chairman, was inducted in 2019 while Watt became the third member in 2023 following his retirement in 2022. 'I'm thrilled to join Bob, Andre and J.J. in the Ring of Honor,' Janice S. McNair said in a statement. 'It means so much to me to be inducted alongside three of my favorite Texans. I have cherished every gameday since 2002 and I'm so proud of our team. It will be such a blessing to celebrate this special occasion with our amazing fans in November. Go Texans!' Since moving to Houston in 1960, the McNair family has been generous philanthropists, making education and medical research the cornerstones of their charitable giving. Both Bob and Janice have contributed more than a half billion dollars to charity over the last five decades, with contributions being made through The Robert and Janice McNair Foundation, the Houston Texans Foundation and The Robert and Janice McNair Educational Foundation in Forest City, N.C. The Houston Texans Foundation was created in 2002 at the inception of the franchise. It was born out of Janice and Bob's strong desire to do great things for Houston, especially Houston's youth. Since the Texans Foundation's inception in 2002, more than $50 million has been raised to inspire hope in H-Town. The Texans Foundation leverages the power of football to strengthen our community, support youth development and break down barriers to fundamental resources. The Texans open the regular season on the road at SoFi Stadium against the Los Angeles Rams on Sept. 7.
Yahoo
07-07-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Jeff Fisher explains the biggest difference between Cam Ward and Titans legend Steve McNair comparisons
Jeff Fisher explains the biggest difference between Cam Ward and Titans legend Steve McNair comparisons originally appeared on A to Z Sports. NASHVILLE -- Few people understand the history of the Tennessee Titans - Houston Oilers franchise than former coach Jeff Fisher. The club drafted quarterback Cam Ward with the No. 1 overall draft pick in 2025, who came in with stylistic comparisons to legendary passer Steve McNair. Advertisement I asked Fisher what he made of those comparisons in an appearance on 104.5 The Zone's The Buck Reising Show recently. Cam Ward has similar on-field characteristics to former NFL Co-MVP Steve McNair View the original article to see embedded media. Who better to ask about the player comp being made by many in the pre-draft process. 'What we did in the way we handled Steve was, we wanted to get him experienced in his first year," said Fisher. "Mind you, that's, well, come in and play if we're trailing by a lot and we'll mop up or if we're ahead or there's an injury. And so, he got valuable experience his first year. And then, we kind of moved into the second year. By the third year, people were asking me, how was he? I was like, well, I just watched. This guy's going to be pretty good. Advertisement "And even in year three, four and five, when he was really starting to come on the scene and winning games for us, people would ask, is he a top five quarterback? And at that point, I couldn't ask that question, but I certainly could say he's a top five football player. And that's what he was. He was a football player first. And then, as he moved in and really fine-tuned the quarterback position, then of course he's a co-MVP. But are there similarities between the two? Physically, I don't think you're gonna ever find anybody that matches Steve's physical characteristics, the toughness, the strength.' Ward and McNair are both highly regarded for their competitive toughness, though the latter had higher-level traits at the position. McNair, however, was a product of a different generation of quarterback development. He did not take the reigns as the full-time starter until his third year as a pro. Ward will not have that same luxury as the clear option for a franchise in desperate need of immediate impact. While current Titans coach Brian Callahan has been firm on the idea of letting Ward earn the role through competition with embattled third-year quarterback Will Levis, Ward is the only real option moving forward. Advertisement Where Ward and McNair differ most View the original article to see embedded media. Comparisons are never exact. Just as no two people in everyday life are created exactly equal, the same logic applies to athletes. While watching one prospect may remind you of a former great from years past, it is a fools errand to take those equivalencies to extremes. Fisher was keen to point out one area where the legendary McNair differs from the outspoken Ward. "(McNair) was quiet," Fisher said. "He wasn't really outspoken. He wasn't that guy that would step in and call a team meeting or grab the team in the locker room, stuff like that. He was more of that quiet leader and people really respected. So, you know, when, when sometimes guys are going to yell and they're going to, you know, they're going to, you know, talk, talk trash and things like that. Steve spoke, spoke softly. Advertisement "And when he spoke, people bent over and listened to what he had to say.' View the original article to see embedded media. Featured Image: USA TODAY Sports This story was originally reported by A to Z Sports on Jul 7, 2025, where it first appeared.
NBC Sports
04-07-2025
- Sport
- NBC Sports
Steve McNair was murdered 16 years ago today
Sixteen years ago today, a quiet Fourth of July afternoon was interrupted with the stunning news that former NFL quarterback Steve McNair had been shot and killed. McNair was only 36 at the time. The official explanation never made complete sense. Quickly solved as a murder-suicide, with McNair shot by his 20-year-old girlfriend, Sahel Kazemi, who then supposedly shot herself. The rush to close the case seemed odd. Police concluded that Kazemi shot McNair execution style, twice in the chest and twice in the head. A subsequent effort to re-open the case ultimately failed. The issue was pressed by Vincent Hill, a former Nashville police officer who aggressively pursued the theory that it was not a murder-suicide. In 2018, took a closer look at the unanswered questions in Fall of a Titan, a podcast series. 'I could make a case that things don't add up,' former Titans coach Jeff Fisher said in a 2024 Netflix documentary on the McNair murder. 'I don't want to speculate. Just let it go.' Even now, it's hard to let it go. It's hard not to wonder whether someone got away with double murder. And while that won't change the fact that McNair was killed on this day in 2009, there's a nagging sense that justice may not have been done. McNair was the NFL's co-MVP in 2003, and he led the team to the Super Bowl in 1999. The third overall pick in 1995 out of Alcorn State, McNair spent 13 seasons in the NFL — 11 with the Oilers/Titans and two with the Ravens. The Titans retired his number (9) in 2019.
NBC Sports
04-07-2025
- Sport
- NBC Sports
Jack Easterby attributes the Texans firing him to fan criticism
Jack Easterby's NFL career evaporated even more quickly than it suddenly materialized. Now, nearly three years after the V.P. of football operations was abruptly fired by Texans owner Cal McNair, Easterby has offered an explanation for how and why things fell apart. Appearing on the Ross Tucker Football Podcast, Easterby suggested that he was done in by rampant fan criticism. 'There also were a lot of people that, quite frankly, we had to transition out of there,' Easterby told Tucker, via Matt Young of the Houston Chronicle. 'So, that was probably one of the other things that I would say that was really hard for people to understand on the outside. Fans love football, man. So if they're like, hey this is in between me and where I want to be, there's going to be criticism and justifiably so. That comes with it, right? That's just part of it.' It's also perhaps just part of why McNair made what at the time was a surprising decision to part ways with Easterby. He glossed over the fact that his ouster happened in 2022, the second year of G.M. Nick Caserio's tenure with the team. If things were bad enough from a fan standpoint to get McNair to dump Easterby, they weren't bad enough for McNair to also sever ties with Caserio — the G.M. who was reportedly hand-picked by Easterby, in defiance of the formal Korn Ferry search process. Blaming the move on fan reaction adroitly glosses over reality. The Texans, while Easterby was still employed there, pulled off one of the all-time coups, dumping quarterback Deshaun Watson onto the Browns for three first-round picks, and then some. With the Watson trade-and-sign becoming the single worst transaction in NFL history, the Texans deserve plenty of credit for engineering it. Consider the circumstances. Watson didn't play at all in 2021. He had more than 20 civil lawsuits pending, each of which arose from allegations of misbehavior during massage-therapy sessions. And yet the Texans managed to get four teams to submit acceptable trade terms, allowing the Browns, Panthers, Saints, and Falcons to compete for Watson's contract. Easterby was there when it happened. And yet, only months later after the Texans pulled it off, Easterby was gone. Was it really a product of fan discontent, or was there something else going on that caused McNair to break free from what seemed like the strange and inexplicable hold that Easterby had over him? The perception, if not the reality, was that Easterby climbed far faster than he should have. That he landed in a key football position without the objective skills or abilities that many other candidates possessed. If anything, fans and some in the media saw through the façade at a time when McNair did not. Something got McNair to view Easterby differently than McNair had. While Easterby's reputation, earned or otherwise, among the fan base didn't help, it's not as if McNair faced losing his role as owner over it. As Jed York once said, you don't dismiss owners. The other thing that undermines Easterby's effort to blame his firing on fan opinion is the simple reality that the Texans went from being hopefully dysfunctional with Easterby in a position of significant influence to highly competitive without him. If his firing was simply an effort to give disgruntled fans a pound of flesh, it had the incidental (and perhaps, in his mind, coincidental) benefit of pivoting the team toward becoming the perennial contender it now is. The fact that none of the other 31 teams has been linked to the potential hiring of Easterby underscores that it was something more than 'the fans didn't like me.' Easterby, whose arrival sparked among other things questions about the accuracy of his resume, has been unwanted by any other NFL team. Easterby is currently back in North Carolina. So is his former boss in New England, Bill Belichick. And despite some stray speculation and rumors that Belichick could be bringing Easterby to Chapel Hill, it hasn't happened. That possibly says it all. Unless, of course, Easterby's sudden emergence during the NFL's slow time is a trial balloon in advance of Belichick giving him a job. Regardless, like Belichick, it seems that Easterby's time in the NFL has ended. If that's because of any fan base, it would be a rare example of fan opinion overruling the whims of the people who own the teams.
Fox Sports
02-07-2025
- Sport
- Fox Sports
Who Are the 10 Best Quarterbacks to Have Never Won a Super Bowl?
There are many high-quality quarterbacks in the NFL. Unfortunately for them, though, there can only be one quarterback who wins the Super Bowl every year. Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, Joe Burrow and a few other star quarterbacks in today's game certainly understand that pain. They've been blocked by Patrick Mahomes for much of their early careers, with the Kansas City Chiefs quarterback winning three of the last six Super Bowls entering the 2025 season. Mahomes isn't the first quarterback to box out his counterparts from winning a Super Bowl. There have been a few quarterbacks who've been able to take down Mahomes and the Chiefs in the postseason, with Jalen Hurts being the most recent as he led the Philadelphia Eagles to a dominant win in Super Bowl LIX. So, as a handful of top quarterbacks in today's game seek their first ring, let's take a look at the best quarterbacks who didn't win a Super Bowl in NFL history. (Active players were excluded from this list.) 10 best quarterbacks to never win a Super Bowl 10. Donovan McNabb Early in his career, McNabb was just a win or two away from winning the Super Bowl on a handful of occasions. In fact, he led the Philadelphia Eagles to four straight NFC Championship game appearances from 2001-04, losing the first three of those games before finally winning in the fourth appearance. However, McNabb and the Eagles lost to the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XVIII, 24-21. He made it back to the NFC Championship Game four years later, but lost again. McNabb finished his career as a six-time Pro Bowler, leading the Eagles to more postseason appearances (eight) than not (three) during his time in Philadelphia. 9. Dan Fouts Statistically ahead of his time as a passer, Fouts was able to turn the Chargers into a playoff contender during his peak seasons as a player. But he only made it to the AFC Championship Game twice, losing to the Raiders in 1980 before falling in the "Freezer Bowl" to the Cincinnati Bengals in the 1981 season. Still, Fouts was the NFL's leading passer in the late 1970s through the early 1980s, becoming the first player to throw for 4,000 yards in consecutive seasons. He won Offensive Player of the Year in 1982, throwing for nearly 3,000 yards (2,883) in just nine games. He finished his career with six Pro Bowl nods and was later inducted into the Hall of Fame. 8. Steve McNair McNair was one of the quarterbacks on this list who came really close to winning a Super Bowl. In Super Bowl XXXIV, McNair nearly orchestrated a game-tying drive in the final minutes, but his completion to Tennessee Titans wide receiver Kevin Dyson fell one yard short of the goal line, giving the Rams the victory in that game. McNair never made it back to the Super Bowl after that, reaching the AFC Championship Game again with the Titans in 2002 before losing to the Raiders. He was named co-MVP a year later, earning one of his three Pro Bowl nods that season. 7. Carson Palmer Palmer's best shot at a Super Bowl arguably came in 2005, when he led the Bengals to an 11-5 record as he became one of the league's best passers that season. But he suffered a brutal knee injury on his first dropback in the Bengals' opening-round loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers. Palmer was able to get the Bengals back to the postseason a few years later in 2009, but he didn't have a major breakthrough again until he joined the Arizona Cardinals in 2013. He quarterbacked Arizona to three winning seasons to start his time there, but he missed the Cardinals' 2014 playoff appearance due to injury. Palmer was able to lead them to the NFC Championship Game in 2015, but the Cardinals were blown out by the Carolina Panthers. Palmer's career ended a few years later as he retired a three-time Pro Bowler. 6. Warren Moon Moon was one of the game's most consistent quarterbacks from the late 1980s into the mid-1990s, proving to be a stable force for the Houston Oilers. However, he wasn't able to reach a conference title game once in his career. The closest he came was when he quarterbacked a 12-4 Oilers squad that lost to a Joe Montana-led Kansas City Chiefs team in the 1993 AFC Divisional Round. Still, Moon was one of the best quarterbacks of his era, leading the league in passing yards on multiple occasions as he was named a Pro Bowler nine times before being inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. 5. Fran Tarkenton Tarkenton's early seasons came before the first Super Bowl, which was played in the 1967 season, but he helped the Minnesota Vikings become a contender during his second stint with the team in the mid-1970s. He led them to three Super Bowls in four seasons, winning MVP in the one season that the Vikings didn't reach the Super Bowl during that stretch (1975). Each of the Vikings' Super Bowl losses was relatively decisive, though, losing by double digits in all three. Still, Tarkenton had a legendary career, being named a Pro Bowler on nine occasions as he's been widely regarded as the first great dual-threat quarterback in NFL history. 4. Jim Kelly Similar to McNair, Kelly was just yards away from possible Super Bowl glory. He nearly led the Buffalo Bills to victory over the New York Giants in Super Bowl XXV, but Scott Norwood's game-winning field goal attempt in the final seconds went wide right. While the Bills made the Super Bowl in each of the next three seasons, that was the closest Kelly and Buffalo came to winning it all. As painful as four straight Super Bowl losses can be, though, you obviously have to have a great deal of talent to even make it there that many times. Kelly certainly had that talent, earning five Pro Bowls in his career as he was one of the best quarterbacks of the 1990s. 3. Matt Ryan Another quarterback on this list with a painful Super Bowl loss, Ryan was on the wrong side of arguably the most memorable Super Bowl in history. His Atlanta Falcons appeared well on track to win Super Bowl LI, before blowing a 28-3 lead to the Patriots and losing in overtime. The four-time Pro Bowler was arguably one of the best quarterbacks of his generation as well, but he had the tough task of sharing a conference with Aaron Rodgers and Drew Brees in their primes. 2. Phillip Rivers Speaking of quarterbacks who fell victim to having to get by other iconic quarterbacks — Rivers arguably had the two best quarterbacks of all-time in his conference during the prime of his career. He was actually able to lead the Chargers to an upset over Peyton Manning's Indianapolis Colts in the 2007 playoffs, but fell to Tom Brady's Patriots in the AFC Championship Game a week later. That was the only time that Rivers was able to make it to the NFL's final four in his career, but he proved he could hang with some of the best as he was named a Pro Bowler eight times. 1. Dan Marino For better or worse, Marino has become the Tier 1 example of an all-time great who never won a title. Marino was ahead of his time as a quarterback, throwing for over 5,000 yards in his second season in the league in 1984. He also reached the Super Bowl that year, but the Miami Dolphins' loss to the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl XIX was the only time Marino ever played in a Super Bowl. Marino remained one of the game's elite quarterbacks for well over a decade after that loss, with no one touching his single-season passing yards record for 20 years. He was named a Pro Bowler nine times and won an MVP in his career, leading the Dolphins to the postseason 10 times in his 17 seasons as their starting quarterback. He finished his career as the NFL's all-time leading passer as well, making him a sure-fire Hall of Famer who never won the big one. HONORABLE MENTIONS Randall Cunningham Boomer Esiason Ken Anderson Cam Newton Vinny Testaverde Dave Krieg Sonny Jurgenson Check out all of our Daily Rankers. Want great stories delivered right to your inbox? Create or log in to your FOX Sports account , and follow leagues, teams and players to receive a personalized newsletter daily! recommended Get more from National Football League Follow your favorites to get information about games, news and more
