Texans Owner Bob McNair Recalculates His Apology for ‘Inmates’ Remark
McNair, whose comments on the national anthem made him a divisive figure, reflects on his views and why he’s not fully understood
Andrew BeatonApril 5, 2018 11:19 a.m. ET
Last fall, Houston Texans owner Bob McNair found himself at the center of an unexpected storm. As the league struggled with its response to players kneeling in protest during the national anthem, McNair was quoted telling fellow owners, “We can’t have the inmates running the prison.” He retreated immediately, issuing an apology.
Months later, McNair would like those words back. Not the inflammatory quote. The apology.
“The main thing I regret is apologizing,” McNair says now. He insists the “inmates” he was referring to were not NFL players, but rather league executives who he felt had more control over major decisions than the owners. “I really didn’t have anything to apologize for.”
The 80-year-old McNair has been a blunt, sometimes divisive figure on the frontlines during a historically tense period for NFL owners. His “inmates” remark made him a lightning rod for public reaction to the anthem protests. He has been accused this off-season of refusing to sign players who have taken part in the anthem protests. He was also one of six owners on the league’s compensation committee that
waged a nasty battle with Dallas owner Jerry Jones.
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, McNair said the picture that has emerged of him is incomplete. He concedes that he has a hardline view that the league’s national anthem policy needs change, and had sharp words for a former Texans tackle, Duane Brown, who spoke out against him this season.
But he also said he has quietly done community work that undercuts the public perception of him. In one instance, he paid, without public disclosure, for the funerals of the victims of the
2015 Charleston shooting in which a white gunman killed nine black worshippers at the historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. McNair said he did that because he was distraught by the incident, and also recently made a $1 million donation for a memorial in the victims’ honor. In all, a spokesman says McNair and his family have made about $500 million in contributions to philanthropic efforts.
“I do what I think is right,” he says. “Sometimes, people disagree with you.”
McNair says he first got involved in football “as a civic matter.” He paid a then-record $700 million for the expansion Texans in 1999. He says he did it for Houston, the city where he became a billionaire in the energy business after arriving decades earlier closer to bankruptcy thanks to a misadventure in the trucking business. He says he turned down the opportunity to own other franchises to do so in Houston.
Early in his tenure as an owner, he butted heads with some colleagues over the issue of revenue sharing. As chair of a committee studying league finances, he believed the teams from bigger markets, which pulled in larger portions of the revenue, should get a fatter share of the pie.
The Texans, at the time, were a candidate to host the 2009 Super Bowl. McNair’s views rankled some other owners, especially those from smaller markets who believed his proposals didn’t treat those franchises fairly. The owners eventually voted to give the game to Tampa Bay.
“It shouldn’t be socialism in which everybody puts the money in the pot and split it 32 ways,” McNair says. “It was a bad time, frankly. There was a lot of animosity.”
Houston eventually hosted another Super Bowl—New England’s historic comeback against Atlanta in 2017. By then, the league’s landscape had changed dramatically. Colin Kaepernick had catalyzed the league’s national anthem protests, setting into motion the events that would throw the NFL, and eventually McNair, into the national spotlight.
In the wake of President Donald Trump’s criticisms of the anthem protests in September, and a subsequent surge in the player demonstrations, owners and players met to discuss the issues at hand in October. Then, in a meeting with other owners and league executives, McNair made the controversial “inmates” remark.
“We were talking about a number of things, but we were also washing some of our dirty linen, which you do internally. You don’t do that publicly. That’s what I was addressing: The relationship of owners and the league office,” McNair said. “In business, it’s a common expression. But the general public doesn’t understand it, perhaps.”
After it was reported by ESPN, the Texans were thrown into tumult. Two players left practice. Most of the team took a knee during the anthem that Sunday to rebuke McNair. Tackle Duane Brown, who had also previously protested during the anthem, told Pro Football Talk that he was shocked by other comments he said McNair made to the team after President Barack Obama was elected in 2008.
McNair denies making those remarks. “I don’t go into meetings and express views like that,” McNair said. “I never said that. He has no problem saying things that are not true.”
After the flap, McNair met with his team to clarify his position. He says he “just tried to tell them the truth,” though the tenor of the locker room was difficult because “all Duane was trying to do was be a troublemaker.” Brown, who had held out from the team over contract issues, was traded shortly after to the Seahawks.
“I am very proud and thankful for my time, friendships and accomplishments, on and off the field, for the Houston Texans,” Brown said in a statement. “I know I was a positive contributor to the Houston Texans and the city of Houston.”
This offseason, McNair has faced renewed questions about his views. The Houston Chronicle wrote in March that from two NFL agents “word is the Texans aren’t interested in any players who participated in pregame kneel-downs.”
McNair denies that. He says the Texans would “sign any player that can help our team.”
He says that the prior offseason, the team looked at Kaepernick but the coaches “didn’t like the way he threw the ball.” McNair was recently deposed in Kaepernick’s grievance against the league and all 32 teams that alleges they colluded to keep him unsigned because of his political views.
McNair noted that until a change a decade ago, players remained in the locker room for the anthem.
“If they’re going to be out there, we need to respect the anthem and our flag,” he says. “If folks don’t want to do that, well, stay in the locker room.”
He rejected freedom of speech arguments in relation to the anthem protests. “As employers, we set conditions for all of our employees,” he said. “We don’t allow political meetings or statements or that sort of thing during working hours. You wouldn’t let somebody working at McDonald’s, when somebody pulls through, give them a hamburger and say, ‘I don’t know why you’re eating that beef, why aren’t you a vegetarian?’ You don’t allow that. Well, that’s freedom of expression.”
He added: “We need to stay out of politics. That’s been my message.”
