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Breaking News: Some guy possibly hired to do something for Texans
The Jacksonville Sharks announced Tuesday that Director of Player Personnel Pat O'Hara will leave the organization in order to pursue an opportunity with the National Football League's Houston Texans. It's true! Here's the quote:
The Jacksonville Sharks announced Tuesday that Director of Player Personnel Pat O'Hara will leave the organization in order to pursue an opportunity with the National Football League's Houston Texans.
O'Hara joined the Sharks' front office as Director of Player Personnel in October of 2014. Prior to his time with the Sharks, O'Hara enjoyed a lengthy Arena Football League career that included multiple ArenaBowl championships as a player, as well as stints as head coach of the New Orleans VooDoo and Orlando Predators.
Nothing was specified in regards to what exactly O'Hara will be doing for the Texans, nor have we seen any announcement from the Mothership itself, and nothing from any beat reporters (as of this writing). I'm not even sure the move would even warrant an announcement. In fact, it's entirely possible that O'Hara merely told his boss he was going to Houston, Texas for the weekend, and this is all a big misunderstanding!
Either way it's not likely that a longtime Arena football coach, with less than one year of front office experience (as detailed below) would get a high-ranking position at the NFL level, but we'll pass along the info all the same.
Here's a quick bio on O'Hara from the AFL's website:
Hired by the Jacksonville Sharks as the team's Director of Player Personnel on October 3, 2014, Pat O'Hara has compiled a 35-53 regular season record in five seasons as a head coach in the AFL.He began his coaching career as the protégé of Arena Football Hall of Famer, Tim Marcum, with the Tampa Bay Storm in 2005. O'Hara served as a player-coach, playing quarterback and calling the plays as the team's offensive coordinator.
He earned his first head coaching job following the 2008 season, having been hired by the Los Angeles Avengers. However, the League went on hiatus before O'Hara coached a game with the team. In 2009, he served as head coach of the Tri-Cities Fever of the af2 before returning to the AFL in 2010 as the head coach of the Orlando Predators. He spent two seasons in Orlando, guiding the team to the playoffs both years.
In his first season at the helm for the New Orleans VooDoo in 2012, the squad improved by five wins and made the playoffs for the first time since 2004.Prior to his coaching career, O'Hara was a 10th round draft pick of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 1991. In addition to the Buccaneers, O'Hara also spent training camp time with the San Diego Chargers and Washington Redskins before coming to the AFL in 1995. He won a pair of ArenaBowl chmpaionships in Orlando before joining the Toronto Phantoms for two seasons and then finishing out his career with the Tampa Bay Storm. In 2003, O'Hara came off the bench to lead the Storm to victory in ArenaBowl XVII.
It's interesting that he player-coached briefly before moving on to coaching full time. Hopefully this guy is the proverbial diamond in the rough. You can say hi to Pat and ask him to confirm this breaking news here on Twitter.