Texans Minority Owner Philip Burguieres Passes Away

In bringing football back to Houston, Bob McNair, rightfully so, gets a ton of credit.  But lost in the shuffle was the contribution of Philip Burguieres to the cause.

Now a lot of you--okay, most of you--might be thinking, "Who exactly is this Philip Burguieres guy anyway?"  And to be fair, you wouldn't be alone either, I thought the same thing when this news first broke.

So sad 2 hear bout death of Texans limited partner Philip Burguieres, Bob McNair's right-hand man for many years. He'll b missed by many.

— John McClain (@McClain_on_NFL) July 1, 2016

You could say that without the help of Mr. Burguieres, the Texans might never have gotten off the ground.

When McNair bought the team in 1999, he had no employees working for the team.  He brought Mr. Burguieres into the fold as vice chairman to put together the team's first front office staff and got the team up and running.

Does that mean we have Mr. Burguieres to thank for the Charley Casserly era?  It's possible, I don't know, but let's not dwell on that at the moment, shall we?

Need sponsors to sell naming rights to?  Burguieres brought in Reliant Energy.

Need minority owners?  Burguieres used his contacts to cobble together a consortium of local owners who would not just pony up the cash but also were "well-regarded in the community," which fits McNair's M.O.

If McNair bought the machine that is the Houston Texans, then Philip Burguieres is the guy who got the gears within the machine turning, and, Casserly aside (possibly), for that we should be glad.  Because if that weren't the case, the team might not have worked out financially here and McNair might have sold the team to a chump from Oklahoma or something stupid like that.

But that's just the business side of him.  Philip Burguieres also spoke out frequently about mental health issues, particularly depression.  In fact, he was profiled in a PBS series called "The Faces of Depression" where he talked about his struggles with the illness the steps he took to overcome it, and how he helped others with the same problem.

Feel free to add your thoughts about Mr. Burguieres, especially if you knew him, if you didn't know him, if you think you saw him in a parallel dimension, if you want to talk about depression, or even if you just want to bash Charley Casserly over the head with a cast-iron frying pan; the comment section is yours.