David Culley’s “Mission Accomplished” Moment

[typing] “...and since I’d achieved all my goals as President in one term, there was no need for a second. The end.”

Hmm, good memoirs. Good, not great.

- George Bush, in Simpsons Episode 3F09 “Two Bad Neighbors”

Earlier this week, YOUR Houston Texans announced they were cancelling minicamp because of “great” attendance during OTAs. That’s certainly specious reasoning. Like Big Matt said in the linked article:

With the Texans adding 172 new players, installing a new offense and defense with nearly an entirely new coaching staff, and playing under a CBA that limits how often teams can practice, cancelling practice seems like a strange thing to do. Culley knows the pulse of his team, though. Don’t fret. Don’t worry. Open your heart. Culley knows all.

It’s not just that it’s strange, it’s that it undermines all of the warm fuzziness of competition.

Again, let me be super clear: minicamp doesn’t suddenly improve this team from maybe one or two wins to ten for the 2021 season, so this isn’t the biggest deal in the world. Competition, though, has been used to make a subset of Texans fans feel good about themselves and the team’s prospects for 2021. If you aren’t going to use minicamp for competition, you’re just wasting everybody’s time by talking about it. Regardless, competition is just another way to say you don’t have talent anyway.

Perhaps, at this point, even David Culley understands that competition between a bunch of JAGs is worthless and unimportant. Or, perhaps, we know that the 2021 season is basically going to be one long minicamp as the front office sorts through the flotsam and jetsam looking for one gold nugget?

LOL! Yeah, right.

David Culley is, by any standard, a toxic positivity sacrificial lamb who will be gone after two years when the Texans’ roster is less toxic from a talent standpoint. Culley is here to get the fans excited about things that don’t make a difference to a football team, like pizza and competition. It’s going to be downright sad watching Culley’s positivity disintegrate as the team enters Week 6 with an 0-5 record. Nobody except the most hardened of homers will be able to swallow the spins at that point in time.

This is one heckuva “mission accomplished” moment for David Culley, and it’s not a good look.