Back in January, Andre Johnson shocked a lot of people after he suddenly took to Twitter and called out the Houston Texans in support of quarterback Deshaun Watson.
This month, the Texans legend appeared on ‘The HD Connection’ with 10-year NFL veteran Harry Douglas to discuss, among other things, his viral tweet about the Texans.
“I’ve been around this organization for a long time, and you know I worked there last season, and it’s just certain things you see …. “certain things you see that you know that’s not right,” said Johnson.
“For the caliber of player that Deshaun is, I wouldn’t want Deshaun to try and go through that. And I went through those things myself with the organization, and I did that for 12 years. ‘Cause sometimes people (say), ‘What do you wish you could change different about your career?’ And I always tell them I wish I was a little more selfish and not always being just a team guy. Because things that you want the organization to do, they’re not always going to do it, but I think sometimes the organization don’t listen to what you have to say.
“Us as players, we’re in the locker room every day, we know what goes on with this team, so we’re not telling you things to take over your organization, we’re just trying to do things to help. And I think sometimes top people in the organization, they just don’t listen to players. And that’s something that I felt like I had to deal with a lot when I was here.”
The franchise appeared to be going downhill ever since late founder of the franchise Bob McNair was heavily blasted when he made reference to players not standing for the national anthem, stating “We can’t have the inmates running the prison.”
“For him to be told that he was gonna be involved in the coaching hire and the GM hire, and not receive a call, that’s BS to me.” said Johnson. “This is your franchise quarterback, how can you not involve him in it?”
Click on ‘Follow Us’ and get notified of the most viral Houston Texans stories via Google! Follow Us
“Football now is not like how it used to be when we first came into the league, where the players really couldn’t say too much or think like that. … We have a voice now. And that’s just what it is. They may not like it, but that’s just what it is, because they’re taking a stance for what they want …
“But sometimes it makes you feel like the team doesn’t have your best interests and like I said I just don’t want to see Deshaun go through what I went through.”
Douglas went on to point out that the fact that the four biggest names in the franchise’s history, namely Johnson, Watson, DeAndre Hopkins, and J.J. Watt have all had their issues with the organization.
“There’s a lot of things I could dive into,” said Johnson.
“It becomes frustrating” … “There’s so much air you can blow in a balloon before it busts. Me now being on the outside looking in, it’s just like ‘I’m not fixing to let these guys go through this.’ I’ve experienced this and that stuff can really take a toll on you as a player. So you giving yourself to this organization, you doing everything you can, and I hear people always say ‘well you signed the contract,’ yeah I signed the contract because I earned the contract. If I didn’t do anything I wouldn’t get paid” …. “So what? You would’ve signed the contract too if they gave you one-hundred and whatever million, you would’ve signed it too. And at the end of the day, that’s our security. We don’t have guaranteed contracts, we’ve got to get the most guaranteed money we can in the time we can.”
