Like with any divorce, we start to find out everything that was going on behind the scenes after both sides finally split.
Such seems to be the case with the Houston Texans and DeAndre Hopkins. The franchise shipped him off last week to the Arizona Cardinals for a second-round pick, David Johnson and a draft pick next year.
According to SI.com’s Albert Breer, there was some friction with Hopkins and the team in regards to his practice habits.
“There was friction with Hopkins inside the organization, and really it had everything to do with Monday-to-Saturday. On Sundays, he was exemplary. The rest of the week, his practice habits (he didn’t practice much at all) became a problem, and because he was such a big star he had the ability to carry teammates in the wrong direction—guys who might not be able to turn it on come game day as easily as he could. And that was, if not easy, manageable. That said, it’s one thing to keep a guy who may not totally align with the program on an existing contract. It’s another to reward him with a new contract with three years left on that deal, and have to handle the message it sends to the locker room. And those intangible elements, by the way, are central to how EVP Jack Easterby is trying to help O’Brien rework the organization.”
Of course, this info comes out after Michael Irvin told a story of Hopkins having a meeting with Bill O’Brien and him comparing the all-pro WR to the late Aaron Hernandez. He also spoke on O’Brien talking about the mother of his children as well.
This practice habit info won’t make the organization look any better after they gave away a top-3 WR for basically nothing at all.
