The Texans announced Friday night that owner Bob McNair has passed away, about a month before what would’ve been his 81st birthday.
McNair landed the expansion Texans in 1999, and has generally been a commendably hands-off owner on the football side. Texans fans will remember him as a hero for bringing football back to Houston. But his recent history includes, among other things, his queasy and hastily retracted financial support for a homophobic and wildly disingenuous (but ultimately successful) effort in 2015 to defeat Houston’s Proposition 1; his brutally awkward “inmates running the prison” comment about NFL players demonstrating against police brutality and systemic racism during pregame national anthem ceremonies; his laughable explanation for the comment; and generally being a big old mud-brained idiot on the topic of NFL players speaking publicly about anything other than blocking schemes.
The daily business of operating the franchise has reportedly been shared between Bob and his son Cal for some time, and presumably Cal will continue running the team while its future ownership situation is worked out.