Houston Texans: A key co-worker defends Brian Gaine amid charges

Former Houston Texans general manager Brian Gaine had a key co-worker publicly rush to his defense amid discrimination charges by the EEOC. What’s going on?

The Houston Texans ongoing saga of the reasoning behind former general manager Brian Gaine’s firing continues to ensue and the franchise continues to be mum on the exact reasoning as to why.

Other than Bill O’Brien expressing the need for the front office to move in a different direction, there has been no specific news that has come from up to top. Now the team is without a GM since they’ve ended their hot pursuit of New England Patriots’ GM Nick Caserio amid possible tampering charges.

Those charges were quickly dropped after the Houston Texans ended their pursuit so it seems this team — which seemed to have a succession plan — has been caught with their fly open in the wind.

It’s assumed that O’Brien will delegate and assume the additional personnel duties that a GM would have until they have the right guy in place. I’m positive that this is the way he wants it because the man is always thirsty for more power. But it will be on him if this ship starts to sink as it seems that Cal McNair is a bit more quickly on the trigger than his father, the late Bob McNair was with personnel moves.

Anyway, while that’s going on, I talked about last month — you can read my post here — on Brian Gaine getting ready to defend himself amid charges by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission levied against him and the Houston Texans.

Jeff Pope, formerly a security coordinator for the Houston Texans, was fired last month for what the Houston Chronicle’s Aaron Wilson reported as for “job performance issues, including falsifying payroll and overtime records.”

Pope, who is African-American, alleges that he was terminated based on his race and has filed a complaint with the EEOC after not coming to an agreement on a severance when his ties were cut with the Houston Texans.

If there’s enough evidence to prosecute, the Houston Texans could be sued on the basis of Pope’s argument.

However, a key former co-worker of Gaine has rushed to his defense amid the charges that he’s facing.

C.J. Leak, currently the assistant director of player personnel, was hired by Gaine just last season. He was a combine scout for the New Orleans Saints so his current title with the Houston Texans is definitely a promotion from his former position.

Here’s what Leak had to say about Gaine:

"“Brian has always been outstanding with me as a young scout and with my family: my wife and kids,” Leak said. “All of my experiences with Brian were positive, and he’s a fantastic human being. Brian has a strong reputation in this league. It’s well-earned and he’s got a good heart. Working for Brian this past year under his tutelage was fantastic. I’m better for it.”"

Leak, who is also African-American, offered a powerful statement to Wilson in regard to how Gaine has impacted his career which could eventually be on the trajectory leading to being a GM himself.

Leak also feels Gaine “will get another opportunity” and “he’ll be absolutely fine.”

Could Pope have engineered these charges in order to get the rightful severance package that he

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wanted?

That’s a fair argument for some skeptics of these charges but Pope has just as much of a case as Gaine does to defend himself.

Without me not knowing Gaine, it’s tough for me to pick a side of this argument but Leak’s ringing endorsement certainly puts his former boss in a much better light than previously.

Let’s keep an eye on how this shakes out but I think this will ultimately end with both parties reaching an agreement on a settlement.

But it took the besmirching of many reputations over what civilizations have fought over for centuries on end — POWER, MONEY & GREED.

Let’s just hope that cooler heads prevail when this case comes to light and the truth vindicates whoever is innocent.

Next. Texans: A four-part prediction of the 2019 season. dark

Until then, we’ll all have to wonder if we’ll have GM this season — likely not — and if the 2019 season is a train wreck waiting to happen.

Hopefully not — go Houston Texans.

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