H is for Hannah McNair

The First Lady of H-Town Football

It wasn’t that long ago when the Houston Texans organization was viewed as an apparent clown college of mismanagement and how-to live-look-ins of franchise incompetence.

Good ole Jack Easterby had owner Cal McNair’s ear and was Grima Wormtongue’ing his way to million$ at the expense of the good people of Houston.

Meanwhile, Cal, the Cy-Fair Athletic Ring of Honor inductee, found himself labeled as the professional sports version of Tommy Boy.

Things were not looking good.

Somewhere along the way, whether at the urging of the McNair’s PR firm, or just plain common sense, McNair’s wife, Hannah stepped out of the shadows and into the spotlight. Not that she wasn’t already in the spotlight in other ways, along with her twin sister Joanna.

While general manager Nick Caserio and head coach Demeco Ryans get a ton of credit for the team makeover, deservedly so, Hannah McNair is earning her spot on the H-Town Mt Rushmore as well.

Gone are the days of Cal’s bumbling, incoherent pressers and soundbites. Replacing them are fiery comments from Hannah that just drip H-Town pride and Texans tenacity. She has a charisma and spunk that’s contagious and her on-camera persona is just what the doctor ordered for an ailing fan base. And, that intense confidence seems to make Cal a better man as well.

Case in point. Shots fired:

If Hannah meets the BESF queen in a cage match, my money is on the First Lady of H-Town Football.

And that fiery disposition doesn’t just come out when another NFL franchise that has no identity to call its own tries to steal ours. This is Lady McNair’s day-to-day drive. She exudes Texas strength, determination, ingenuity and smarts.

TexansWire.com recently captured this quote.

Hannah McNair

Our boys, when they heard the Stefon Diggs news, were screaming around the house. And then, their friends said their teacher stopped class to tell everyone. So, there’s quite a buzz amongst the younger generation about the guys we’ve brought in. So, that’s exciting… We want to win now.

You want high expectations. You don’t want to go into something, going, ‘I hope we just make the playoffs. I hope we get a winning season.’ You always want the expectations to be high. I think the fact that we’re in those conversations is a testament to the decisions that are being made over the last couple of years.

Say what you will (and I did) about Cal McNair’s decision making during the BO’B/Easterby years (hereby known as the Dork Ages), Cal got it right when he invited his amazing wife to step into the spotlight and have a more hands-on impact with this team.

On this, the opening day of the 2024 NFL Draft, you can bet she’s already set the stage to help make the next few days another great moment in H-Town history.