Last season, the Houston Texans made former wide receiver Andre Johnson the first member of the franchise’s Ring of Honor. But Johnson nearly pulled out of the ceremony because of his displeasure with Texans owner Bob McNair.
Johnson said this week that he was so upset by McNair referring to the NFL’s ongoing national anthem controversy as “the inmates running the prison” that he considered not going to the Ring of Honor ceremony.
“I wouldn’t say it surprised me, but I just didn’t like it,” Johnson said on former teammate Arian Foster’s podcast, via the Houston Chronicle. “To know you did so much for a franchise and to have him come out and say something like that. At the end of the day, you don’t make the money if we don’t run it. If you take some people off the street and put them in there, nobody’s coming to watch that. It was real touchy with me. I even thought about not doing the ring ceremony.”
Foster added that he had initially intended to attend Johnson’s ceremony but ended up skipping it because he didn’t want to be associated with McNair.
For his part, McNair now says that he didn’t do anything wrong when he made his “inmates” comment and now regrets apologizing.