More SmiBiak a Lump of Coal

The Houston Texans are at what we will look back on five years from now and realize was the precipice of their future. How they negotiate this dangerous divide between mediocrity and outright failure as an organization will determine how professional football in Houston is viewed and experienced for the better part of the next decade.

When your time is up, your time is up. "One more year to pull things together" is the request on the calling card of every underachiever...whether a son, a salesman, or a head coach. The SmiBiak (Rick Smith/Gary KuBiak) regime is over. It's been over, as has been demonstrated on so many levels in so many ways. The same degree of benefit lost by not making a mid-season change, is going to manifest itself in the form of an equal amount of detriment suffered.

Collective Bargaining Agreement, sma-lective bargaining agreement. This is a billionaire's several times over multi-hundred million dollar business. Having to be on the hook for the salary of a coach to whom you erred in extending his contract in the first place just isn't that big a deal. In fact, it ought to diminish the doom and gloom of the guilt of firing a man just days before Christmas. In other words, no waking up in the middle of the night during your Christmas Eve slumber scared to death that you think you may have heard the rattling and clanking chains of Jacob Marley.

The important thing is the Texans were improved upon as an organization and as a team, and Gary Kubiak deserves great credit for that. But, as he has shown, he's not the person to lead the Texans to the next level. No shame there. He should be proud of immediately elevating a 2 - 14 team to 6 - 10 on its way to its first ever winning season last year.

But it is time for the next stage of thrusters to continue the jettison of this team to its next level of success. McNair's loyal legion of fans deserves as much. It would infuse this city with hope and good cheer as they wait, yet again, to "get 'em next year!"