John McClain: Texans rank fourth in NFLPA survey on how well teams treat players

INDIANAPOLIS – The Texans ranked fourth in the NFL in a National Football League Players Association survey on how well teams treat their players.

The NFLPA surveyed more than 1,300 players and asked them to grade teams in eight categories: treatment of families (Texans graded B-plus), nutrition (B-plus), weight room (A), strength staff (A), training room (B), training staff, including doctors (A-plus), locker room (B-plus) and team travel (A-plus).

The NFLPA released the results at the combine and included a summation of each team’s grade. On the Texans’ results, the union wrote: “The Houston Texans finished 4th in the team guide. Their team travel philosophy ranked the best in the league. On road games, they give the players plenty of room to be comfortable; and for home games, they allow veteran players to stay in their own homes instead of the team hotel. The biggest complaint among player respondents was that the Club is one of only two teams leaguewide that does not offer either a steam room or a sauna. As one would expect for a team with ratings this high, 97 percent of the locker room believes the McNairs are willing to invest money into upgrading the facilities.”

When informed of the survey’s results and the Texans’ high ranking, chairman and CEO Cal McNair said, “I have to give credit to (general manager) Nick Caserio and our football operations staff for taking such good care of our players and their needs. Being fourth means there’s room for improvement, right? I couldn’t be happier to see the results of the NFLPA survey and how well we ranked in every category.”

Obviously, a lot of work by a lot of people in the organization went into the Texans’ impressive ranking. The doctors who contributed to the A-plus ranking in the training staff category are James Muntz (NFL Doctor of the Year in 2021), Kevin Varner, David Lintner, Steve Flores, and Alfred Mansour, and directors Geoff Kaplan and Roland Ramirez.

Other directors whose departments were listed in the survey are Clay Hampton (football operations), Brent Naccara (security and facilities), Mike Eubanks (strength and conditioning), Ladd Harris (team wellness), Sue Falsone (movement and return to performance), Dylan Thompson (team development) and Matt Van Dyke (applied sports science).

Under new coach DeMeco Ryans, the Texans need to perform on the field the way they perform off the field.

(John McClain writes four columns a week for GallerySports.com. He can be heard Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday on Sports Radio 610 and Thursday on Texans Radio. He does three weekly Houtopia podcasts for 610. He also can be read three times a week on SportsRadio610.com)