Patriots drop tampering charges; Texans end pursuit of Caserio
The Texans have moved on from their pursuit of Nick Caserio to be their new GM, and subsequently the Patriots have dropped the tampering charges they filed.
As of Friday, it appears the controversy surrounding the Houston Texans, the New England Patriots, and Nick Caserio has come to a peaceful end and resolution.
Caserio, the current New England director of player personnel, was rumored to be Houston’s top candidate for their recently-vacated GM position. Former general manager Brian Gaines was fired on June 7 – notably just a day after the Patriots’ Super Bowl championship ring unveiling ceremony.
According to various reports, it was at this ring ceremony that conversations allegedly took place between Caserio and Jack Easterby, the executive vice president of team development for the Texans. Easterby was in attendance at the ceremony because he previously served as character coach for the Patriots last season – before leaving for Houston over a reported uncomfortableness regarding the Robert Kraft massage parlor scandal situation.
The Patriots filed tampering charges against the Texans over these reported conversations, contending that Houston had broken the league’s rules regarding what is permissible contact between teams over high-level executives still under contract.
On Friday, just two days after the tampering charges were filed with the NFL office, the Texans announced they would no longer be pursuing Caserio to be their new general manager. As a result, the Patriots promptly announced they would be dropping their grievance against the Texans.
“When we started the process to interview Nick Caserio for our EVP/GM position, we consulted the League office on numerous occasions, followed the procedures outlined in the League’s rules and believed we were in full compliance,” Houston Texans CEO Cal McNair said in a statement. “We have now been made aware of certain terms in Nick’s contract with the Patriots. Once we were made aware of these contract terms, I advised Mr. [Robert] Kraft that we would stop pursuing Nick.”
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The Patriots also released an official statement on the resolution through team owner Robert Kraft:
“The Houston Texans and the New England Patriots have always had a great working relationship. We appreciate the way Cal McNair has handled this situation.”