Early Wednesday morning news broke that the Houston Texans had requested to interview New England Patriots director of player personnel, Nick Caserio for their newly vacant general manager position. This isn’t the first time that Houston came sniffing around New England’s front office. In January of 2018, the Texans made a request to speak with Caserio that the Patriots swiftly denied.
This time around it seems as if Bill O’Brien and Houston were not taking no for an answer. Without receiving the official okay from New England, rumor has it that the Patriots believe that the Texans have tampered in their pursuit of Caserio. The connection, former Patriots chaplain and current Houston executive vice president of player development, Jack Easterby. Easterby was present at New England’s Super Bowl ring ceremony on Friday–the same night that the Texans announced they were firing general manager Brian Gaine after one year on the job.
If New England feels that Easterby had conversations with Caserio about the Texans opening that could verify filing tampering charges. According to the NFL’s anti-tampering policy: “Any interference by a member club with the employer-employee relationship of another club or any attempt by a club to impermissibly induce a person to seek employment with that club or with the NFL.”
Caserio is a critical part of New England’s front office, while Bill Belichick has the title of general manager and often has the final say in decisions, Caserio is easily the Robin to his Batman. In a December 2014 interview, Belichick said Caserio, “contributes in a lot of different ways and I’m glad I have him. I need him.” In 2017 Belichick noted that Caserio’s impact in coaching and scouting are part of his “rare” role that he couldn’t envision another person in the NFL being able to pull it off. The last time the Patriots gave an opposing team permission to interview Caserio for a front office position was in 2014 when the Miami Dolphins requested it.
Caserio received a finance degree from John Carroll University–aka Patriots U; six members of New England’s staff attended John Carroll including offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels. The ties to the lone organization the 43-year-old has worked for are deep and strong, however, with the league flush with cash Caserio could be attempting to gauge his value in the open market. Houston, led by two former Patriot employees (Easterby and O’Brien) would definitely have to pay up to steal him away, but having familiarity with the higher-ups already in place and a talented roster are big bonuses for the Texans in their chase of Caserio.
With New England not committing to allowing Houston to speak with Caserio it’s likely that he remains with the Patriots and sees either a pay raise or a change of title. Either way, it’s clear that New England feels that Houston has crossed the line in their attempts to get Caserio to speak to them. With multiple black spots on their franchise resume, it will be interesting to see how this plays out for the Patriots. After “Spygate” and “Deflategate” finally settled into the back of the collective fans’ minds, are we about to enter “Interviewgate”? Only time will tell.
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