Owners are expected to approve an ownership title change at the Texans when they meet. The team wants to make Chair and CEO Cal McNair the principal owner instead of his mother, Janice McNair, sources said. The move comes one month after Janice’s other son, Cary, backed down from his lawsuit seeking to have her ruled legally incapacitated and install a guardian over her affairs.
The change does not include any financial transaction. Since founding owner Bob McNair died in 2018, his controlling interest in the Texans has been owned by a family trust as permitted under a 2015 change in NFL rules. Under the terms of the McNair trust, the trust appoints a principal owner (with NFL approval) who is entitled to act with autonomy regarding league matters. Janice, Cal, Cary and two sisters sit on the trust’s board of directors.
Since Bob McNair’s death, Janice, 87, has been the principal owner, while Cal has served as day-to-day head of the organization. Neither Cal’s title of chair and CEO, nor Janice’s title of co-founder and senior chair, will change.
This move appears designed to shore up succession issues, though it’s not precisely clear how this move relates -- or not -- to Cary’s abandoned legal challenge or other, private intrafamily conversations now occurring. There’s no specific reason to believe the Texans would leave the McNair family, but league insiders, investment bankers and sports-minded billionaires are watching closely -- an aging matriarch, trust ownership and disagreements among siblings are all the right ingredients for a sale.
