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Franchises

Houston’s Uncle Bob

Texans’ McNair, a rising power broker in NFL, insists on doing it the right way

Photo by: HUNTLEY PATON
Many of the 200-plus employees of the Houston Texans and NRG Stadium have a nickname for team owner Bob McNair.

“He is affectionately known as Uncle Bob,” said Javier Loya, a Texans limited partner since 2001, the year before the team first took the field. “People won’t say that to his face, but he is very affectionately known as Uncle Bob because he is very gracious, very humble and, yes, he has a sense of humor.”

With the Texans again on a promising playoff push in their 15th season, and Houston set to host the Super Bowl in 10 weeks, Uncle Bob is coming into his own as an NFL power player.

In addition to persuading owners to give him a Super Bowl, McNair, from his perch atop the finance committee, played a major role in the Rams’ relocation to Los Angeles and has a key say in whether the Raiders relocate to Las Vegas.

“We still have to look at the marketplace there,” McNair replied skeptically when asked about Nevada approving $750 million of stadium subsidies. “Will there be a market that long term will be able to support a team? And the question will be what kind corporate support is there?”

McNair’s leadership on league issues is respected by his colleagues.

Son Cal, at McNair’s side on a game day at NRG Stadium in 2014, is in line to succeed his father atop the Texans.
Photo by: GETTY IMAGES
John Mara, the New York Giants co-owner and who shares seats on important committees with McNair, described the Texan as “one of the most trusted people in the room. In his role, he has to deal with a lot of different league-related issues with different teams, and he does it with a sense of fairness.”

Pressing league issues aside, McNair in Houston is known for his enormous philanthropy — more than $300 million contributed and counting — and high ethical standards for his team, which ranks low on stadium arrests and player misconduct incidents. When it comes to behavior, it’s more “Father Knows Best” than genial uncle.

The 79-year-old recalled attending a University of Texas football game before he bought the expansion franchise, and witnessing an intoxicated fan, whom he described as a former Texas player, behaving abusively toward his female guest.

“He was using profanity, he was drunk, he was threatening his date,” McNair said, speaking last month during an interview in a hotel before a league meeting. “I thought I was going to wind up in a fistfight with this guy who would have killed me. But if he would have hit her … that would have been it. But I mean, I couldn’t watch the game. There was such a distraction, it was an embarrassment. We are not going to have anything like that.”

McNair wanted the Super Bowl back in Houston after the 2004 game drew criticism.
Photo by: GETTY IMAGES
Indeed, the Texans sell out every game, 117 and counting, with a family-fun atmosphere and regularly score near the top of internal NFL studies for best practices among the 32 clubs. But what the team isn’t known for is playing like a Super Bowl contender, notwithstanding its above-average record in the mediocre AFC South.

While methodically describing the on-field progress of his team that has produced two playoff victories in three appearances, McNair is interrupted by his team president, Jamey Rootes, interjecting that the goal is to win championships.

McNair agrees, adding, “Of course we want to win, but as we do that we want to do it in a way that everyone is proud.”

“He is kind of a heroic figure
in the community.”

— Denis Braham, who handles outside
legal work for the Texans

No one accuses McNair of not wanting to win titles, but as his nickname suggests, his goals go beyond trophies. Being a civic force in Houston and upholding squeaky clean standards are near the front of the pack, too.

“He is kind of a heroic figure in the community; sure they are disappointed if the team doesn’t do well, but they keep coming back,” said Denis Braham, who handles outside legal work for the Texans. Braham drew a contrast with the Dallas Cowboys, whose ownership is known to take character risks on players and makes it clear that Super Bowls are the only important goal.

The Jones family, “Jerry and Stephen and Charlotte and Jerry Jr., all in and all enthusiastic and engage well, and they are very charitable. It’s just a different style, though, just a different style of engagement,” Braham said.

McNair at the Texans’ first regular-season game in 2002 with Paul Tagliabue, then the NFL commissioner
Photo by: GETTY IMAGES
Take McNair’s son Cal McNair, the successor in waiting. While the Jones children are more public faces of the franchise, McNair’s son works quietly by his father’s side, assuming his dad’s low-key approach.

McNair came to Houston from South Carolina in 1960 and made his fortune like many in Texas in energy, before selling his company to Enron for $1.5 billion two years before that company’s implosion. He still owns some power plants and is the CEO of the McNair Group, a financial and real estate firm.

Ric Campo, CEO of a public real estate company and chairman of the Houston Super Bowl Host Committee, approached McNair a quarter-century ago for advice on raising capital and has become close with him since.

“He viewed buying the Texans as a community service,” Campo said. “The Texans have sold out [every game] because of Bob McNair and his organization, and I think that is huge, when you have an owner who really believes in the city.”

Like other Houstonians, McNair talks with a near missionary zeal about the nation’s fourth-largest city, describing it as a culinary capital that has turned the page on its outdated image as a boring oil and gas outpost simply connected by endless miles of freeway. “Houston has had in the past a reputation as a good place to work but you are not going to have much fun there,” McNair said.

“In his role, he has to deal
with a lot of different league-related issues with different teams, and he does it with a sense of fairness.”

— New York Giants co-owner John Mara

It’s one of the reasons he wanted to get a Super Bowl back after the poorly reviewed 2004 game, when visitors complained about cool weather, far-flung events and a charmless downtown. Thirteen years later, Houston is keen to show off its new downtown with its parkland, lake and urban vibe, which McNair believes will leave a positive impression of the city.

McNair almost wasn’t around to see the game. He battled skin cancer last year, suffering through painful treatments. The severity of his case is not well-known. When he went for chemotherapy, he used an assumed name to keep his cancer a secret.

McNair with New York Giants co-owner John Mara before a 2014 game.
Photo by: AP IMAGES
“They cut him from the back of his ear to his shoulders, and took his skin off,” said local Texans reporter John McClain, who has been reporting on Houston football since the Oilers were in town. “It was an ordeal. I told him he is doing pretty good for a dead man.”

McClain has known both Houston football team owners, and to him, it’s no contest. McNair may be well-received in Houston for his philanthropy and getting an NFL franchise back, but he is also popular for the simple reason that he is not Bud Adams, said McClain, who writes for the Houston Chronicle.

Adams, who died in 2013, moved the Oilers to Tennessee five years before the Texans began play, but even before that his actions, such as banning tailgating to force customers to buy more beer, left a sour taste.

“McNair is the antithesis of Bud,” McClain said. “Bob didn’t have big shoes to fill.”

Allowing tailgating proved two points for McNair: one, he would not soak every penny out of the fans, and, two, the overall fan experience was important.

An updated downtown will welcome Super Bowl visitors to Houston next year
Photo by: GETTY IMAGES
The Texans hired Disney before the inaugural game to teach employees what Rootes calls having a “servant’s heart.” And the team hires 250 police officers to handle traffic outside the stadium.

McNair is also largely focused on the NFL, selling his horse farm over a decade ago to dedicate more time to the team. Hands on, he has even been known to spend time studying game film, said Loya, the limited partner.

“He is involved,” Loya said. “If I am going out to observe practice, you better know that Bob is there.”

This all helps make McNair one of the more popular owners in the NFL, within league circles and locally, despite the fact that the team has never been past the second round of the playoffs.

“Even when they were 2-14 [the fans] weren’t throwing rocks at Bob,” said Campo, who negotiated the Texans’ stadium lease on behalf of Harris County. “That’s why it is always sold out. They believe in Bob, and they believe in the team even when they don’t win.”

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