It was 1999 when Bob McNair won the rights to the Houston Texans franchise ahead of the team’s inaugural season in 2002. He owned the team from 1999 until his death in 2018.
His death transferred ownership of the team to his wife, Janice, who then transferred it to their son, Cal, in 2024.
Now, their other son, Robert ‘Cary’ McNair, is suing the NFL for $60 million for alleged tortious interference with contract.
USA TODAY Sports obtained a copy of the lawsuit filed by Buzbee Law Firm in New York Supreme Court.
‘When Plaintiff Cary McNair began asking questions about NFL player scandals that potentially implicated the NFL, its personnel, and its decision-making process, the NFL worked to silence him by, among other things, negotiating a restructuring of the McNair family business and McNair family trust, which led to the more pliable Cal McNair, Cary’s brother, being installed as the owner’s representative,’ the suit alleges.
The suit alleges that the NFL’s work behind the scenes led to Cary losing his employment with the family business.
‘In short, through the calculated interference of the NFL, [Cary] was cut out of any meaningful role with McNair-associated entities so that, among other things, [Cary] could exercise no influence over NFL-related matters,’ the suit alleges.
‘We believe the evidence will be clear and overwhelming that the NFL intervened in the McNair family business to remove Cary McNair from his position as CEO, in an effort to silence Cary McNair,’ lead counsel Tony Buzbee said in a statement. ‘He won’t be silenced.’
Buzbee sent a letter dated Sept. 8 to the NFL demanding a resolution after ousting Cary from the Texans and other family businesses, per Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio.
That letter said Buzbee and Cary would proceed in court, not league arbitration, if a resolution was not met.
“The NFL had no issues with Cary McNair until he started asking pointed questions that potentially implicated the NFL and its personnel,” Buzbee wrote in the letter. “Specifically, Cary McNair spoke out about the Deshaun Watson scandal and questioned the Texans’ handling of it. He also inquired about why the Texans paid to settle thirty Deshaun Watson cases within months of them being filed, without any investigation or putting up a fight at all.’
Buzbee also represented more than two dozen women who filed civil lawsuits against Watson. With no resolution from that initial letter, Buzbee and Cary are moving forward with the lawsuit.
Cary previously filed a lawsuit to have his mother Janice declared incapacitated and have a guardian appointed for her but that was dropped in February 2024. His brother was named principal owner of the team a month later.