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DeAndre Hopkins seemed happy to be traded to the Cardinals on Monday, despite it meaning Deshaun Watson would no longer be throwing him passes.
DeAndre Hopkins seemed happy to be traded to the Cardinals on Monday, despite it meaning Deshaun Watson would no longer be throwing him passes.
Perhaps this is why.
During a Wednesday morning appearance on ESPN’s “Get Up,” Hall of Fame wide receiver Michael Irvin claimed Hopkins told him that Texans coach Bill O’Brien compared a meeting with Hopkins to one he had with convicted murderer Aaron Hernandez, and criticized the star receiver for having the mothers of his children around too much. The NFL Network analyst said he called Hopkins to find out what really happened leading up to the stunning trade.
“[Hopkins] said, ‘Michael, it was a bit of a power struggle there,’ because coach O’Brien thought he had too much influence over the locker room,” Irvin said.
“[O’Brien] called DeAndre Hopkins in[to] a meeting to talk about this and hash it out. He started the meeting with telling DeAndre Hopkins this — that blew my mind when DeAndre told me this — he said [O’Brien] told DeAndre Hopkins, ‘Hey, the last time I had to have a meeting like this it was Aaron Hernandez.’ I was like, ‘What? He put in Aaron Hernandez in this meeting?’ He said, ‘Yes he did. Michael, that blew my mind that he would even bring that up. I’ve never been in any trouble, I don’t know why he would equate me with Aaron Hernandez.’
“From there, the meeting just deteriorated. He got into talking about DeAndre Hopkins, because DeAndre Hopkins has a few kids from different women, and he told DeAndre he didn’t like that he has his baby mamas around sometimes. From that, I think the relationship just went bad and thus we got a trade of DeAndre Hopkins from Houston for basically a ham sandwich, all because of that relationship.”
Hopkins, 27, reacted to the story on Twitter.
“This is being blown way out of proportion,” Hopkins wrote. “As I’ve said before, I enjoyed and am proud of my time with the Texans. I have the utmost respect for Coach O’Brien and that will not change. Now, I’m ready to play for the Cardinals.”
O’Brien was the Patriots’ offensive coordinator in 2011 when he coached Hernandez, who was later found guilty of murder. Hernandez, who had a history of criminal behavior, was found dead in his jail cell in 2017 after hanging himself.
There had been reports of a fractured relationship between Hopkins and O’Brien but Irvin’s account of that meeting took it to another level. It came to a head Monday when the Texans shipped Hopkins and a 2020 fourth-round pick to the Cardinals for running back David Johnson, a 2020 second-round pick and a 2021 fourth-round pick.
