It's possible the McNairs did Rick dirty, but we're only reading one side of this story. I have several reasons for skepticism.
1) Remember when the McNairs supposedly got too close to Rick Smith and made him the godfather to Cal's son? That concern was common knowledge in Houston and around the league for years. The Athletic doesn't mention it. I wonder why.
2) Bob McNair himself was fighting cancer during this period, and kept David Quessenberry on the insurance plan while he fought cancer at MD Anderson. The Athletic story didn't mention that either. Seems like significant context when you're accusing a club of lacking empathy or humanity.
3) The national writers for The Athletic now indulge in shameless bias, and have crowned themselves the supreme judge of morality in sports. Just as we see in news media, they've become more interested in destroying a target than simply conveying facts.
I subscribe to The Athletic, so every day I get their emails of anti Astros stories. Just last Thursday, February 13th, they published three anti Astros stories that day. This week they published a story of how the Nationals aren't getting their deserved post-championship spotlight because of the Astros scandal, which The Athletic themselves have been promoting!
Here's a screen capture I made of their story from yesterday. Notice the bottom sentence.
View attachment 5650
"...As only they can."
Their blanket coverage has not only been on sign stealing, it's been everything they can churn up after the Astros beat the Yankees. Every day they publish something about Brandon Taubman, the Astros culture, or some grudge by former players. Even where criticism may be deserved, they distort perspective and context while minimizing other teams doing similar things.
So don't be surprised if the Texans become one of their targets.
This story about Rick Smith is consistent with the "club culture" angle they're using on the Astros. Maybe they'll revisit disputed claims about racism, or maybe a player will be busted for PED's and is portrayed as the only player in the NFL doing it. Watch for a "win at all costs" narrative.
I used to make fun of a friend for always griping about east coast bias in sports media. I thought he was paranoid. He turned out to be right.