At least Texans coach Gary Kubiak had the good sense to call off the illegal drills after a third player suffered a season-ending injury.
You never know what these coaches are thinking. Kubiak might have let eight or nine guys get carted off before it occurred to him that maybe this wasn't his best idea.
Just think how bad the Texans would have been last season if they hadn't cheated. There's your silver lining.
Every once in a while, something happens that peels back the shroud of secrecy on the dark side of the NFL.
That's the side that deals with injury grievances and teams forcing players back onto the field just so they can cut them.
That's what ESPN has done with an Outside The Lines report on the Texans. It's a story that might not have seen the light of day if a player named Dan Stevenson hadn't taken a video device into a meeting room and recorded the illegal practices.
The Texans originally denied his filing, saying, in part, no such drills took place. Then he produced the video.
The video shows players doing full-speed blocking drills without pads. First, the drills are illegal. Second, they're dumb.
There's a reason the NFL's labor agreement allows contact drills only at certain times of the season.
Otherwise, coaches would have players banging on each other 10 months a year. Maybe Kubiak and Alex Gibbs thought they'd toughen up the boys in preparation for camp.
There's also a reason players wear something called "pads." They provide protection.
"Wearing pads puts it out in the open that you're running illegal practices," one player said. "If you're not wearing pads, you can say, ?Well, it got out of hand.'?"
Offseason minicamps and practices are supposed to be more mental work than physical. Six weeks of training camp is plenty of time for blocking and tackling, so why do it in May?
"Because coaches think the Patriots are doing it, and if the Patriots are doing it, then the Giants probably are doing it," the player said. "If the Giants are doing it, then you know the Colts and Titans are doing it. Word gets around, players are afraid to speak up, and coaches start thinking they have to do it."
Had the Texans done it before 2008?