He spent 5 years on staff at South Carolina. Now he’s running the Houston Texans
Jack Easterby’s rise in the NFL was non-traditional at the very least.
But it all started in the Palmetto State.
He came to the league, first to the Kansas City Chiefs and then to the New England Patriots, as a character coach. He followed former New England offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien to Houston, advanced to the role of executive vice president of football operations and now finds himself leading the organization on the football side, according to NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport, after Bill O’Brien’s firing on Monday.
And his Columbia and South Carolina roots run deep.
A graduate of A.C. Flora High School and Newberry College, he was part of South Carolina’s athletics program from 2005-2010. He held a range of roles, from academic advisor to running Fellowship of Christian Athletes on campus to working with Dave Odom’s and Dawn Staley’s basketball teams.
In 2018, he explained his role with NFL teams to The State.
“My role is to serve the players mentally, physically and help them as people,” Easterby said. “Whatever way that might be. You want to pour yourself into people and what they do and what person they want to be.”
He made his jump to the NFL through former Gamecocks kicker Ryan Succop. He spoke to the Kansas City Chiefs, and was eventually hired by the franchise and GM Scott Pioli. After two years, he went to New England and stayed there for six years.
Albert Breer of MMQB also reported Easterby was close with Clemson coach Dabo Swinney, whose former star quarterback, Deshaun Watson is one of Houston’s franchise players.
This story was originally published October 6, 2020 at 9:40 AM.
