Everyone seems to have an opinion on Texans quarterback Brock Osweiler skipping his well-deserved Super Bowl trip to the White House with the Denver Broncos, except for Osweiler himself.
That changed on Monday, shortly before Osweiler's former teammates met the President of the United States.
"If there was no OTA today, I would have gone to the White House," he told reporters in Houston. "It would have been a tremendous experience."
He added: "I believe that every single practice, every single rep, every single meeting I can get in this new offense is the most important thing for myself and my teammates right now."
Texans fans have to like the commitment, even though he probably wouldn't have gotten a ton of flak for missing one practice in early June. Even if Osweiler and Peyton Manning didn't give off the best friend vibe, it seems like Osweiler is taking a page out of his former mentor's book. Manning understood, perhaps better than anyone, that the appearance of being committed to football is just as important as actually committing yourself to football. Even if we don't realize it, we expect a certain image from our athletes. We hold them to a standard that we would almost never hold ourselves to.
This may also be another effort by Osweiler to convince people that there are no bad vibes between him and his former team. Though he has said it many times, few seem interested in believing him.
Osweiler spent part of Monday's media session talking about his on-field relationship with DeAndre Hopkins, which has the opportunity to finally carry Houston's offense in a significant way.
"I think the trust between quarterback and receiver is so important cause decisions need to be made in milliseconds from the field," he said. "You need to almost know what the other guy is thinking and exactly what he's going to do. There's not a lot of time to have conversations on the field during the game, that's where the trust and the practice comes into play."
If nothing else, Houston is grateful that Monday was another opportunity for the pair to experiment and work out the kinks even if they would have been fine with Osweiler shaking hands with No. 44.
