The Houston Texans decided that Jadeveon Clowney wasn’t healthy enough to play in Saturday’s AFC Wild Card game. Clowney reportedly vehemently disagreed, and he made it pretty clear.
According to ESPN’s Lisa Salters, Clowney stormed out of the locker room and completely left the stadium when he was informed that he would be on the inactive list for the game against the Chiefs. Clowney reportedly believed he was healthy enough to play.
The Texans confirmed that Clowney had left the stadium, but said he would return before the beginning of the game. According to Jason La Canfora, inactive players are not required to be at the stadium during the game, so this is just bad form and not a violation of any team or league rules.
Clowney was listed as questionable in the week leading up to the game, having suffered a foot injury two weeks ago against Tennessee. He practiced on a limited basis Thursday but not on Friday. He clearly felt ready to contribute, but the team felt otherwise.
However, multiple other reporters dispute this report and say Clowney was just upset he wouldn’t be able to help the team. The Houston Chronicle’s John McClain says Clowney left the stadium to give tickets to his family.
Clowney has known since after practice Wednesday he wasn't playing. Left stadium to take tickets to family.
— John McClain (@McClain_on_NFL) January 9, 2016
You can understand that Clowney is upset to be missing out on the team’s biggest game of the season. It’s basically the reverse of this situation. On the bright side, at least Clowney found out about this decision directly from the team instead of through the media.
