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Texans hire ex-Patriots ‘character’ coach

Field Level Media

April 02, 2019 at 11:27 pm.

The Houston Texans have hired Jack Easterby, the New England Patriots former “character” coach, as their executive vice president of team development, the team announced Tuesday.

The Patriots hired Easterby in 2013 to help the team cope with the murder charges against tight end Aaron Hernandez. Easterby’s contract expired this winter, and he decided to pursue other interests.

He left the Patriots in February. After his departure, the Boston Globe reported Easterby thought his job “had run its course,” but he also wasn’t comfortable with the solicitation charges against team owner Robert Kraft.

Easterby’s title with the Patriots was character coach/team development, and he was uniquely qualified to fill that role.

While studying sports management at Newberry College in South Carolina, he was captain of the basketball and golf teams. The Jacksonville Jaguars hired him in football operations to work with the salary cap, but he decided numbers weren’t for him. He enrolled at Erskine and Liberty Theological Seminaries, according to a 2018 profile of him on the Patriots’ website.

He soon became the character coach for South Carolina’s athletic department, then joined the Kansas City Chiefs before heading to New England, where he also served as team chaplain.

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