HOUSTON – NRG stadium had a familiar face return on Tuesday when linebacker Brian Cushing rejoined the team after serving a 10 game suspension after being busted by the league for breaking the NFL’s performance-enhancing drug policy.
“I just saw him. He’s been away from us for a while, obviously. First things first, just personally we got to get caught up, see where he’s at, see how he’s doing, and then kind of go from there. So, that’s really all I can tell you right now relative to Brian. I was glad to see him,” said Texans head coach Bill O’Brien.
Cushing was in the NRG stadium hallway when he saw O’Brien for the first time after the Texans head coach taped his show segment with KPRC Channel 2 while he was en route to his press conference.
The two spoke very briefly and indicated they would meet later in the day.
“Well, I think being in football-playing shape and being in shape are two totally different things, really. There’s no assumptions being made here. I think the first thing we have to do is see how he’s doing. We have to sit down. We’re not in a rush to do anything. We have a lot of guys playing right now at a pretty high level on defense, so we’ll see how Brian’s doing and we’ll go from there,” O’Brien said.
Whether Cushing will actually play on Sunday remains up in the air, but a source says it’s not likely he will play when the Texans visit Tennessee.
Cushing is in good shape, but not necessarily in football shape. He will join the team at practice on Wednesday and again on Thursday and Friday where his evaluation will take place.
O’Brien has been a fan of Cushing and his work ethic, but he said just because he is back and reinstated doesn't mean the team will rush into a decision.
“I don’t know the details of everything. I know how Brian feels -- I’m sure he would stand up here and tell you that in some ways he feels bad that that happened, obviously,” O’Brien said. “But the way that I feel about Brian Cushing, I’m not going to go down that road. I think that everybody makes mistakes and sometimes you pay for your mistakes in different ways. He’s meant a lot to me in my four years here. He’s a tough guy, been a captain for us. So, I’m just looking forward to sitting down with him and talking to him and kind of seeing where he’s at with everything.”