Houston Texans Roast 'Clown' Bill Simmons Over CJ Stroud Take

Against all odds, C.J. Stroud led the Houston Texans to an AFC South title and a playoff spot in his rookie season. There was a good amount of optimism surrounding Stroud's potential and the Texans' hire of DeMeco Ryans but not even the most bullish pundit anticipated a postseason appearance with Stroud flashing obvious superstar potential from Day 1. No matter what happens against the Cleveland Browns on Saturday this season was a raging success for the franchise and the future looks bright indeed.

In the lead-up to the postseason, the roster will be preparing. The social media team, on the other hand, is apparently collecting receipts. One of those targets was none other than Bill Simmons, noted anti-aggregator, who declared Stroud a "bust" the day before the 2023 NFL Draft back in April. The Texans took that three-second clip and edited a bunch of clown noises into it, then edited Simmons' head onto a clown, before moving into a hype reel. It was impressive work.

Here's the original take, which doesn't sound super serious given the evidence presented. But NFL players look for disrespect everywhere and therefore so does the social team.

In Simmons' defense, he did already acknowledge that this take was ice-cold earlier this year. Awful Announcing noted in November that The Ringer founder said he knew he was wrong and that Stroud had the stuff after two games

Nevertheless, a tremendous edit by the Texans' social team. And a clear warning shot for any hot-take artist out there. They will not hesitate to not only call you a clown but edit your face onto one like it's 2009 again.