Boyd shoved Texans special teams coach Frank Ross after the opening kickoff on Saturday
Two days after the Houston Texans were eliminated from the postseason, coach DeMeco Ryans had to come to the defense of cornerback Kris Boyd. The special teamer regretted shoving special teams coach Frank Ross after the opening kickoff of Saturday’s divisional round loss to the Kansas City Chiefs, and Ryans explained how the whole incident transpired.
“Looking at it again, you see Boyd gets the ball out, and I think he thought that we recovered the ball and that he made a big time play to get the ball back for our teams,” Ryans said via a team transcript. “It’s something we talked about for our special teams going into this game, let’s affect the game by getting the ball.
“Boyd thought that he did that, got the ball back, and he came over with the excitement, overly excited that he made a play, but we can’t lose our minds in that sense of taking our helmet off, we still have to remain poised. You cannot take your helmet off in a game. Everyone knows and understand the rules. So instead of helping us, it ended up hurting us.”
As for the shove that went viral and was discussed at length after the game? Ryans didn’t think Boyd was being disrespectful.
“I don’t think he was pushing Frank [Ross] in a disrespectful manner,” Ryans said. “I think it was more he was fired up, overly fired up and thought he made a play to help us. So that narrative that he’s pushing a coach, that is incorrect.”
Boyd wasn’t benched for his actions. He addressed the incident after the game, confirming that his frustration stemmed from the Texans not recovering the fumble and admitting blame for not only costing his team 15 yards, but also for making physical contact with his position coach.
“That’s not in my character. I love everybody here. I love my coaches. I never disrespect anybody,” Boyd said via Pro Football Talk. “I love Frank, I’m a God-fearing man, I respect everybody. It was a little 10-second thing that happened. It’s football. I never disrespect anybody. That’s not my character.”
