Houston Texans: Tackling Life, Social Issues, Sports with Justin Reid

Jair Lopez

Justin Reid #20 of the Houston Texans (Photo by Mark Brown/Getty Images)

Reflecting with Houston Texans star safety Justin Reid on his first two seasons in the NFL and going in-depth of the work he has done for the Houston community.

Houston Texans starting safety Justin Reid has emerged as one of the promising young players on the defense and made a name for himself on and off the field. Reid became a starter in his first year in the league after being drafted in the third round of the 2018 NFL Draft and has remained an impactful player for the Houston Texans.

However, Reid is more than a professional athlete at the age of 23 as he has become very close to the city of Houston through his philanthropy work and been vocal of social justice issues that we face as a nation. As a supporter of his work on and off the field, I wanted to get to know Reid’s success and obstacles he has seen early in his life from a personal and professional level with the Houston Texans.

Q: I want to recap what you’ve done in your first two years in the league with the Houston Texans because fans don’t give you enough credit for how much of an impact you’ve had. It’s hard to get on the field as a rookie but you did it and played at a high level. Fans also don’t notice the gravity of the wear and tear players play through in a season. How were you able to play through hurt last year and how did it affect your style of play?

A: So the injury rate in the NFL we all know is 100 percent. Usually what happens with organizations is the teams that last longer from the playoff teams are the teams that keep their best players healthy and on the field throughout the whole season. I’m not the only one that has to deal with injuries. My particular situation having a torn labrum did pose an extra set of challenges for myself and there is definitely a learning curve with dealing with that. I had to learn how to tackle a different way. I had to learn what movements really hurt me, what movements I could do that didn’t hurt, and I also know that in some situations there wasn’t a way around it.

I’m on the field, I’m worried about what I do on the field, I have to try to make this play even if it’s going to hurt anyway, I just accepted them. It’s not easy, football never is, but especially with an injury. It is not easy playing with. I just adapted, I learned how to make most of the angles to where I can try to make contact as much as I can with my left shoulder. I learned the movements that hurt, and as the season went on I became more and more consistent with tackling after the first couple of games with the learning curve of playing football at real-life speed and figuring my way around the injury.

Coming into the league and the credit that is due. Yeah, I don’t feel like I have been getting credit for everything that I have been doing as far as on the national scale. I’m also confident that my film and my plays will speak for itself, and I’ll let all that come around. I try not to be focused on talking about it. I just try to do what I can to make the guys around me better and contribute to the team winning. I’m just hoping that people keep seeing me play and that I’ll gain some of that credit and respect that I think I deserve. And it’ll just come naturally.

Things have their way of working themselves out like that, so I’m still waiting on that. Just looking forward to really come into this season healthy and really being able to show what I can do without having to worry about the brace. I get to play more free, I get to play with more release, I don’t have to think about at the same time how I’m going to make a tackle or try to stay on the field and not get taken out of the game. I can just go and make plays. Be violent, be aggressive, and be a playmaker.

Q: You’ve played all over the field early in your career. From rushing the passer to playing as a roaming single-high free safety or to play in the box. Where do you feel most comfortable as a defender?

A: I just love the versatility of it. I love moving around the field. It’s really fun for me to play in more than one spot. Its harder for other teams to gameplan for me. They don’t know which week whether I’ll be playing free safety, strong safety, slot corner, the dime backer, or blitzing. I think that one of my strengths is my knowledge of the playbook and that I am able to fluidly transition between a couple of different positions, and makes it hard for teams to really gameplan for me. So I think that will be consistent with this season depending on what team we are playing, what their strength are that I’ll just be moved around to attack them in the best way.

Whether it’d be playing in the middle of the field, playing down in man coverage, blitzing, playing zone. I had conversions about that, that is some of the deal that I would be moved around. So I’m just ready to play everywhere week in and week out. Listening to my coaches, getting ready to contribute.

I still think I am a safety at heart, but I’m part of the new hybrid role that safeties are evolving to. Safeties are becoming more coverage players. I could have been a cornerback if I had chosen to go that route in college. I had the options to, I chose to do safety, so I think that adds to my skill set as far as being able to play make, coverage, move around, and do so many different things.

Q: There must be a lot of nuances playing at a high level despite playing with a new safety teammate every year. You’ve played with former Pro Bowlers in Tyrann Mathieu and Tashaun Gipson. What goes behind having to learn new teammates’ tendencies and how do you see yourself playing alongside Eric Murray? You have yet to repeat with a starting teammate. How much of a challenge is that?

A: There is always a challenge with a new guy coming into the team each season. It would be nice to have some consistency but that’s not how the NFL works all the time. Guys get traded around all the time. This will be my third season with another companion on the starting side of the safety field and really it’s all about communication.

I try to do everything that I can do to help every guy that comes in. Me and Tyrann started off at the same point in our first year, we just came in and communicated all the time to get on the same page. The biggest challenge this season with Eric Murray is kind of the same thing except now we don’t have the OTA window to be able to meet each other in person. We’ll kind of have to be getting to know each other on the fly as far as meeting in person aside from Zoom meetings whenever we finally do get to report back to the facility. There is a little bit of a challenge there, but it is my third time doing it so it’s not anything I’m not used to.

As we moved into topics outside of the X’s and O’s, I joked with Justin Reid of the growing number of players from Stanford on the Houston Texans, and if they were taking over as the smartest school of players in the locker room.

Q: We’re seeing a growing influence of former Stanford players in the Houston Texans locker room with Peter Kalambayi, Brennan Scarlett, and now Michael Thomas. Is it fair to say that the Stanford players are the smartest in the locker room or are there some hidden geniuses in the Houston Texans locker room that we should know of?

A: I think all the Stanford guys do well, I think there are plenty of other smart guys in the locker room. There is a different type of intelligence, I think there is a different of IQ when it comes to football IQ versus an educational IQ. We do all these quizzes in the locker room, and PK [Peter Kalambayi], Brennan [Scarlett], and Mike [Thomas] are near at the top of the list, but also guys like B-Mac [Benardrick McKinney], and J.J. Watt.

Those guys are also at the top of the list too. I think that what this organization really likes and prides itself on are guys that are smart tough and dependable. Guys that are reliable, and reliable meaning, they know the right calls and not make many mental mistakes. In the National Football League, mental mistakes will kill you. I still think there is a correlation to guys from Stanford being reliable in the sense that we are going to know the playbook and make the right calls.

Q: Now to talk about the role of a philanthropist in the city of Houston. The work you have done has resonated through Houston and in many ways, you embody Lebron James’ slogan, “more than an athlete”. Who and what in your life influences you to give back to the community?

A: I didn’t grow up in the most affluent neighborhood in Louisiana. I didn’t know it because it was all that I knew, but what has always been so helpful to me is that I have always had big brothers in the family sense and in the mentorship sense around me. I had a great coach that I remember looking up to in Coach Brown from high school, Coach Benny Saia also from high school, I had great mentors in college through Coach Duane Akina and some of the donor families that I met with.

I’ve never been afraid to ask or reach out for help and people have always responded and been great resources and mentors to me. I feel the best way that I can repay those people because I didn’t make it to where I am on my own. I understand that, the best way I can repay those that have helped me is to pass the torch along and find the next generation of kids and do what I can to help them.

I’ve heard countless stories of kids that come from bad neighborhoods, then someone takes them under their wing and shows them the right way of doing things. They give them an opportunity and then that kid goes on to get a four-year college degree and start their own business. All they need is an opportunity and an education.

It really is a big deal to give back to the community. Everything that I do, for the most part, I really like to focus on the next generation, and how I can help them with the basic essentials. First of all food, no one is going to learn anything if you don’t have food taken care of at home. Safety and protection, and educational resources. How I can help them learn, how I can teach them skills that will benefit them later in life and allow them to be healthy contributing members of society.

Q: You seem to be a great fan of Game of Thrones. You probably had the best Halloween costume as the Night King. In the show, a person’s last name carries a lot of weight. How proud are you of your last name and what pressure (if any) comes with it?

A: It does carry a lot of weight and that’s for everybody. Who you are doesn’t affect you, it affects everyone who is around you. It affects the reputation of your family your parents your siblings. those are the connections of people to you. I’m super proud of my brother, I’ve always from the beginning back when I was in college. My parents have raised me and my siblings to all stand up for what we believe in, and not be afraid to do what’s right. Don’t be a guy that just goes with what everybody else is doing.

Be the one that takes the road less traveled if that is the right road to be on. They taught us a lot about morality, compassion, and doing what’s right. So I have always been super proud of my last name, my family, what Eric, Ryan, and Christina are doing. It does carry some weight, and it does in some instances put some spotlight on what I do.

I’ve known since the protests started in 2016-2017 that I was getting asked questions about it back then. I always had conversations with my brother and he filled me in. I’ve always been aware and supported him from the get-go.

Q: Speaking football-wise, you know your brother’s play style more than anyone. If he were to get signed by the Houston Texans, how would you see him fitting into this defense?

A: If my brother were to sign I see him being a dime backer and the other starting safety. His ability to read coverages, learn the playbook, he really is a bigger version of me. He’s got more power, a little more aggressive, a little more of a harder hitter. The communication and chemistry we’d have together would be on another level like nothing the NFL has ever seen. I know there is a couple of siblings, I don’t know how many of them have both started on the defense at the same time. With how close we are, how much we would be able to attack the intellectual side of the game as well as the physical side of the game.

Talking ball all the time, I would go over to his house and eat dinner with his family and him and my nieces. We’d just be talking ball about the game plan that’s happening that week. We’d be able to do all types of things that are out of the box because we would be so willing to put in so much extra time into it. Just because we would be hanging out all the time anyway. It would be an unbelievable chance if that were to happen. It would be one of the coolest and most dominant tandems that would enter into the NFL.

Q: Speaking on the current issues we are going through. There is a reason why NFL players have protested in the past. How do you cope with them, how do you express them from your platform and how do you feel you should go about it?

A: See that’s the golden question. Because what Colin, my brother, and some many others like Kenny Stills and Michael Thomas have done from the get-go. What is the best way to get the message across as many people as possible but also do it in a respectable way?

It’s sad that in 2016-2017, there was actually a Green Beret, a former military officer was the one that came up with the idea that we should kneel during the anthem. So all the talk is a controlling narrative over the flag. It’s not about disrespecting the military. It’s just about a voice of speaking of police brutality. They came up with the idea that we are going to kneel during the anthem, it’s not going to mess with anything during the field of play, it’s not going to mess with the game.

So my feelings with coping with what is happening are honestly very difficult because I am still trying to figure out ways to get the message across in a way that will be receptive to everyone. But no matter what you do, some are going to find issues with it. It’s a golden question to find out the best way to get the message across right now and honestly I’m still trying to search for it.

I’m happy that the message seems is finally starting to get across America. I’m sad that it took as much violence and rioting for people to start hearing the message, and that people are starting to reflect upon on how awesome it was that players peacefully protested early in the year.

But they didn’t want to hear whenever it was peaceful, and not that I’m supporting violence. I’m just sad that it took violence for people to start respecting the way the protests were done peacefully four years ago.

Q: Media such as books and films shape and influence our lives. Are there any other books you’ve read that helped you become more aware as a person on these issues?

A: My older brother, Ryan, took a lot of classes in American history, like the not so pretty side of it while he was in college. Eric and he started teaching me about Black Wall Street, the bombers that happened in Tulsa, and how the whole community was bombed, the things that have happened in Philadelphia over the years. Just when you start researching those topics then it becomes a snowball effect, and from that link, you jump to another link.

It’s just about having conversations with people. Colin being a friend of mine and Eric being my older brother, I have the opportunity to talk to them and their team of things that have happened in the country. Even systematically, when it comes to how government lines are drawn so that way domestic city tax dollars are funded throughout communities distributed on how the lines are drawn on each of the cities.

Especially how they have recently been redrawn in Louisiana because the affluent part of Baton Rouge was tired of having to pay tax dollar money for the whole city so they created their own county within themselves so that their tax dollars could fund their needs, the poverty-stricken areas could stick to themselves. At the detriment of the other side of the city.

I just heard stories throughout the way as far as books and documentaries. There a ton of them, it really is a combinations of them and honestly Google.