Rick Smith was confident Monday the Houston Texans selected him as general manager because he was the best candidate, not because he is a minority.
He said there’s significance to him being hired away from the Broncos, not just the fact that he’s now one of four African-Americans to hold top front-office positions in the NFL.
“Maybe what I do here will open the door for more minorities to have opportunities in the future,” Smith said in a teleconference. “There is some significance to my being here in this position. A lot of people paved the way for me, and I’m standing on their shoulders.”
Smith, 36, is the second-youngest general manager in the NFL. Smith said he plans to use a mixture of what he learned with the Broncos, what’s in place with the Texans and some of his ideas to chart the team’s direction. He said it was important for him to have an association with Gary Kubiak, who left the Broncos to become coach of the Texans.
“Our relationship will allow us to disagree, but not be disagreeable,” Smith said. “It’s important to have a group of people who can work well together. We’re all interested in the kind of players who fit into our system.”
Smith said his work with the Broncos allowed him to get the chance with the Texans.
“There’s a misconception out there on how things work with the Broncos,” Smith said. “Everyone thinks that Mike Shanahan is one voice and he makes every decision and doesn’t solicit input from anyone else. We all had input and Mike took the information and we made decisions collectively.”
Smith had interviewed for administrative positions at Tampa Bay and San Francisco. He said he didn’t view those as token interviews to get a minority on the list of applicants.
“Those were solid interviews,” Smith said. “They gave me the confidence for this interview. I might not have been as comfortable when interviewing for this job. They were important for me.”
Irv Moss can be reached at 303-820-1296 or imoss@denverpost.com.
