In this long form piece from SI, former Texans wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins goes into pretty good detail about his relationship with Texans head coach Bill O'Brien. Hopkins notes the lack of one in this excerpt describing the call from O'Brien that he'd been traded:
Hopkins took the call from O’Brien while working out with Julio Jones in Los Angeles. Their initial reaction? “We both smiled,” Hopkins says. The coach adopted a businesslike approach for the brief exchange, his tone and message exactly what the receiver had expected, given the tenor of their interactions over the past six seasons. “There was no relationship,” Hopkins says. “Make sure you put that in there. There’s not a lot to speak about.”
In fact, Hopkins felt like he was on his way out regardless and had a pretty good idea of how to hasten his departure, a departure he was ready for and even welcomed.
But the trade that shocked the rest of the NFL came as no surprise to Hopkins.
That January afternoon at Arrowhead Stadium he tugged off his jersey, met with reporters and crisscrossed the corridors until he found his mother, Sabrina Greenlee. “We talked about this before the year,” she told him. “I know you guys had success as a team and you got further than in the past. But if you’re ready to go, I will be your No. 1 supporter.”
Anyone who knew Hopkins, his story and his relationship with O’Brien would understand, he thought. At that point, though, few did. His Houston tenure was over, despite the teammates he loved, the quarterback he bonded with and the city that had become his adopted home. What Hopkins knew was, “that asking for a little raise would lead to the outcome that I got,” he says, “which is the outcome that I wanted.”