One of the most popular and polarizing Texans in the team's history will return to the franchise as a coach.

Cushing has long been heralded for the way he approaches his body and workouts. Many Texans over the years have praised his work ethic in the weight room as well as his dedication to the supplements and nutrition necessary to have his body operate at a high level.

Cushing played in nine seasons with the Texans playing in 109 games totaling 696 tackles, 14.5 sacks, and nine interceptions. He was the Defensive Rookie of the Year in 2009 as well being elected to the Pro Bowl the next year. He had two seasons derailed by injury with the Texans. In 2012 he tore his ACL. The next year he broke his leg.

His second and last season in football were marred by violations of the NFL's policy on performance-enhancing substances. Cushing missed four games in 2010 and 10 games in 2017. Cushing and the Texans pursued a reduction of the suspension in 2010 claiming Cushing violated the policy due to a rare condition called overtrained athlete syndrome. It even went as far as Bob McNair meeting with Roger Goodell pleading his case.

Cushing has always maintained his innocence during the suspensions. In 2018 on former teammate Arian Foster's podcast Cushing said he was blindsided by his failure early in his career. He also said on his second failure a supplement he took that was allowed by the NFL turned into another banned substance in his body.

When asked by Foster if he had ever "juiced," aka taken steroids, Cushing said no and believed it would be very hard due to the amount of testing in the NFL to blatantly cheat.

Cody's Take

People are going to lose their mind about a guy who was accused of cheating is helping with the strength program. That's silly. Cushing isn't introducing anything new these players couldn't get if they didn't already want it. His process of beating it, if that's what happened, doesn't work so no reason to cry foul about him helping them hide it either. He's always had an idea for what it takes in the weight room to be successful and players loved working out with him. He is also heralded as one of the better football minds from the linebacker position in Texans history so his contributions there can only help.