Back in September, Tony Buzbee filed a lawsuit on behalf of his client, Cary McNair, Robert and Janice McNair’s eldest son, claiming that the NFL and Texans owner Cal McNair deliberately maneuvered to push Cary out of the family’s business affairs, which includes the board of the trust that owns the Texans. The NFL has filed a motion to dismiss it.

“NFL files motion to have Cary McNair lawsuit filed in New York Supreme Court dismissed,” wrote Texans reporter Aaron Wilson.

In its filing, the NFL pulls no punches. The league characterizes the lawsuit as “legally baseless and factually incoherent,” arguing that it’s little more than an effort by Cary McNair to rehash a family conflict he has already failed to win elsewhere.

The league’s counsel laid out that stance plainly in the response to Buzbee’s filing.

“Plaintiff is simply trying to repackage an intra-family dispute he has been losing, this time by accusing the NFL of causing a termination he cannot tie to any contract, any breach, or any actionable conduct. His story may be new, but it adds nothing of legal significance,” the NFL counsel wrote.

The NFL goes on to argue that, after more than two years of courtroom setbacks in Texas and Nevada, Cary is simply in search of a new venue and a new target. In his telling, Cal McNair “orchestrated a hostile takeover” of the family businesses, including the trust that controls the Texans, and the league helped engineer his removal.

But in the league’s view, the only thing it actually did was sign off on routine ownership adjustments under the NFL Constitution and Bylaws. That approval, they say, had nothing to do with any decisions made inside the McNair family’s private companies.

After months of filings, motions, and back-and-forth accusations, the NFL is ready for this saga to be over. Whether the court sees it the same way will be the next chapter.

Inside Cary McNair’s case and the ‘scandals’

The lawsuit, which seeks $100 million in damages, claims the entire situation stems from Cary McNair raising “questions and critiques” about internal issues tied to the Texans organization. That includes one headline-grabbing case: the investigation into minority owner Javier Loya.

Loya was accused of sexual abuse in Kentucky in 2023 before entering an Alford plea this past April to a reduced charge of “harassment with intent to annoy.” On Thursday, the NFL announced Loya had been suspended indefinitely for violating the league’s personal conduct policy.

Tony Buzbee, who became a familiar name in Houston after representing many of the women who accused former Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson of misconduct, says he’s confident in Cary’s lawsuit. He pointed out that motions to dismiss typically fall short, noting they fail 90% of the time.

This family conflict didn’t begin with the NFL filing. It first spilled into public view in November 2023, when Cary took his mother, Janice McNair, to Harris County Probate Court. He sought to have her declared incapacitated following her stroke in January 2022, hoping the court would force an independent medical exam.

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After weeks of back-and-forth, the judge ruled in Janice’s favor. Cary dropped the case soon after, and not long later, he was removed from the family trust and business operations.

By September, Buzbee escalated things. He sent a five-page letter to Commissioner Roger Goodell asking for mediation and alleging that Cary had lost more than $60 million after being pushed out. The league never took that step, and now the two sides are staring at each other from across a courtroom.