THE DAILY BRIEFING

NFC NORTH

 

GREEN BAY

RB JOSH JACOBS has made the move from the glamor of Las Vegas to the wilds of Green Bay.  And he seems to be trying to get WR DAVANTE ADAMS to return.  Josh Alper of ProFootballTalk.com:

After speculation that he might want to be traded this offseason, wide receiver Davante Adams said in April that Las Vegas “is where I want to be” and that he would be playing somewhere else already if that were not the case.

 

That didn’t stop a former teammate from making sure Adams wasn’t thinking about a return to old stomping grounds, however. Running back Josh Jacobs moved from the Raiders to the Packers this offseason and said on Wednesday that the team’s “receiving corps is crazy” and that he texted Adams about whether he’d thought about making his way back to Green Bay.

 

“I sent him the little eyes emoji. I said, ‘You thinking about coming back?’ But man, he loved it,” Jacobs said, via Matt Schneidman of TheAthletic.com.

 

Adams said on a recent podcast with Raiders teammate Maxx Crosby that he doesn’t regret pushing for the trade to Vegas while noting that Packers quarterback Jordan Love is “kind of balling.” The Raiders don’t have that kind of quarterback at the moment, but there doesn’t appear to be any move in the works that would put Adams back on the same roster as Jacobs in the immediate future.

 

MINNESOTA

Former NFL QB Josh McCown had mixed success with number one QB BRYCE YOUNG last year.  Now, he’s got QB J.J. McCARTHY.  Josh Alper ofProFootballTalk.com:

Vikings quarterbacks coach Josh McCown spent a long time playing in the NFL, but he still learned a lesson during his first year on a professional coaching staff.

 

McCown opened last season as the Panthers’ quarterbacks coach and working with first overall pick Bryce Young seemed like a good way to build a resume as a professional coach. Young did not make a quick transition to the NFL, however, and McCown was fired along with head coach Frank Reich after a 1-10 start to the season.

 

McCown will be working with another first-round pick this year in J.J. McCarthy and he told reporters on Wednesday about his biggest takeaway from last year’s experience.

 

“There’s still a learning curve to this league,” McCown said, via Alec Lewis of TheAthletic.com. “So, it’s important to give yourself space to understand that and not put pressure or a level of expectations on them that are sometimes unattainable in year No. 1.”

 

The Panthers went with Young right away, but the Vikings have not made a call between McCarthy and Sam Darnold at this point in the calendar. Once they do make the call to make McCarthy the guy, McCown will be charged with helping to make sure the learning curve isn’t quite as steep.

NFC EAST

 

WASHINGTON

Marjorie Harris, of the now-owning family, give a less than ringing endorsement of the focus-grouped “Commanders” name adopted by Daniel Snyder on his way out.  Daniel Valente of The Score:

 

The Washington Commanders’ team name won’t be changing anytime soon, according to co-owner Marjorie Harris.

 

“As you would imagine, everybody has an opinion about the name. Some good, some bad, some in the middle,” Harris told reporters Wednesday, including Ben Standig of The Athletic. “And I think that we got a lot of work to do, so that name issue is going to be on the side for now.”

 

She continued: “Quite frankly, I had a whole day out in the community, and I kept referring to the team as the Commanders. And you know what? Sounds pretty good to me. So, for now, it’s the Commanders.”

 

Formerly known as the Washington Football Team from 2020-21, the NFC East club rebranded to the Commanders prior to the 2022 campaign.

 

However, the potential for another name change became a point of conversation once the team was sold to the Josh Harris-led ownership group in 2023.

 

Magic Johnson, who’s part of the Commanders’ ownership group, said last July that “everything’s on the table” when asked about a possible new name.

Here is how Mike Florio heard it.

For starters, why wouldn’t she be referring to the team as the Commanders? What else would she call them? That football team we own with a name I don’t really like?

 

Second, the bigger message is that the door hasn’t closed on changing the name, again. The team insists that the abandoned name isn’t coming back. At times, however, it feels like trial balloons are being floated.

 

This could be an indirect opening for the large swath of the fanbase that wants the former name (not Washington Football Club) to agitate for such a change. If that was her goal, it was far more adroit that blurting out the former name repeatedly and/or wearing unlicensed gear with a portion of the abandoned logo.

 

To summarize, at some point they’ll turn their attention to the name. Even if the old name doesn’t return, the current name might not be the long-term answer. And with the current name in doubt, proponents for the abandoned name will believe there’s an opening for making enough noise to get them to bring it back.

We would guess that the fanbase wants a name that still somehow references the team’s tradition (unlike Commanders) without being a word that those who protest deem to be unacceptable.  Hogs?

AFC WEST

LAS VEGAS

Interesting hire by Coach Antonio Pierce as he gets an assistant who has been there and done that (pretty well actually) as a head coach.  Grant Gordon of NFL.com looks at Marvin Lewis:

When the Las Vegas Raiders kick off their 2024 season, it will mark Marvin Lewis’ NFL coaching return.

 

The longtime former Cincinnati Bengals head coach stated Wednesday that the inspiration behind his return was quite simply assisting head coach Antonio Pierce.

 

“I think just the opportunity to really assist AP,” Lewis, the Raiders assistant head coach, said Wednesday when asked what appealed to him in taking the role. “From the time that I first met him and had the opportunity to coach him, and then the opportunity to kind of reunite again later on at Arizona State — so kind of was in a similar role at one point there with him there as well, being in support of him, I just have been really impressed all the time with him. Back to 2002 with the now-Commanders, I guess. So, it’s just this opportunity.”

 

Lewis was the defensive coordinator for the Baltimore Ravens from 1996-2001, helming an all-time great 2000 defensive squad that keyed the franchise’s run to a Super Bowl XXXV triumph. After his Ravens tenure, he spent one season as Washington’s DC in 2002 before moving on to become the head coach for the Bengals. In that ’02 season, Lewis coached a 24-year-old Pierce. Pierce’s best playing seasons were still in front of him, but he clearly made an impression on Lewis.

 

“I knew he was driven as a player,” Lewis said.

 

Lewis hasn’t coached in the NFL since 2018, his last year with the Bengals after a 16-season run that culminated with a 131-122-3 record along with seven playoff berths. In the autumns that followed, Lewis was part of an Arizona State staff that Pierce also was a member of from 2018-2021.

 

Pierce was hired as the Raiders linebackers coach in 2022, became the interim head coach in 2023 following Josh McDaniels’ ousting and was subsequently hired as full-time head coach. During his 2023 tenure, Pierce called on former head coaches like Lewis, Tom Coughlin and Adam Gase.

 

“He’s not stuck on himself, that way,” Lewis said. “He wants to hear other people’s point of views, and so forth, that way. And that’s good, but he has a great direction, himself, as a leader. He takes responsibility for providing the direction and reinforcing it every day.”

 

In his rise up the coaching ranks, Lewis learned from Bill Cowher, Brian Billick and Steve Spurrier. He’s hoping to provide a similar mentorship to Pierce.

 

“I think those were helpful to me when I got the opportunity to become a head coach,” Lewis said, “and hopefully I can help benefit AP, as well, that way.”

 

Lewis resides in Scottsdale, Arizona, so the close-ish proximity to Las Vegas helped to make the decision easier. Overall, it wasn’t really something he sought out.

 

“It came pretty organically,” he said. “I’m excited about it. I had a couple other people inquire at times about my interest in doing something similar.”

 

Similarly, Lewis was 45 during his first year at the helm of the Bengals and Pierce will turn 46 during the 2024 season — his first as a full-time NFL head coach. Both are defensive-minded coaches and Lewis is hoping to offer the same type of guidance he received in the early stages of his NFL coaching career.

 

Beyond that, he didn’t delve too far into the details of his involvement as an assistant head coach.

 

“I’m here to support [the coaches] in anything I can do that way, as well as the squad, the players,” Lewis said. “That’s a thing that’s important to me. I try to keep things leveled off for them as much as I can.”

 

It’s a new era for the Silver and Black with Pierce at the helm. With just two seasons of NFL coaching experience, Pierce has Lewis, and his nearly three decades of NFL coaching knowledge, to lean on.

– – –

At first we thought that Mark Davis was going to be a father, but Andrew Battifarano of the New York Post says the real baby dad of Hayden Hopkins is someone closer to her age:

There’s more clarity surrounding Hayden Hopkins’ pregnancy.

 

And the father is still someone involved in sports, just not Raiders owner Mark Davis.

 

After Hopkins shut down rumors and an erroneous report that she was having a baby with Davis, TMZ reported Tuesday that the dancer and choreographer is actually having a child with Nationals slugger Joey Gallo.

 

According to the outlet, Hopkins and Gallo, the ex-Yankee, planned to have the child together.

 

The revelation came after an eventful Monday in which a rumor circulated on social media, shared by NFL aggregator Dov Kleinman, that Hopkins, 26, was having a baby with Davis, 69.

 

Hopkins had announced her pregnancy on Instagram on April 25.

 

“Congrats! 26-year-old Hayden Hopkins, girlfriend of Raiders owner Mark Davis (70), is pregnant,” Kleiman wrote in a since-deleted post on X on Monday, getting Davis’ age wrong. “Happy for the power couple.”

 

During WWE’s “Raw” on Monday, color commentator Pat McAfee even chimed in about the rumor while talking about the match between JD McDonagh and Braun Strowman.

 

“A lot of people look at the size difference and think JD has no chance. Mark Davis is 70 years old and is expecting a child with a 26-year-old. Anything is possible in this modern world!” McAfee said.

 

Hopkins, who once sat next to Davis at a December 2022 Raiders game and brushed aside any notion that the two were romantically linked then, took to social media after the newest Davis rumor went wild.

 

“Reports of Mark Davis being the father of my child are wildly untrue,” Hopkins wrote on X. “I was pictured sitting next to him at a game in 2022 and have endured false rumors of a romantic relationship since. I was just a guest sitting in the owner’s box with other friends.

 

“These continued media stories are negatively affecting what should be my happiest days. Joey and I are excited to welcome our baby in the fall.”

 

McAfee, for his part, apologized on his own show Tuesday after Hopkins dispelled the rumors.

 

“I apologize for perpetuating a lie,” McAfee said on his eponymous program that airs on ESPN.

 

“I understand how happy you guys should be at this moment. It would suck to have a 70-year-old billionaire looming over it. So I’d like to apologize to Hayden and let the world know, hey, we gotta make sure we get these things right. I spread lies in the middle of the Braun Strowman-JD McDonagh match last night. Mark Davis is not the father.”

 

It’s unclear how long Hopkins and Gallo, the MLB slugger with 202 homers in his career, have been together.

 

LOS ANGELES CHARGERS

The Chargers are giving another chance to Raiders Bust T ALEX LEATHERWOOD.  Alex Insdorf of USA TODAY:

The Chargers have signed former 2021 Raiders first-round selection Alex Leatherwood to the roster. In Leatherwood, the Chargers are getting an offensive lineman who has started games at both tackle and guard.

 

Leatherwood played his most recent regular season snaps in 2022 with the Bears at right tackle and left guard. In 2023, he was a member of the Browns’ practice squad. He was not signed to a futures reserve deal in January.

 

Head coach Jim Harbaugh once offered Leatherwood at Michigan when he took a visit in 2016. The promise of his prospect nature as a first-rounder and college profile certainly could be at play here. Aside from any potential projection down the road, the Chargers have asserted that they’re building through the trenches. So depth is still needed at any spot. Another body at tackle may mean the team is committed to seeing a potential Trey Pipkins-guard experiment play out if it ends up that way.

 

In his last full season as a starter, Leatherwood committed 14 penalties, allowed eight sacks, and gave up 65 pressures. The Raiders tried transitioning him to guard before fully moving on in the 2022 season.

 

The former highly touted Alabama prospect’s career has been tumultuous. Clearly, the Chargers believe he can still contribute in 2024.

We would argue that Leatherwood remains the 2021 Raiders first round draft selection and will for all-time.  Nothing “former” about it.

AFC SOUTH

 

TENNESSEE

Is WR TREYLON BURKS on the ascent?  Josh Alper of ProFootballTalk.com:

Wide receiver Treylon Burks has not been as productive as many expected him to be when he was drafted in the first round in 2022, but you wouldn’t know that from the way his teammates have talked him up this offseason.

 

DeAndre Hopkins played with Burks last year and said no one on the roster doubts the wideout’s ability. Hopkins called the Titans receiver group the best he’s been a part of and new arrival Calvin Ridley invoked names like A.J. Brown, Julio Jones, and Terrell Owens while saying Burks is going to be “a stud” in the future.

 

The Titans also signed Tyler Boyd this offseason and Burks said on Wednesday that he’s enjoyed “learning from three really good guys” this offseason. He’s also enjoyed hearing all of the positive feedback they have been sending his way.

 

“It brings confidence,” Burks said, via the team’s website. “It helps with confidence, them being there, helping me. Them being there asking me questions for feedback. It’s fun.”

 

Every offseason brings rosy talk about players breaking through, but it doesn’t always translate to the field. Burks and the Titans will be hoping things break the opposite way for them.

 

THIS AND THAT

 

DAT NGUYEN

Ted Nguyen of The Athletic looks at the career of Dat Nguyen.  The headline (and a quote from Dat mention a barrier) but it doesn’t sound like there was much of an actual impediment erected by humans, it’s just that not many Vietnamese with some ability had aspired to the NFL.

 

Growing up playing high school football in the early 2000s, the dream of seeing someone who looked like me playing at the highest level of a sport I loved was one I gave up on early in my youth. For many, representation at the pinnacle of something you obsessed over can be taken for granted. For Asian American kids in sports at the time, it was practically nonexistent. So when I first saw the “Nguyen” nameplate on the back of an NFL jersey, I was in genuine awe.

 

Someone with my last name in the NFL? And he wasn’t a kicker (not that there is anything wrong with that). He played linebacker, one of the most physical positions in sports, for the Dallas Cowboys.

 

That jersey belonged to Dat Nguyen, the All-Pro linebacker, who cemented himself as a legend at Texas A&M. He didn’t just have a spot on the roster, he was one of the best defenders in the league. Not only did it make it seem a little more possible that Asians could play in the NFL, but it also created a different type of connection to pro football that I didn’t have before.

 

We aren’t related — Nguyen is an incredibly common last name — but for me and the Asian kids from my generation who got to watch him, he represented us on the field. He broke a barrier we didn’t think could be broken, shattering it with every bone-rattling tackle. May is Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month and a good time to reflect on the history Nguyen made and how he got there.

 

Discovering football

Nguyen and his family shared a similar experience as many Vietnamese migrants in America in the ’80s. During the Vietnam War, his parents made the harrowing escape by boat as the Viet Cong overtook their homes in Vietnam. They started their new lives in a refugee camp in Arkansas before moving to Texas, where Nguyen would grow up and discover football.

 

His family took up shrimping, a common occupation among Vietnamese immigrants because they did it in their homeland. Beginning in fourth grade, Nguyen spent each summer on the family boat as his brother’s deckhand.

 

Nguyen’s junior high school coach, Cliff Davis, discovered him while walking the halls looking to recruit kids to play football. Nguyen was nearly 5-foot-10 in eighth grade and could already dunk a basketball. He stood out from his friends. However, his parents initially didn’t support his playing football and wanted him to focus on academics. Nguyen forged their signatures to sign up for the football team.

 

He didn’t know much about the sport, but as he learned more, he quickly fell in love with the mental side of the game.

 

“I was very fortunate and grateful that (Davis) taught me to visualize,” Nguyen, now 48, explained. “We went to the gym before the football game and he shared with us a moment. And the moment was when you closed your eyes and you play the play in your mind, saw the play before it happened, called the defense, adjust to the offensive formation, snap the ball and just see it. If it’s a run, if it’s a pass — what’s your responsibility? What’s your alignment? What’s your adjustment? All that quickly has to be diagnosed or decided within a few seconds. If you played it in your mind and you saw it the night before and you line up in the game, it’s a lot easier when you just don’t have to think … you just react.”

 

Nguyen’s athleticism and instinctual style of play helped him quickly excel on the gridiron, but his double life almost halted when he broke his elbow diving for a fumble toward the end of his eighth-grade season. His parents found out he was hurt playing football but realized he was passionate about the game and that it kept him out of trouble, so they let him continue to play. As he played high school football, the cerebral nature of the sport continued to compel him.

 

“I fell in love with the game because it was fascinating to me,” he said. “I was one of the 11 guys every time the puzzle was moved. As I got older, the game was so much more interesting because of the situations in football.”

 

Breaking out with the Aggies

Nguyen became a star for his hometown team and had people from every background chanting his name, but his parents came to only two games. His mom worked two jobs and his dad was on the boat all day. Plus, entering a crowded stadium full of people who didn’t speak their language was daunting. It wasn’t until Nguyen got a scholarship to Texas A&M that he truly felt they embraced his football career.

 

When he first got to Texas A&M, he thought he was too small and needed to gain weight to be an effective college player, but then he got too big. He couldn’t move effectively and he slid down the depth chart. He almost gave up on playing college football but recommitted himself in the offseason. He woke up at 6 a.m. every day to work out on his own, went to class at 8 a.m. and got in a second workout at noon before working out with his team at 4 p.m. He got into fantastic shape and surprised the team and coaching staff with his body transformation.

 

He worked his way up from eighth on the depth chart to No. 2. The only linebacker ahead of him was Trent Driver, who had prototypical size and speed. One day, while running sprints, Driver twisted his ankle on a sprinkler. Nguyen got his shot, and the rest was history. He became an Aggies legend, starting 51 consecutive games and amassing 517 tackles and six interceptions.

 

His parents started coming to his home games, and for the away games, they would have company come over to watch their son play on TV. They picked up how the game worked, but the magnitude of how big football was, especially in Texas, was hard to grasp. Their son went from helping them on a shrimp boat to playing on national television.

 

Nguyen had one of the best games of his career in the 1998 Cotton Bowl against UCLA, but when he talked about the game, he didn’t highlight the win or his interception and lateral for a touchdown or the fact that he was named MVP of that game. He talked about the feeling when he found out his parents, who were across the country for a wedding, were gathered around a TV with friends and family hooting and cheering him on in the Cotton Bowl.

 

“That might be the best game of my career,” Nguyen said. “I still have some records there in the Cotton Bowl, and it’s not like some of those records might not be broken, right? And for them to witness that with relatives and family and gatherings and in another state … yeah, that was pretty cool for them to share with me.”

 

Growing up in an Asian household, winning the approval of the family sometimes felt like chasing after a carrot on a stick that was tied to your back. When you’ve achieved the status of state legend and get a free education out of it, no parent, no matter how high their standards, could resist cheering.

 

How ’bout them Cowboys?

The next achievement to check off was getting drafted. Though Nguyen had gaudy statistics and accolades, he was still undersized (5-11, 234 pounds at the 1999 NFL Scouting Combine) in an era of football when the prototypical linebacker was 250 pounds. Nguyen was one of Dallas’ top-30 visits, so although the Cowboys were interested, he knew he wouldn’t be a first-round pick.

 

The draft spanned two days back then. On the first day, Nguyen helped a friend move and went to a kid’s birthday party before ending up at his mom’s house where they would watch the end of day one of the draft together. Nine linebackers with better measurables got drafted before him. He then got the call from Jerry Jones. The Cowboys drafted him in the third round. Nguyen would be playing pro football in his home state.

 

“I landed in Dallas and I thought, ‘Your family left Vietnam to come here just for freedom and you get the chance to play this game we called the American sport and you get drafted by America’s Team,’” Nguyen said.

 

He remembered in his first OTAs getting into the defensive huddle, getting the signal and calling the defense — something he’d done thousands of times. No big deal. He then looked across and saw Troy Aikman and Emmit Smith, and to his left was Michael Irvin. When the ball was snapped, Nguyen froze and didn’t move. These were guys he watched every Sunday, and just sharing the field with them caused him to short-circuit for a second. Though there were some historically big personalities in the Dallas locker room, he said they respected his play and he never felt ostracized for his ethnicity.

 

Bill Parcells was hired as head coach in 2003, Nguyen’s fifth year in the league. Parcells came from a 3-4 defensive background and preferred bigger, more physical linebackers. Nguyen was quick, undersized and made plays because of his anticipation and angles.

 

The old-school Parcells wasn’t easy to impress. But as Nguyen had done his entire football career, he made his size an afterthought and earned Parcells’ trust. Nguyen had a career year in his first season playing for him and was named second-team All-Pro.

 

“I learned more football with (Parcells) than my 15 years prior,” Nguyen said. “He made the game very interesting. Situational football was a big part of what he did, and I really learned a lot about the game on that aspect of it. He’s a guy that really cares about you as a person even though at times he doesn’t feel like he does. But I’ll send him a text right now, and he’ll text me back. I feel like I’m in that inner circle with him, and it’s hard to get in that inner circle.”

 

“He could have played for any of my teams,” Parcells would later say after coaching Nguyen.

 

Injuries pile up

Nguyen shined brightly when he was on the field, but injuries took a toll on his body. In 2004, playing the Pittsburgh Steelers, some Cowboys defenders had a bet on who would put the biggest hit on Jerome Bettis. Early in the game, Nguyen saw his chance. The play unfolded in slow motion. He watched quarterback Ben Roethlisberger turn around to hand the ball off to Bettis.

 

“I was like, ‘Oh, shoot, I’m beelining him. I’m about to win this pot,’” he said. “So I’m about to blow him up. All of a sudden I get blown up from somewhere else.”

 

Steelers receiver Hines Ward blindsided and de-cleated him. His legs were 6 feet in the air and he smashed his head on the ground. The next thing he could remember was the trainer bringing him to his wife and explaining to her that he had a severe concussion.

 

He went the next morning to the facility to work out, get treatment and attend his position meeting. In his meeting, he looked down at his grade sheet and saw he was given a positive grade on 63 out of 64 plays. He realized he’d just played one of the best games ever — the problem was, he didn’t remember anything past the blindside hit.

 

The following season, he prepared hard and felt great. He thought he would have a career year but injured his knee in training camp and had meniscus surgery before the season. During a West Coast trip in which they played the 49ers and Raiders, he hurt his neck against the 49ers but played through it. He completed a Cowboys comeback with a game-sealing interception but knew something wasn’t right.

 

“I remember calling my wife the morning I woke up,” Nguyen said. “I was like, my knees are bothering me. My neck’s bothering me. I don’t feel right.”

 

After the Raiders game, on the flight back to Dallas, he sat next to Dan Campbell, Nguyen’s teammate with the Cowboys and at Texas A&M.

 

“I was like, ‘Dan, man, I can see the plays. I can’t get there.’ Like I worked so hard in the off-season just to get a chance to get the edge, right? I put so many hours into it, but I think my body’s just breaking down.”

 

The next morning, Nguyen told Parcells he needed to take some time off to recover and regroup, and Parcells obliged. Nguyen tried coming back on Thanksgiving, but his body didn’t respond. His arm went numb every time he got hit.

 

“So that’s when I knew it was over,” Nguyen said. “I was glad I was able to walk away. And, you know, you miss it. I’m sorry, you miss the locker room. You miss the competition. You miss the four seconds of the game when the ball snaps. I can’t explain this to anybody or share it with people because it’s so unique.”

 

Nguyen retired in 2005 and went on to have brief stints coaching with the Cowboys and Texas A&M. He’s earned several accolades since his retirement including making the Texas A&M Athletic Hall of Fame, All-Time Big 12 Team and the Texas Sports Hall of Fame. But his seven seasons, a relatively long career, were not enough to get Pro Football Hall of Fame consideration. Though he won’t be enshrined in Canton, his career was truly unique. He was the first Vietnamese player to be drafted in the NFL and the only one to date. Nguyen was a barrier breaker, and he hopes his story can inspire other Asian kids to follow in his footsteps.

 

“I thought when you broke the barrier back then when I was playing, I was hoping that it was open to people,” he said. “I was hoping that more kids would be participants. It’s hard to find. … I mean, even my nephew, that’s going to graduation tonight, he’s a good ball player. I don’t think he’s a DI player, but I think he’s able to play DIII if he wants to pursue it. And then (many kids wave) off the option, but it’s like, man, you never know how you develop your body. It might be small stature, but man, a lot of times, football teaches you so much. But the opportunity to make it and fulfill a dream, man, it’s like no other, though. And I think a lot of them don’t want to pursue it because the chances are against them, which it is.”

 

Now, Dat’s parents may have overcome some barriers.  A good story from the New YorkTimes on the Vietnamese immigrants who became shrimpers on the Texas Gulf Coast ishere.  Excerpt:

Vietnamese refugees were initially drawn to Palacios by the promise of jobs at a nearby nuclear power plant and a crab processing factory. But they soon turned their attention to the local shrimping and crabbing industries.

 

Out on the water, no English was required. And many of them already had the right skills. Back in Vung Tau, a coastal town in southern Vietnam, some had worked as fishermen and net makers.

 

It wasn’t long, though, before the local shrimpers and crabbers felt threatened. The newcomers didn’t abide by the rules of the water, the locals grumbled. When Vietnamese immigrants paid cash for their boats by pooling their savings, the locals accused them of getting special government loans.

 

Tensions peaked in 1979 in the town of Seadrift, 45 miles down the coast from Palacios, when a Vietnamese fisherman shot and killed a white crabber who had been harassing him over fishing territory. A jury acquitted the fisherman after he argued that the shooting was in self-defense.

 

The incident, which was the subject of a recent documentary, ignited a furor among the white fishermen, who bombed three boats owned by Vietnamese immigrants in response.

 

“We couldn’t go anywhere, we stayed inside, we were so scared,” recalled The Nguyen, 66, a crabber in Seadrift. “And then we took our boats and ran for it.”

– – –

Over time, relations improved. The fishermen who immigrated from Vietnam adapted to local rules that were intended to sustain the shrimp population, like not dragging their nets before sunrise. They began to earn the respect of the white and Latino fishermen.

 

“They built their own boats and paid for everything with their own money,” said David Aparicio, 67, a second-generation Mexican American shrimper in Palacios. “They didn’t do anything wrong other than work too hard.”

 

In the 1980s and 1990s, more Vietnamese immigrants moved to Palacios to get into the shrimping business. Many lived in mobile homes, squeezing as many as 20 people into one trailer. Some upgraded from smaller bay boats to big gulf boats, which could bring in higher profits.

 

As a high school student, Yen Tran woke up at 5 a.m. to pick crab meat for a dollar per pound, after which she would go home, shower and go to class. After school, she would head straight to the dock to head shrimp when it was in season, said Ms. Tran, who is not related to T.V. Tran.

 

“It was hard work, and it was smelly,” said Ms. Tran, 60, a retired math teacher who still lives in Palacios. “But most of the kids did it.”

 

Slowly, Vietnamese Americans became part of the fabric of the town. At Palacios High School, they became homecoming queens, football stars and valedictorians. Restaurants serving Vietnamese fare like pho and shrimp spring rolls began to pop up. Boats with names like “Miss Anh Dao” could be seen docked alongside “Kris and Cody.” In 2020, the town elected its first-ever Vietnamese American mayor, Linh Van Chau.

 

“There might have been some resistance before, but the Vietnamese are held in very high regard nowadays here, and they are a very prominent part of our town,” said Jim Gardner, the current mayor of Palacios, who described Mr. Chau as a close friend and mentor.