A question, what was the urgency to get the aircraft on the ground with a known brake problem? Was it pissing hydraulic fluid? What created this need? If the gear is up, why not continue on to Houston? Houston has some mighty long runways and the weight would be much lighter.
On who controls United diversions, maybe twenty years ago or so, the Captain lost the say in were to take a broken jet. I don't recall all the facts, but it had something to do with a DC-8 that ran out of fuel trying to land at Portland, Or. Maybe some of you historic accident with knowledge could comment.