1-31.
The Freddie Kitchens season.
The Odell Beckham Jr. debacle.
Before I was born, there was The Drive and The Fumble. These were all terrible moments as a Cleveland Browns fan.
None have done as much damage to my fandom as what happened yesterday.
I was talking with someone about the Deshaun Watson trade, how much it threw me into a tailspin and how I was unsure if I can root for a team whose new face of the franchise has 22 sexual assault or harassment cases to his name. The response?
“But he’s really good, though.”
This is not meant to shame that person, who did not mean to completely sum up in five words how the NFL gets away with everything they do when it comes to players with shaky legal history. That was the thought that plenty of Cleveland Browns fans had when the Watson deal was official: He is a very good, talented, young quarterback who has shined through on terrible Houston Texans teams and could jolt the Browns to being a contender again.
But Watson is also a scumbag.
From the New York Times:
Watson was said in both cases to have pressured women to perform oral sex during massages and was accused in one of also having grabbed a woman’s buttocks and vagina. The civil suits allege that Watson engaged in a pattern of lewd behavior with women hired to provide personal services, coercing them to touch him in a sexual manner, exposing himself to women he had hired for massages, or moving his body in ways that forced them to touch his penis.
This alleged behavior is disgusting, and the “not that bad” excuses I have because of the location of the incidents has been shameful.
And I know, he wasn’t charged. That could mean that all 22 women made this up and that Watson didn’t do anything. It could also mean that the courts failed to correctly punish a guilty man with high status and a lot of money, something that has certainly never happened in the history of the world.
I wasn’t there, and you likely weren’t there. But what I won’t do is write off these numerous accusations because of one ruling.
The next thing I know that will come is the Kareem Hunt comparison. When the Browns signed Hunt, I was pissed. I thought it was an unnecessary move to make considering what Hunt did.
Yes, I continued to be a fan of the Browns. But Hunt is the secondary running back, which means he’s not out there on every down and he’s not involved on every play.
This is the new face of the Cleveland Browns, and there is no hiding that. The face of the Cleveland Browns, the one that could lead the team to more success than it has ever had, is this guy.
When I think about that potential on-field success — the idea of winning the AFC North, making a run in the postseason and hell, even making a Super Bowl — it is completely devoid of joy. Will that change in the moment? Will I be able to watch a man who was alleged to abuse his power over women time and time again just because he’s now wearing Orange and Brown? I really don’t know.
Then I write something like that, and I realize how stupid all of this is.
I have loved this football team unconditionally my entire life, through almost nothing but pain. I watch them, nearly every single week in the fall, and rarely do they meet my expectations. Now, they do this, finally getting a star quarterback, reaching talent heights they haven’t seen in decades, while simultaneously reaching rock bottom.
Am I done being a Browns fan? I don’t know. I don’t think I will know for a bit. There’s something to be said about the Browns being a byproduct of a shitty system that the NFL as a whole allows, and I know almost every team would have taken Watson, or a player adjacent with the same baggage, if they could.
But the Browns are the ones who fucking did it. The Browns are the ones who gave up three first-round picks and guaranteed this man a quarter of a billion dollars — the most guaranteed money in NFL history — because they are so confident in what he can do on the field. Because they care so little about what happened off the field.
It’s all so gross, and I can’t stand it. I’ve watched so much shitty football from this stupid team, and I would keep watching it to avoid having to root for who the Browns are now.
The Browns were once the lovable losers. Now, they’re the villain. But hey, he’s really good, though.
Despicable, I’m sure the NFL is loving the press using anything they can to recoup their loss of sales from Covid . Chivalry is a fading social conduct,appreciate that you are doing your part to preserve!