I rarely discuss sports on here, but it's been an eventful week if you're a Cleveland sports fan. Some positives, like the return of Nick Chubb from his devastating injury over a year ago, and the amazing comeback win in by the Cleveland Guardians in Game 3 of the ALCS this past week. But things quickly got sour, as they always do with Cleveland sports. We'll start with early this week, the Browns announced that they are officially moving the stadium to Brook Park to build a state-of-the-art dome that will cost north of $2 billion, with much of that being covered by tax payers I'm sure. Many people don't agree with this move, and think they should remain downtown. I happen to be indifferent about the location, but I strongly believe that owners should take the bill for such things - not tax payers. Which brings us to the next subject - the owner. Jimmy Haslem. And his terrible decisions. It was obviously his call to bring Deshaun Watson, a move which I absolutely hated since day one. Over 20 known accusations of sexual misconduct, all known before trading our entire future for him (3 first round picks) and the record breaking $230 million guaranteed contract. I could go on about how terrible of a look this is, but it's pretty evident without much need for elaboration. My opinion is he should not even be in the league, let alone be rewarded with a guaranteed contract payday of nearly a quarter billion dollars. And for the record, I wouldn’t trade 3 first round picks for anyone, especially Watson. It makes me sick that he is on the team that I root for every week. He's not a good person, and this season, he is statistically one of the worst quarterbacks to ever play football. Yet, they continue to start him week after week and "stand by him" and act like it's the best thing for us. It's not. The fans clearly are done with him. We hate that it's costing us so much, but its clear - cut your losses and move on. Look at the comments on anything the Browns social media posts. National sports media constantly talking about it, and even Yahoo Fantasy sending a push notification calling the Browns and Deshaun out by name. It's really bad, and it's embarrassing even for Browns standards. I was at the game on Sunday, and the fans made it very known from the outset how they felt from the moment he walked out of the tunnel. Boos reined in when his name was called. (Nick Chubb was met with equally as loud cheers, which was nice.) But as the game progressed, Deshaun wasn't even playing that poorly, not great either, but he continued to get booed on literally every possession regardless. Then, in the 2nd quarter, we were finally putting together a decent drive, and it happened. At first it looked like he just tripped and fumbled, which drew boos as we took a seemingly typical negative play. It got loud, and as he stayed down it became evident he was likely hurt. Some people are saying there was booing, some say cheering. I’m sure there was instances of both. I’ve seen some of the videos. Any cheering I saw near me from Browns fans was for Dorian Thompson-Robinson throwing warmup passes - who was drawing “DTR” chants since the beginning of the game. Someone we could actually root for and feel good about doing it, even if it wasn’t better for “the game”. When the whole team and the cart came out, you realize it’s serious. But to be honest, from where I was sitting - the consensus seemed to be that no one really cared. The people around me weren’t “upset” about the injury by any means, that’s for sure. Not in the way that you would if it was ANYONE else on the field. If it was any other player, even a referee, ball boy, bystander, or really anyone, would have at least drawn the respect or concern for someone getting hurt. But it was Deshaun. A serial sexual predator with over 20 accusers. That was specifically brought up by the Browns fans around me during his time laying on the field and getting carted off - him "getting what he deserved" and "at least we don't have to cheer for him any more". And sorry, but they are right.
It wasn’t until a couple plays after he got carted off, that videos from twitter started to pour in, and you could clearly tell his achilles snapped. That was the first the people in the stands started to actually know what happened, well after all of this went down. Not saying that would have changed the reaction at all, but that’s what happened.
Then following the game, the players start going in on the fans. Calling it disgusting, saying he "puts his life on the line for the city" and that he (cant make this up) was a "model citizen for most of his professional career." Are you joking? No he was not. And he wasn't fighting for his life. He didn't die. He's not permanently disabled. He hurt his leg, and he’ll recover. What he does have is $230 million. So no, I don't feel sorry for him. Again let’s not forget that there are actual victims, and not him.
At the end of the day, this is the entertainment industry, a sport, and the fans who pay money for tickets to see you perform can boo and cheer at whatever they want to. The opinion of, and response to Deshaun had nothing to do with "because they are 1-6" or because he wasn't performing well. He shouldn't even be here in the first place. If anything, I’m surprised by the number of people acting like they’re “appalled” by him getting booed and by the number of people defending him. We could have been undefeated at this point in the season, and I still would be happy to see him go. Id prefer if he just got benched, which should have happened by now anyway, but if it’s for injury, so be it. Is it classless for people to boo someone while they’re hurt? What if it’s a sexual predator that keeps getting rewarded and you’re sick of seeing it? It had everything to do with why people reacted that way, and not because he sucks at football (which also happens to be true). I'd genuinely rather be 0-7 and have someone I actually want to cheer for playing, It'd be like any other Browns season over the past 20 years. I could go on and on about this, and how disastrous the Browns future is because of this stupid move to bring him here, but I digress.
Bottom line, is I hope that was the last time I have to root for the Browns with him in a uniform. I've loved the Browns forever, and there's 52 other players on the team that I am a fan of and had nothing to do with his actions. So yea, I'm glad to cheer for them again without feeling guilty or ashamed about it. And I don't care what Myles Garrett, or LeBron James, or anyone else saying it's whack or lame to boo him. Anyone else would have got respect. Any other city or stadium would have done the same thing if he was there and not here. Just is what it is. Whatever the reason, I am just glad he is gone, and hopefully this is the last time we ever have see him in Cleveland. That's just my two cents, and thanks for coming to my Ted Talks.
Here are some articles about the situation, starting with the timeline of the things Deshaun is accused of:
https://www.sportskeeda.com/nfl/timeline-allegations-deshaun-watson-how-things-unravelled-browns-qb
https://www.cleveland19.com/2024/10/17/its-official-cleveland-browns-moving-brook-park/
https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/browns-myles-garrett-calls-deshaun-watson-a-model-citizen-rips-cleveland-fans-for-booing-qb-after-injury/