Focus on football.
Yeah, right.
Deshaun Watson and the Cleveland Browns dusted off the same ole playbook on Wednesday, when the embattled quarterback, coming off a disastrous season opener (football), met the media for the first time since he was accused in a civil lawsuit (not football) of the most serious sexual misconduct allegation directed at him yet to spur a fresh NFL investigation.
Watson, 28, denied any wrongdoing – or as his attorney, Rusty Hardin said in a statement, “strongly denies the allegations” – as was the case in 2022 when he reached out-of-court settlements with 23 of 26 accusers who alleged misconduct during massage therapy sessions. He also struck a deal with the NFL to serve an 11-game suspension, pay a $5 million fine and undergo treatment and counseling.
In 2022, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell echoed arbitrator Susan L. Robinson in characterizing Watson’s behavior during a 15-month period from the fall of 2019 through winter of 2021 as “predatory” – even though the quarterback never, as in this case, too, faced any criminal charges. Now Goodell has some serious background material to weigh if the league’s investigation concludes the new allegations have merit.
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Talk about a distraction. The Browns, led by team owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam, stuck with Watson during the previous drama and will again have that resolve tested with the bad optics attached to the face of their franchise this time around. Coach Kevin Stefanski maintained Wednesday that they didn’t see this new case coming, which could be a critical factor if the team tries to back out of the ‘fully guaranteed’ $230 million contract it gave Watson when he was obtained from the Houston Texans in 2022 in what now represents one of the most lopsided trades in NFL history.
Watson also declared that it was new news to him when the lawsuit filed in Harris County, Texas, dropped on Monday. “I found out exactly whenever everyone else found out,” he said. It began with an alert on his smartphone. “Then,” Watson added, “I called my attorneys and asked them what it was.”
What it is would be a plaintiff, identified as Jane Doe, alleging that Watson sexually assaulted her on Oct. 10, 2020, at her apartment in Houston, the alleged incident occurring during the same period as the alleged serial massage therapy encounters. While Watson insisted on Wednesday that he had no prior knowledge of the new allegation, which seeks at least $1 million in damages, attorney Tony Buzbee – who also represented the other accusers who reached settlements with Watson – issued a statement maintaining that attempts were made 10 months ago to strike an out-of-court settlement.
And according to Pro Football Talk, Buzbee has indicated that his client will cooperate with the NFL’s investigation and be available in approximately two weeks to be interviewed by the league, which could threaten to take the quarterback off the field again for potentially violating the league’s personal conduct policy.
There you go, NFL. Sort through this mess. As if the case of cops using excessive force in detaining Miami Dolphins star Tyreek Hill outside Hard Rock Stadium as he headed to work on Sunday didn’t do enough to steal the thunder from the grand opening of another season, suddenly the league is confronted with another high-profile matter that weighs heavily on its image and news cycles.
Sure, there are key, delicate questions. Why wasn’t there a criminal complaint? Was the demand for a seven-figure settlement related to the other cases settled out of court? Why would Watson agree to a “dinner” date on the night before a game?
Focus on football? If only.
Admittedly or not, it’s a major distraction – again – that conceivably sucks energy from the quarterback and a team that aims to improve on its playoff berth from last season.
“I focus on football,” insisted Watson, asked how it could not be a distraction. “I focus on keeping the main thing the main thing. And that’s when I walk into this building focusing on being the best quarterback I can be, on the game plan and trying to be better than we were last week so we can get a W.”
As Stefanski put it, “We are 100% focused on Jacksonville, 100% focused on going on the road against a good football team, trying to find a way to get a W.”
While it has been often maintained by athletes dealing with off-the-field crisis that they find refuge in engaging in competition as a familiar coping mechanism, it strikes me as so condescending for Watson and the Browns to suggest that his situation can be easily compartmentalized. This isn’t like the sudden loss of a loved one. It’s another allegation that questions the character of the face of the franchise. And certainly, it takes energy to deal with it.
Sure, there is much to discuss and address behind closed doors that won’t be aired out in a public forum as the investigative process begins again.
Asked if he expected another round of interviews with Lisa Friel, the NFL’s chief investigator, Watson said, “It hasn’t crossed my mind at the time being. I’m just focusing on Jacksonville. And if that happens…whatever I have to do with the Browns or my legal team, then that time will come.”
You get what you pay for.
That’s a takeaway for the Browns and most notably the Haslams, who took on the enormous risk of guaranteeing the contract of a quarterback who they knew came with the baggage of the previous sexual misconduct allegations that topped two dozen. After this season, the Browns will still be on the hook for $92 million through 2026, but apparently, as multiple outlets have reported, the contract language could allow the team to void the guarantees of the final two years (and presumably previous years) if Watson didn’t inform the Browns of potential allegations like the one that has now surfaced.
How the NFL Players Association views the matter could also be essential, if the union fights any potential discipline on the grounds that the NFL already investigated and punished Watson – and that the new case is essentially taking another bite of the same apple, that the league should have uncovered the new bombshell during the previous investigation. We’ll see.
Still, it’s worth noting that in determining an original six-game suspension after the last investigation (which was later adjusted after an NFL appeal), Robinson, a retired judge jointly appointed by the league and the players’ union, made a distinction in characterizing Watson’s apparent transgressions as “non-violent sexual conduct.” This time, if the allegations in the lawsuit are true, it surely crosses the line of definition as a “violent” act. And in striking the settlement with Watson through the NFLPA in 2022, the league maintained that while it wouldn’t pursue any more discipline in the future stemming from the types of incidents alleged by the massage therapists, it reserved the right to pursue cases that were materially different – as this new one apparently would be.
With the civil case just filed and the NFL just beginning to investigate, Watson won’t be placed on the Commissioner’s Exempt List. Yet the fact that the league, in a statement, already addressed the possibility of that sends a clear message about how this is resonating at the Park Avenue headquarters.
Then there’s the football. In the three-plus seasons since the end of the 2020 campaign, Watson has played just 13 games. He missed 11 games last season with a fractured shoulder that resulted in surgery. In 2022, he missed 11 games due to the suspension. In 2021, he missed the entire season in a contract dispute with the Texans, as the off-the-field issues were revealed, setting the stage for the trade to Cleveland.
That’s a lot of rust. In Sunday’s thrashing from the Dallas Cowboys, Watson (playing behind an injury-depleted offensive line and without the presence of star running back Nick Chubb) was pummeled for six sacks and 17 quarterback hits. He passed for just 169 yards with a touchdown, two picks and a meager 51.1 passer rating.
And now the less-than-ideal conditions include more legal drama.
The Browns hoped that Watson would lead them to the elusive Super Bowl promised land as the franchise quarterback who once sparkled with the Texans as one of the NFL’s brightest stars. That’s why, off-the-field drama be damned, they took the risk.
Turns out, the big bucks have only bought the reality – barring a major turnaround that I wouldn’t put money on – that Watson’s stardom peaked in Houston.
Imagine the toll that the off-the-field drama has had on Watson, who has cast himself as a victim. In the past, he has alluded to strength developed as he endured challenges growing up in Gainesville, Georgia. Yet the more recent challenges are seemingly linked to his decision-making and perhaps other underlying factors.
Bottom line, the issues that came with him from Houston would hardly constitute a recipe for success.
Watson, of course, doesn’t see it as such.
“I’m not going to sit up here and make any excuses for anything that’s off the field,” he said, referencing causes for the woes “on the field.”
Yeah, right. In other words, that focus on football is being tested to the max.
