For $230M, Browns Acquired Deshaun Watson and Questions

Cleveland Browns, it’s your problem now.

You wooed Deshaun Watson, took him with you, and gave him the fattest guaranteed contract in NFL history, despite his tarnished reputation and the many women who accused him of sexual misconduct during massage sessions.

Now, for all his superior abilities in the quarterback, you must also contend with the storm cloud he has created.

Despite the grand jury’s decision to stop filing a criminal complaint against him on March 11, it will continue to loom, foreshadowing, and inevitability.

Watson’s legal battles continue. Twenty-two civil lawsuits filed for alleged misconduct are pending.

Even if the 26-year-old Watson evades a civil lawsuit and resolves these cases by paying the accusers and making a deal to keep quiet—a common practice when rich and powerful men face gruesome charges—few will forget this.

It’s a complex situation full of questions we’re so used to in sports. And like so many things in modern life, it will split.

Many fans will stick tightly behind Watson. They will point to the grand jury verdict and say that the quarterback was wronged by his accusers. They will wholeheartedly believe Watson’s claims of innocence, just as they believe, yes, his lawyer’s statement, which admitted that there were consensual encounters between Watson and some of the 22 women who sued him, but whatever happened “mutually happened”. Desired.”

In a world where athletic icons are often seen as almost infallible gods, fans perhaps lured by stardom will say it’s time to move on.

But much more will remember and probably never forgive. Instead, they’ll look at the whole picture: the string of allegations from accusers featured by stories about Watson revealing himself or touching women with their genitals or ejaculating on them. Three of the denunciations made allegations of either sexual assault or attempted sexual assault.

This is a mold. Annoying to say the least.

The humiliation, however, will understandably remain loyal to the Cleveland Browns forever. “modest, sincere and sincere” Team owners found him in interviews and no matter how well the team performed on the field.

Once again showing that it is ready to put profit and winning above all else, the NFL will once again face reckoning.

Proving allegations of sexual abuse in criminal courts is well known, especially when there is little or no physical evidence and the alleged acts take place privately. But when Watson’s criminal case was over, many NFL teams were ready to move on, as if his accusers hadn’t spoken with disturbing consistency about what had happened to them.

Watson’s longtime team, the Houston Texans, were looking to trade the star quarterback as soon as the criminal case was settled, while the Atlanta Falcons, Carolina Panthers and New Orleans Saints all got into the recruiting mix with Cleveland.

These teams were willing to trade their integrity for a chance to form a winner with Watson. Unable to contain themselves, they couldn’t wait to see what their civil cases would be. They ignored the victims and their accounts.

Yep, Cleveland got him. But if you’re a fan, employee, or owner of a team that has followed Watson, remember the old saying: Sometimes the best prayers are the ones that go unanswered. This now applies to you too.

It will be a different story in Cleveland. Watson initially turned the Browns down, but the team made a deal so generous that they planned to coat him with a patina of dignity: five years, $230 million, guaranteed every dollar.

League commissioner Roger Goodell could have examined all the allegations that were known to the public and decided that they were sufficient. Regardless of the legal challenge, he could send a strong message by suspending Watson for violating the NFL’s behavior policy.

Goodell did not do that.

Instead, we hear from NFL headquarters that the league is still conducting its own investigation – molasses slows once the signal sent by decisive action is warranted.

When it comes to defending women’s rights, how can we be surprised at anything that comes from a league that has barely made itself felt by victory?

The NFL allowed Antonio Brown to play for Tampa Bay. faced charges a case accused of sexual harassment and rape. The NFL stands blank, even as one of its core teams, the Washington Commanders, is filled with accounts of harassment from more than a dozen women, including even team owner Daniel Snyder. There are many stories like this. Now they’re part of the NFL fabric.

While I’ve been thinking about the Watson story for the past few days, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about another aspect. What about women trying to avoid harassment and abuse? How did news of Watson’s signature affect women in a place like the Cleveland Rape Crisis Center?

“There were women here who wanted to understand the anger, confusion, pain, and how this could happen in the world,” Donisha Greene, the clinic’s director of community engagement, spoke to me in a video interview.

“It definitely triggered a lot of terrible emotions,” he said. I could hear the tiredness in his voice. “Too much.”

Greene pointed to some surprising statistics that show the volume of sexual assault in America and how difficult it is for women to find justice in the court system. The vast majority of every 1,000 sexual assault cases will go unreported. Of the 50 people who led to the arrest, only 25 will be jailed.

We live in a world where men often get second chances when it comes to sexual abuse, and women are left with unimaginable suffering that society does not accept or see.

“Unfortunately, such stories are not surprising to us,” Greene said.