Outside of Cleveland, Browns QB Deshaun Watson isn’t exactly the most popular athlete in the world. He carries with the baggage of literally dozens of sexual assault allegations that resulted in an 11-game suspension in 2022. Going into his third season with the Browns, however, he is ready to put it all behind him. Including worrying about what people think of him, which he knows he can’t control.
“I think honestly it’s really just blocking out all the bullshit outside”, Watson told reporters yesterday during a Browns training camp practice via Daryl Ruiter and Camryn Justice. “You come in, and your character’s been mentioned this way and flipped on you. The biggest thing [is] you’re trying to get people to like you or improve. But at the end of the day, it’s two years in, and if you don’t like me … then forget it. It is what it is”.
A first-round pick in 2017, Deshaun Watson was once a very popular up-and-coming quarterback. A perennial Pro Bowler who helped turn the Houston Texans into contenders, his career has taken a different turn in recent years. While sitting out the 2021 season, the allegations of his sexual misconduct surfaced, inspiring a change in the league’s personal conduct policy on sexual assault. Yet teams were more than willing to pay him a king’s ransom as long as they knew he wasn’t facing criminal charges.
The Browns pulled the stunning move of fully guaranteeing him a five-year contract worth $230 million, which will probably go down as one of the worst moves in NFL history. Unless Watson turns things around and delivers Cleveland a Super Bowl ring, as he promised some kids recently. Those kids are Browns fans, though, so they already know the taste of disappointment.
Through his first two seasons with the Browns, Watson has only managed to play in 12 games. He missed 11 due to suspension in his first season and 11 last year due to injury. While they went 5-1 in the games in which he played last year, it wasn’t all because of him.
And Watson’s lack of clear success on the field has not helped his popularity—which he admits he cares about, but is trying not to. “My character was getting challenged”, he said. “I’m a person that likes to have people like me. A lot of people are like that. Sometimes things in your brain, you’ve just got to turn and forget it. It is what it is”.
The Browns are tied up in Deshaun Watson futures for at least the next three years. They have little choice but to make the most of it, and they certainly don’t have to like him. Fortunately for them, he is trying not to care if anybody likes him anymore. And fortunately for himself as well, because you won’t find many who don’t wear brown.
