Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson needs fans and media to believe that he didn’t violate the rights of any of the 22 woman who have sued him for sexual misconduct during massage sessions. That makes his overall credibility directly relevant to the question of whether he should be believed when he insists that he did nothing wrong.
Regarding his overall credibility, Watson did himself no favors when he claimed during his introductory press conference that his decision to select the Browns had nothing to do with the five-year, fully-guaranteed, $230 million contract the team offered him.
“Actually, it had nothing to do with the contract,” Watson said regarding his selection of the Browns. “I did not know about the contract until I told my agent that I wanted to come and be a Cleveland Brown. That was secondary. That was after the fact that we spoke on the phone with [Andrew Berry], Kevin and the Haslam family. That had nothing to do with me choosing the Cleveland Browns.”
That’s just not believable. Multiple reports have indicated that, when Watson was struggling with four potential destinations, he eliminated the Browns first. Next came the Panthers, who per multiple reports were unwilling to guarantee the final two years of the new five-year deal.
Of course the contract became a major factor. To suggest otherwise offends the person of even the most average intelligence (i.e., me). Russell Wilson, who has only two years left on his current deal, didn’t get a new contract when he was traded to the Broncos. And as to the claim by Browns G.M. Andrew Berry that Watson’s new team simply wanted one more year of control, they surely could have gotten it without ripping up the contract Watson received in September 2020 and replacing it with an unprecedented five-year, fully-guaranteed deal.
The mere fact that the Browns became the first team to guarantee every single payment FOR FIVE YEARS into the future shows that, indeed, it was about the contract. Watson can say it wasn’t about the contract, and the rest of us can say, “I don’t believe you.”
And if people don’t believe Watson about this, will they believe him about more important things, like whether he did indeed cross the line with 22 massage therapists who weren’t willing to convert the session into a consensual sexual encounter?