Hey LeBron: Booing Deshaun Watson Is Good, Actually

By Jacob Weindling  |  October 21, 2024 | 3:55pm
Photo by Nick Cammett/Getty Images
Sports NFL
Hey LeBron: Booing Deshaun Watson Is Good, Actually

Last month, a woman in Texas sued Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson for allegedly sexually assaulting her in October 2020 after he requested a massage, the 27th such lawsuit against him that all tell similar stories during his time with the Houston Texans when he looked like one of the most promising young quarterbacks in the NFL. Of the previous 26 cases, 23 were settled out of court in 2022. That same year, Watson signed the NFL’s second-ever fully guaranteed contract worth $230 million over five years, and he was suspended for the first eleven games of the season after being fined $5 million and settling a personal conduct case with the NFL where Watson said, “I take accountability for the decisions I made” while also maintaining his innocence and asserting that he has “never assaulted or disrespected anyone.”

His whole case is a perfect demonstration of how adept the NFL is at rendering words meaningless.

The Cleveland Browns were one of a handful of NFL teams both stupid and desperate enough to give up a ton of assets to sign a quarterback who missed a year of football to face his own legal battles while in a contract dispute with the Houston Texans, and ever since they acquired Watson and his mountain of baggage of 2022, he’s sucked. It’s been the only redeeming part of this entire shitshow. It’s very funny how bad he is and this saga gives me some hope that there is still light in this depraved world. Watson’s struggles are a vivid illustration of how nothing can replicate NFL game speed, and once you lose that muscle memory, it is incredibly difficult to regain it.

As a fan, you are allowed to boo players for failing your favorite team. You bought a ticket, and you are allowed to voice your displeasure when those bozos screw up (within all bounds of reason and decorum, of course). Deshaun Watson has more than earned the right to be booed solely based on his play. When he went down with a season-ending torn Achilles injury on Sunday, Browns fans unleashed two and a half years and nineteen games worth of frustration and let him have it, booing him as he lay on the field. This moment is the focus of much of the sports world today, but it’s important for context to note that he also got booed in the pregame intros too. The boos were something of a constant yesterday.

Booing injured players 99.9 percent of the time is obviously bad. Myles Garrett and all the Browns players who spoke out against the fans after the game are coming from an understandable position, because they are putting their lives on the line out there for everyone’s entertainment, and injuries take their livelihoods away while we still remain entertained with new players. You should (almost) never boo an injured player, especially in a league defined by non-guaranteed contracts, and Browns fans who were freely cheering for Watson until turning on him solely for sports-based reasons need to take a hard look at their priorities in life. Every single one of them should be forced to run the Oklahoma drill against Myles Garrett in practice this week as punishment for their ignorance.

But my comrades who have seen through the 27 lawsuits this entire time and know in their bones what’s going on with a man who signed a near-quarter billion dollar guaranteed contract understand that nothing is getting taken away from this sex pest if he never plays a down of football again. He’s a made man, and while his teammates deserve a bit of a pass for defending a man leading them to battle (although Myles Garrett did not have to issue one of the biggest load-bearing “most” qualifiers I have ever seen and go as far to say that Watson has “been a model citizen through college and most of the pros”), LeBron James should know better.

By all alleged accounts, Deshaun Watson is a threat to his community, especially every female massage therapist in his surrounding area. These lawsuits were all settled around the same time he got his historic bag, and more are still popping up. This is a man who has never really had to face or own up to whatever this all is while the only consequence he met was a suspension shorter than the one the league asked a judge to dole out. After all this came to light, the Browns still afforded more faith to Watson than he had earned, so why should any grace be given to a man who has truly not repented?

Everywhere you look, you see Deshaun Watson failing to live up to his responsibilities as a person. This has been disgusting to watch unfold from the start, and the people who have been booing him all along have every right to tell an ailing Deshaun Watson to go fuck himself given that could be their last opportunity to ever do so in person.

To those who have marched alongside famed beach-based Cleveland loyalist LeBron James in cheering Watson and excusing his mountain of baggage all because he was supposedly the missing piece to a Super Bowl team, this is exactly the conclusion to the Deshaun Watson era that you deserve, and LeBron is correct that you have no right to boo an injured man you were cheering when you deluded yourself into thinking that he was still a good quarterback. This has been a black eye on the NFL from the start, so why should the league be surprised that the way it likely ends is any different?

 
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