Go ahead and cheer Deshaun Watson if you are so inclined when he makes his anything-but-triumphant return on Sunday — in Houston of all places — as the quarterback of the Browns, armed with the largest fully guaranteed money deal in the NFL.
But feel free to go ahead and boo Deshaun Watson if you believe he is lying about his reprehensible behavior with the small army of massage therapists he solicited when he was Texans franchise quarterback.
Go ahead and cheer if you feel he has done the time for all of his alleged sexual misconduct indiscretions and gets the second chance that virtually every troubled superstar in every sport ultimately gets.
But feel free to go ahead and boo Deshaun Watson if your moral compass and conscience are more important to you than football, or winning.
Go ahead and cheer if you are a Browns fans forever desperate for your first Super Bowl appearance and care more that you may have finally landed your franchise quarterback than you do about anything else.
But feel free to go ahead and boo no matter what your favorite team is over a win-at-any-cost franchise rewarding Deshaun Watson with an outrageous fully guaranteed $230 million contract.
Go ahead and cheer if you are OK that Deshaun Watson has shown no contrition and maintains his innocence and was not criminally charged by two Texas grand juries.
But feel free to go ahead and boo if you cannot forgive him for the trauma and emotional scars he has left on his small army massage accusers.
Welcome to the first day of the rest of Deshaun Watson’s life.
It isn’t difficult to predict how this will play out: If Watson balls out and transforms the Browns into Super Bowl contenders in 2023, much about his unsavory past will be all but forgotten by many, if not most, in Cleveland, and he will not be cast by them as The Unforgiven.
But today is not a day to celebrate any feel-good story.
Yes, Watson deserves this chance to try to rehabilitate his image, through repentant actions more than words. But any rust he needs to chip off in his first regular-season action since Jan. 3, 2021, when he was still the Texans’ franchise quarterback, and since his mandated 2021 timeout by Houston and 11-game 2022 suspension, should serve as a reminder of the predatory behavior that prompted Roger Goodell’s NFL to send him into exile.
There will be a self-described “You think you put us behind you, but we are still here” reminder for Watson as well in the suites at NRG Stadium: 10 of his sexual harassment and assault accusers and their attorney, Tony Buzbee, will be staring down at him. Good for them. Twenty-five women represented by Buzbee filed lawsuits. One dropped hers. Twenty-three others settled theirs. One, Lauren Baxley, who will not be in attendance, declined to settle and is expected to go to trial.
Who will feel sorry for Deshaun Watson if he joins Pete Rose in Charlie Hustle’s prison without bars?
Probably too many.
He made the bed.
Plenty of Browns fans — even women — will be conflicted. Plenty will hold their noses and root for him to throw touchdown passes.
Others — men as well as women — will protest his return.
“I think most people are gonna be outraged about it, and I think people should be outraged about it,” National Organization for Women president Christian Nunes told Serby Says.
Goodell sought a one-year suspension for Watson before signing off on 11 games after Disciplinary Officer Sue L. Robinson decided on a six-game suspension.
In the eyes of NOW, greed has caught a touchdown pass from Deshaun Watson.
“I think there is a consensus that we are disappointed the NFL continues to protect individuals and harbor individuals who have been abusive toward women and shown violence against women,” Nunes said.
This is what she would say to Browns fans: “I would ask them to think about if this was your daughter, your sister, your granddaughter, your mother, how would you feel and would you still have the same reaction?”
Nunes applauded the Bills for releasing rookie punter Matt Araiza in training camp following a gang rape allegation and more recently the Cardinals for firing assistant coach Sean Kugler after he allegedly groped a woman. But Watson’s contract sends the worst possible message from the Browns, and from the league.
“They’re choosing their financial gain over protecting women. And that’s shameful,” Nunes said.
Watson’s absence of remorse has done him no favors.
“There has to be accountability, and there is not accountability if there is no consequence and there’s no time for you to even have accountability to change your behavior, and you’re not acknowledging your part in what’s happened,” Nunes said.
Deshaun Watson’s return is not the day for the NFL to trumpet its ongoing efforts to educate and recruit women to grow the golden goose, or adding women to the disciplinary process and coaching staffs, or the rise of the Raiders’ Sandra Douglass Morgan as the first black female club president in NFL history.
“We’re not talking about the sport itself. We’re talking about the persons who encourage the behavior of toxic masculinity as a problem,” Nunes said.
She called on Goodell to move forward with an organizational culture change.
“If he is not going to step up and make some changes that are gonna make impact in his league,” Nunes said, “then he really should consider his position as commissioner.”
It is mind-blowing that Watson booked massage appointments with at least 66 different women from fall 2019 to spring 2021.
Go ahead and cheer the victims at NRG Stadium the way NOW will.
“There is support for you, we stand with you for speaking and holding to your truth,” Nunes said, “and we stand with you for feeling like you are seen and you are heard.”
Black-eye NFL day: Deshaun Watson chooses not to see them or hear them.