Deshaun Watson is acting like a victim, but he has only himself to blame

WHITE SULFUR SPRINGS, W.Va. — I tried. I really tried with Deshaun Watson. I defended the Browns pursuing him because Baker Mayfield wasn’t good enough and they needed to upgrade the most important position. Despite all his legal troubles, Watson was the best quarterback available at the time.

But Watson has never been a victim of all this.

More than two dozen women said he harassed or assaulted them during massage appointments. More than two dozen civil lawsuits against him or the Houston Texans were settled in confidential agreements.

Shortly after arriving at the Greenbrier this week for the start of training camp, Watson was asked a standard, run-of-the-mill camp question about rehab following his shoulder surgery and whether anything has changed in his approach. Here was his answer.

“I think, honestly, it’s just a matter of blocking out all the bullshit,” he said. “It was tough coming in two years ago, different environment, different team, all that. So you come in and your character is called this and then you turn around and the biggest thing is trying to get people to like you or improve you. But now, at the end of the day, after two years, if you don’t like me or you have your own opinion, then it is what it is. So I think I just have to block out all the noise and focus on myself and what I have to do to be the best Deshaun Watson I can be for myself, my family and my teammates.”

Blocking out the noise is fine and necessary for successful quarterback play. Playing the victim because people question his character and sulking because people might not like him is sickening and unnecessary. He brought this on himself.

Myles Garrett and Deshaun Watson speak to the media after Day 2 of training camp in Greenbrier

— Cleveland Browns (@Browns) July 26, 2024

I realize that last year was incredibly difficult for Watson, first because of the season-ending shoulder injury and then because of the city’s huge disappointment with Joe Flacco.

Cleveland fans have never really embraced Watson, certainly not to the extent that they swooned over Flacco during his incredible December. For Watson, that must have been a tough, and perhaps a little embarrassing, thing to endure.

But here’s the part he can control: Flacco came in and immediately thrived in Kevin Stefanski’s play-action offense. He made it look exactly like it was supposed to. There were too many interceptions, yes, but Flacco ran the offense better than Watson. He had so much success in the system that he walked away with the NFL’s Comeback Player of the Year after five games.

So what did the Browns do in response? They fired the offensive coordinator and overhauled an offense that was finally thriving because it wasn’t the franchise quarterback doing it. It was the retired guy from the pickleball court. You can’t do that. You can’t make fun of the $230 million guy like that.

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A look at the Browns’ contractual situation as training camp begins at Greenbrier Resort

The Browns are in it now. They need to do everything they can to please Watson and accommodate him, even if it means scrapping an offense that we finally saw perform optimally for a month when run effectively.

The problem is, Watson never really looked comfortable doing it. So Ken Dorsey is here as the new offensive coordinator to bring some of the shotgun/spread concepts that made Cam Newton and Josh Allen great quarterbacks. At least Stefanski kept his play-calling duties. He’s now a two-time Coach of the Year. He should be calling plays as long as he wants the job.

The most disturbing theme, aside from the plan and the performance on the field, is the way Watson spoke as a man who had somehow been wronged in all of this.

“My character was challenged,” Watson said. “I know who I am, and a lot of people never really knew my history. I knew who I really was, so they base their opinions on other people’s opinions and what other people say. But yeah, I’m a person. I like having people like me, and I feel like a lot of people are like that. So sometimes things get in your head, and you just have to turn around and forget about it. It is what it is.”

Watson has never shown any real remorse or taken adequate responsibility for his alleged predatory actions.

Only once did Watson show any semblance of remorse, and that was during an interview prior to his first practice game as a member of the Browns.

“I want to say I sincerely apologize to all the women that I’ve affected in this situation,” Watson said before his Jacksonville debut. “The decisions that I’ve made in my life that have put me in this position, I would absolutely love to take back, but I want to continue to move forward and grow and learn and show that I’m a real person of character and I’ll continue to move forward.”

It was a necessary and cautious first step — but unfortunately the only time he ever showed remorse. He retracted much of his apology during his next media appearance the following week and has remained defiant and unapologetic ever since.

That lack of remorse was also what Judge Sue L. Robinson noted when she initially suspended Watson for six games.

I think Watson has been given really bad advice throughout all of this. His team, at least as far as I know, has never hired a crisis management team to do PR damage control. He has never been a leader in any charity work with victims of abuse of women.

Instead, he went to Saudi Arabia, a country with a terrible record on human rights, particularly women’s rights, during the off-season and wrote on social media in praise of what a wonderful time he had there.

Watson’s involvement in numerous lawsuits certainly played a role in what he could or could not say publicly. But two years later, he still can’t figure out why people don’t like him? Or why the community has been so slow to embrace him? Really?

The uncomfortable truth in all of this is that if Watson can stay healthy and return to the form he showed in Houston — if he can thrive in this new offense — many Browns fans will eventually embrace him. Winning is a deodorant, as Stefanski has often said. Even when it comes to covering up sexual misconduct.

Until then, we get gems like this one from Watson: “I don’t give a damn what other people say, to be honest.”

Let’s face it. Most NFL fans don’t care what he has to say either. Until he says, “I’m sorry.”

(Photo: Nick Cammett/Getty Images)