After giving Deshaun Watson a fully guaranteed $230 million contract, Browns owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam trotted out GM Andrew Berry and their shiny new QB to do an impossible job on Friday while the real money sat back and waited back for a Zoom call an hour later.
Once the Haslams decided to acquire and pay Watson, their underlings’ task was to act like the allegations of sexual abuse in 22 ongoing civil lawsuits against Watson were very serious, but also completely false. They predictably flailed about, emphasizing that the Browns and Watson respect women and talked to them before making this trade — though they didn’t talk to those women, who are not telling the truth.
Berry was pressed directly on perhaps the two most important questions:
Did you speak to any of his accusers or their lawyer before making the trade?
Has Watson done anything wrong?
On the first, Berry was straightforward, though the behavior he described made little sense. An ESPN reporter repeatedly asked Berry why he hadn’t spoken to any of the 22 women. The Cleveland GM claimed that “our attorneys advised us that reaching out directly could be considered interfering with a criminal investigation.” But only one woman was still involved in a criminal case against Watson, which closed without an indictment on Thursday. The nine cases in Houston ended without an indictment before the Browns traded for him; that development is the very reason the trade market for Watson opened in the first place.
And while those cases were still open, NFL investigators spoke to several of the women who say Watson assaulted and harassed them, so it’s unclear why the Browns held themselves to a different standard than the league. (Some of those women described the league’s approach as “patronizing” and “victim-blaming.”) Watson is likely facing an NFL suspension, and the Browns went out of their way to structure his contract to minimize the financial pain from any missed games.
On the second — has Watson done anything wrong? — Berry was fully evasive.
The question was “Do you and does this organization believe there was no wrongdoing,” and the answer was a lot of words to avoid saying “Yes.”
“We feel very confident in Deshaun the person,” Berry said. “We have a lot of faith in him. And we believe that as he gets into the community and our organization, he’s going to make a positive impact.”
Press conference over.
It was a curious answer, because earlier, Watson had spent the entire press conference right next to Berry proclaiming his innocence, and Berry claimed that the team’s investigation into Watson was thorough and satisfying.
“I don’t have any regrets,” Watson said. “The things that are off the field right now that came up caught me by surprise because I never did anything that these people are alleging.”
Watson essentially said that his accusers were lying. “I never assaulted any woman,” he said. “I never disrespected, I never harassed any woman in my life.”
He did get slightly tripped up by a question about his massage habits, when asked why he had seen at least 40 different practitioners.
“I can’t get too far into the details, but as businesses work and you move and meet different people and people have different schedules and blocks, you kind of meet people over time,” he said. “Social media is a big business part that goes into it. ... I can’t get too far into the details because there is an investigation going on.”
Berry tried to square the circle by claiming he takes sexual assault seriously.
“It has triggered a range of emotions. That, and the weight of the allegations weighed on us all,” he said. “And that’s something that weighed heavily on me. ... And we empathize with that emotion. And at the same time, we also do feel good about the work that we did as we vetted this transaction. We do have confidence and faith in Deshaun as a person.”
This charade is so much worse than just saying you wanted to win a Super Bowl, and Baker Mayfield wasn’t cutting it. But the NFL’s ugly realities require a little lipstick; Berry is happy to be called a pig if it gets him that ring.
