It is no surprise that the Cleveland Browns, who paid Deshaun Watson $230 million guaranteed despite rampant sexual assault allegations, started him at quarterback in Friday night’s preseason-opening 24-13 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars — while Watson’s six-game suspension remains under appeal.
But that doesn’t make it any less shameful of Browns owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam. And it doesn’t make it any less deplorable that they enabled Watson’s behavior and dishonesty with a staged, in-house apology with a team reporter before the game.
Judge Sue Robinson already ruled, as a jointly paid and appointed arbiter, that Watson had engaged in a pattern of sexual assault. She ruled that his “pattern of conduct” is “more egregious than any before reviewed by the NFL.” She noted his “lack of expressed remorse.”
