Baker Watches The Browns Burn
It just keeps getting worse. The Browns made the playoffs after years of despair, finally appearing to come out of the long dark tunnel of dysfunction. It would appear that was all just a nefarious ploy, a diabolical ruse, the Browns finding brand new ways to gaslight us as they worked on their masterpiece behind the scenes.
I’m thankful the Watson story hasn’t ended and been swept away once the grand jury did not indict him. This dude is a predator. I’m not sure how anyone can defend him at this point. He was using massage therapists to get off. For me it all comes down to the sheer number of massage therapists he was using. Nobody goes around just sampling professionals like that. Every single person I have ever known has always sought out “the one”. You look for the therapist who suits you. The dentist you trust. The doctor you like. The hairdresser that always cuts it right. It might take a bit of time to find the fit, but that’s the goal. To find the one who best suits you. You don’t see 66 different women in 17 months trying to find the one therapist who unkinks your hamstrings better. You do it because you are taking advantage of them.
Not to mention that he’s confirmed to have had sexual interactions with several, though he claims they were consensual. More details keep coming out, more reporters are getting in on the story, and every single new piece of information is more damning than the last. Fuck DeShaun Watson. He’s a predator. The Texans have now been implicated in helping cover it up, which I doubt surprises anybody but it’s nice to have some confirmation. All of this just makes the Browns look worse and worse. They had a flawed QB who was all-in on the team and threw him out so they could pay obscene money to a total piece of shit. In a bidding war with other teams. Everything about it is disgusting.
I’ve seen some rumblings that if this gets worse in certain ways, the Browns might be able to get out of it due to some legal loopholes. I’m not a lawyer so I can’t comment on that, but I do hope it’s true, and if the situation presents itself the Browns do the right thing, albeit a little too late. The NFL is also now under increasing pressure as a story I’m sure they want to go away is now looming larger and larger and it’s the worst kind of scandal for the NFL: a moral one. The NFL does not have a great track record of handling moral scandals. A lot of people, myself included, don’t think he should ever play a down of football ever again. Plenty of people would probably be happy with a year ban. The NFL banned Calvin Ridley for a whole fucking season for gambling on games he wasn’t even in, if a sexual predator gets less than a year after this, people are going to compare those two the same way we compared Ray Rice’s two games to Tom Brady’s ball deflation 4. It will all be deserved. I think I’d be content with a year ban, mostly because it’ll be more than I expect the NFL to do. I want a harsher penalty than that, but going by my opinion of the league, a year would be beyond my expectations.
I feel so sorry for every female Browns employee. I feel bad for the fans, who generally seem to be unhappy about the guy. There is obviously a bunch of defenders but it’s not as big a group as I would have expected. It’s just hard to look at this and not feel disgusted by Watson.
Baker is still on the team, which is interesting. I would have thought he’d be gone by now. The best outcome to all of this, for me, would be the NFL and Browns dumping Watson in the trash and Baker leading the team back into playoff contention. Baker seems like a douche, but he’s Cleveland’s douche, and I think he deserved better than this.
As a Texans fan, I’m glad there is a thread to the Texans. That means the NFL has to pay attention to this, before it was something they could hope to sweep under the table. Now its the “Shield”, more likely to get Justice for these women. Also if this takes down creeps who cover this up, more power to them. Side note, please link it to Easterby and the McNair family that would be the cherry on top.
Why the hell should the Browns be able to “get out of it”? They traded for him after 20 odd allegations were already public knowledge. They’re not a victim here. Organizationally they made a choice to trade for a known predator.
Honestly the Browns even trying to claim some kind of buyers remorse over this would be a bigger outrage than a too lenient suspension by the NFL. Everyone knew what the Browns were doing when they gave away the store for Watson and everyone kind of expects a CYA half-measure suspension by the NFL.
“The best outcome to all of this, for me, would be the NFL and Browns dumping Watson in the trash and Baker leading the team back into playoff contention.”
Gonna have to disagree with you here. While it would be great for the Browns to at least admit some wrongdoing and dump Watson, it doesn’t change the fact that they traded for him when he already had 20+ allegations and did everything to protect the gargantuan contract they gave him in case he ended up getting suspended. The only reason they’d cut him now is due to optics, not because of any real change of heart. They deserve nothing good to come out this and they aren’t a victim here.
The best case scenario (now knowing the Texans were also culpable in all of this) is that Watson gets axed, Cleveland toils away for years in QB hell having thrown away a ton of draft capital for a serial rapist, and the Texans blow all of said draft capital in embarrassing fashion. All while Baker balls out on another team and brings home a ring or two. Obviously most of that won’t happen, but I think it’s the best ending for all parties involved minus the shield itself.
Other than Baker balling out and winning any rings, I fully agree with everything else you said here.
It’s telling how awful the Browns are that they managed to make Baker the victim here. One second he was the bad guy, an immature emotionally stunted jerk, and suddenly I feel genuine sympathy for the daily torment he’s going through on that team. Given the size of the tater chips dude keeps on his shoulders, I don’t see him playing another down for the Browns if they were the last chance he gets on Earth. I sure as hell wouldn’t.
I have long considered Dan Spider and WTF Commies to be the most vile organization in the NFL, but the Browns and Texans are seriously making a play to pass them in my mind. It’s hard to continue being an NFL fan, watching them f-#& this kind of thing up over and over again.
Another good outcome (for 2022 and maybe another couple of seasons) and one that could well happen anyway is Watson only getting the half-measure (6-8 game) suspension, yet the Browns still going nowhere. If Burrow and the Bengals don’t regress and Jackson and the Ravens bounce back this year (both likely), the Browns get stuck in 3rd in a tough division. And if somehow Pickett develops a lot faster than expected, that’d be the cherry on top.
I’ll admit that the only reason I wish Baker any success is purely to spite the Browns. He might be a whiny, immature asshole, but given how reprehensible the other parties involved here are, I’m more than willing to excuse all of it in this case. I genuinely cannot imagine a scenario where Baker comes back to Cleveland after how they’ve treated him.
It’s sad that I have no faith in the league itself to handle this accordingly. Their mindset on most of these issues seems to boil down to, “if he’s not in jail, he can play” and I fully expect more of the same here. Maybe he gets an 8 game suspension but even that would be a shock to me.
Agreed, fully. I hate Baker, but yea, I’ll let all of it slide here. F the Browns into oblivion. I’m ok with him going somewhere else and triumphing, I just don’t think he’s capable.
As an aside… Dave, I know it’s just your own opinion and all, but I’ve gotta ask… HOW are the Browns and Baker making up and get back into the playoffs the ‘best outcome’ for you?? Based on everything you mentioned above, I would think that would be the absolute WORST OUTCOME for you, and most everyone else. Because it would mean the Browns can be the s&#$!st pieces of s#% and still manage to walk away with ZERO repercussions, and Baker will effectively be a hostage for all of it.
The best outcome for me, *if* Deshaun is found ‘liable,’ (or whatever the not-guilty-but-really-guilty-civil-outcome is, which seems like a foregone conclusion, based on the facts we know right now) is he gets banned for at LEAST 1-2 seasons, all of that guaranteed money the Browns gave him gets donated to the victims or some charities, the Browns forfeit a bunch of picks, and the Texans get their own cruel punishment for aiding and abetting. And it all happens after Rodger stands up, slams his fist down, and proclaims, “Enough! This ain’t some clown show organization anymore! We will no longer treat rapists like naughty puppies!”
I’ll be shocked if they give him more than 4 games without some footage or other additional information coming out. One day I’m going to snap, quit the NFL, and just fully invest myself into Marble League. I can be at least relatively confident the marbles aren’t rapists.
I guess I was looking at it from a “best outcome that’s reasonably possible” angle
The best outcome is Watson is banned for life, all the owners spontaneously die of dysentery, the universe gives me 20 billion dollars and makes me commissioner, and Baker Mayfield goes to the Steelers and only wins 2 games per year, both against the Browns
Ha. Fair enough, I walked into that one.
I guess I just don’t see how that scenario is even remotely possible. If you asked for a raise at work, and your boss’s response was to sign a potential rapist for ~10-20x the money you were asking for, and they refused to let you quit and get a job somewhere else, would you consider any possibility in which you’d happily keep working for them if the rapist hire blew up in their faces? Especially if you happen to be a person known for holding petty grudges and using them as motivation?
I mean, probably not, but I’m not Baker so I don’t know exactly how he thinks
If the Browns do get out of the Watson contract they may throw some of the money at him as a peace offering. He doesn’t appear to have much of a market otherwise the Browns probably would have traded him by now, so taking the apology money might be his best move. None of this is likely to happen though.
I understand your disgust for the Texans and the Browns, and I feel the same way but wishing for the Browns to toil away for years and the Texans to blow away all their draft capital is unfair, The Browns already paid the price of trading away their draft for him and likely won’t even get much out of him after all is said and done. The Texans also paid the price of becoming the laughing stock of the league. Plus it’s unfair to all of the players who want to win a Super Bowl one day and the die hard fans, many of them who are jaded for both franchises. So while I understand your anger at the Organizations wishing years of failure on them is unfair.
Although the best case scenario for me is Mcnair sells the team to an at least half decent owner and Easterby gets fired.
It may not be fair, but when organizations pull egregious shit like this, it’s hard for me to wish them anything but the worst.
Ideally, I want every owner and higher up involved here axed immediately along with Watson. That’s not going to happen. So until those involved fuck off for good, I do not want to see the organizations they run have any success. It might be unfair to the players, but they can always sign elsewhere in pursuit of a championship. It will definitely suck for the fans, but as you said, many are jaded at this point and even more have straight up chosen not to root for those teams anymore. Cleveland traded for and attempt to protect a serial rapist while Houston was fully complicit in attempting to silence his victims. Years of failure hardly constitutes as enough justice to make up for that.
I’m sorry that your favorite team turned out to be run by reprehensible shitbags. Unfortunately because of them, I’m wishing them nothing but the absolute worst. If McNair fucks off, maybe my stance will change, but for now, the organization deserves nothing good in my eyes.
What sucks more than anything else for Browns fans is that the entire roster is likable and talented and genuinely good people – look at Johnny Stanton or Wyatt Teller or Greg Newsome or basically anyone else on the team – and then there’s Deshaun Watson. I would love more than anything to be excited for the 2022 season but I can’t because if he gets suspended they’re in QB hell and will waste another year of this roster and if he doesn’t then they’ll win and I can’t celebrate it.
The NFL is an absolute morass of moral cognitive dissonance most of the time.
Leave us not forget that Kaep is only now getting a chance to come back after being shunned league- if not sport-wide for doing the right thing for the past six years. This, however, is with a team that still has human sewage Richie Incognito on its books; a waste of DNA who, FUCK if I have any clue how, is hanging herpes-like around the game NINE FREAKING YEARS after the Miami locker room scandal.
Let’s see what kind of fun that brings us if Derek Carr dies, shall we?
As for Cleveland, they can still back out of this and yeet Watson so hard into oblivion he’d need a map just to find his own ass, never mind a line of scrimmage. But it is the Browns, so I’m not convinced that’ll happen.
I feel some pity for Browns fan (well at least the ones that aren’t defending Watson) but Haslam deserves to reap what he has sown. He lied about due diligence and all that. He used his daughters and wife as a shield for the signing.
Also Andrew Brandt went on the Pat McAfee Show and basically said that Deshaun’s contract is written in such a way that its only voidable if after 2023, Deshaun has new legal cases against him. Basically the Browns are fucked.
I bet the Falcons are REALLY happy they lost the Watson sweepstakes. It only cost them their longtime franchise leading QB.
Ryan is going to ball out in Indy and I am truly glad he escaped. When he does well the Falcons fanbase that hated him and wanted Watson will turn like they always do and blame the FO for letting Ryan go. I’m still a Falcons fan but them pursuing Watson really soured me overall on the leadership and direction of the team. It also highlighted how toxic our fanbase is. I’m just thankful the Browns are taking the bullet that literally everyone saw coming that wasn’t blinded by “Watson is a good QB” narrative.
The rest of the NFC South heard Brady was coming back and were like “Aw crap” and went after Watson. None of them got him, and all of them lost. Matt Ryan left the Falcons, the Panthers are still stuck in QB hell with Hey Darnold, and the Saints settled for the tier 2 rapist. Brady sticking around for a while may suck for the rest of us, but it seems almost fitting that he continues to style on the three teams that pursued Watson and failed. The Browns have their own hell right now but if nothing else, maybe Brady can stick it to these three for us all.
Except the Saints, he’ll probably still find a way to loose to the Saints lol
Getting out of the contract because of a loophole would not make things better.
Because it would encourage teams to go ahead and hedge their bets. Hire the problematic guy, and (1) if things go your way, with no more shit coming out/the fanbase supporting the player/the player performance at a high level, keep him, (2) if things go the other way, void the contract at little or no financial cost.
If you want teams to stop doing this, you actually want them to experience the full weight of its choices. In this case, that would be Watson getting into even more trouble, damaging their brand, while having to eat the contract.
Personally, I think that if you want to fix this issues, the way to go is to reform laws, law enforcement, and how the judicial system deals with this things, because a few high profile corporations trying to make up for what the government isn’t doing, is hardly going to make a dent into the problem.
But if you believe the NFL can do something about this, you can’t just punish the players, but the organizations that cover for them. So in this case, the Browns made the bed, now they should lie in it.
Honestly, I’d be disappointed if the NFL suspended Watson for the year. I’d like to see them put him on the commissioner’s exempt list for this year and then suspend him next year when the suspension will actually hit his pockets. Also will keep the Browns without him for more than a season and then the terms of the trade will really hurt them
As a now FORMER Browns fan, I can’t contain my disgust at the team.
They maybe MAYBE start to right the ship after all these decades, and then they dump Baker and pay guaranteed money to Rapey Raperstein. Screw them all. I’d prefer to see Baker win a SB for another team than for the Browns.
Incidently, I’ll need an updated screen name here for the upcoming season once I settle on a new team. Something happy that might turn my frown upside down. Hmmmmm…
“Buck the Frowns”! Perfect….
If you want to bandwagon success (although as a former Frowns fan I doubt it) you could go with The Chiefs are Failing to Manage the Clock.
The upshot to the Browns getting out of his contract is that a serial sexual predator won’t get paid $230 million dollars. They would still lose their draft picks. Ideally the league would confiscate the picks from the Texans but I don’t see that happening.
Browns absolutely deserve every bit of punishment that may or may not come. They made the decision to overlook bad stuff for wins, and now it may backfire on them. They took a gamble and they appear to be losing. Baker can tell them to go shove it, he got far too bad of a rap for his flag planting thing in college, it’s followed him his whole career for no reason. Dude gave everything for the team, led them to the most success they’ve had in what, decades? Played hurt all of last season, and got nothing but bashed for it. Cleveland doesn’t deserve him.
As a panthers fan, I’m disgusted we were even linked in talks, we aren’t any better.
This is why the browns haven’t won SHIT
Wait
Baker drinks Tea?
What kind of goddamn monster is that man!
One doesn’t make contingency plans for when your team turns into the villains. But here I am, and my (former) team made a sexual predator generationally wealthy, and that’s that I guess. The only other team I have any other regional or emotional attachment to is the Lions, since I was born in Michigan and they were my team in the late 90s while the Browns were on hiatus. If Watson leaves and Haslam sells the team, maybe I’ll find my way back. But I’d rather watch another mediocre team than root for the Browns these days.