Deshaun Watson turned Saturday’s boos into a complaint of his own. After the Browns' preseason loss at Huntington Bank Field, he said the reaction had nothing to do with how he played and felt aimed at him as a person.
“I think the whole world knows it has nothing to do with performance,” Watson said. “It’s a little more personal than that.” He added that he feels he gets “more love on road games than I do home games,” a line that captured how far his relationship with Browns fans has fallen.
That reaction did not come out of nowhere. Watson has been accused by more than 20 women of sexual misconduct, and an independent arbitrator ruled that he committed sexual assault under the NFL’s definition. The arbitrator also cited his lack of expressed remorse, while Watson said at his introductory news conference that he had no regrets and did not need counseling. Those facts have shadowed him since the Browns traded for him and gave him the largest guaranteed contract in NFL history.
The football side has only made the split louder. Watson tore his Achilles two years ago and has since been one of the worst quarterbacks in the league, which is why some of the boos were plainly about the play on the field. But the noise around him also follows the larger story attached to his name, and that is what makes his claim of a purely personal reaction incomplete. Fans were already primed to judge him before Saturday, and his comments only underline how little trust remains between him and the people in the stands.
The immediate question now is not whether Watson heard the criticism. He did. It is whether Browns coach Todd Monken will keep the quarterback situation pointed in Watson’s direction after speaking Sunday about the decision. Watson can say the boos are personal. The Browns still have to decide whether his place in the lineup is still secure.
