For $230 Million, the Browns Get Deshaun Watson, and Questions

Cleveland Browns, he’s your drawback now.

You courted Deshaun Watson, took him in and handed him the fattest assured contract in N.F.L. historical past, regardless of his tarnished popularity and the numerous girls who’ve accused him of sexual misconduct throughout therapeutic massage classes.

Now, for all of his chic skills at quarterback, you have to additionally cope with the storm cloud he creates.

It should maintain looming, foreboding and unavoidable, regardless of a grand jury choice on March 11 to forgo bringing legal costs in opposition to him.

Watson’s authorized battles proceed. Twenty-two civil fits alleging abuse stay.

Even when Watson, 26, avoids a civil trial and settles these instances by paying his accusers, chopping a deal so that they’ll maintain quiet — frequent follow when rich, highly effective males face a cavalcade of horrible accusations — few will overlook.

This can be a complicated state of affairs, crammed with questions that we’ve grown all too accustomed to in sports activities. And like so many issues in trendy life, it should divide.

Many followers will stick firmly behind Watson. They are going to level to the grand jury choice and say the quarterback was wronged by his accusers. They are going to wholeheartedly consider Watson’s claims of innocence, simply as they consider the reason of his lawyer, who has acknowledged that, sure, there have been consensual encounters between Watson and among the 22 girls who filed fits in opposition to him, however no matter occurred was “mutually desired.”

These followers, trapped, maybe, by the attract of stardom in a world the place athletic icons are too typically seen as practically infallible gods, will say it’s time to transfer on.

However a lot extra will bear in mind and are seemingly by no means to forgive. As an alternative, they’ll have a look at the entire image: the cascade of claims from accusers who got here ahead with tales of Watson exposing himself, or touching the ladies together with his genitals, or ejaculating on them. Three of the legal complaints alleged both sexual assault or tried sexual assault.

That’s a sample. It’s disturbing, to say the least.

Contempt will understandably stick with the Cleveland Browns for good, irrespective of how “humble, honest and candid” the staff homeowners discovered him in interviews, and irrespective of how nicely the staff performs on the sphere.

And the N.F.L., which as soon as once more has proven that it is able to put revenue and successful above all else, will face yet one more reckoning.

It’s well-known that claims of sexual abuse are troublesome to show within the legal courts, significantly when there may be little to no bodily proof and the alleged acts passed off in non-public. However as soon as Watson’s legal case ended, loads of N.F.L. groups have been prepared to maneuver on as if his accusers hadn’t spoken with troubling consistency about what occurred to them.

With Watson’s longtime staff, the Houston Texans, seeking to commerce away its star quarterback the second the legal case concluded, the Atlanta Falcons, Carolina Panthers and New Orleans Saints all jumped into the recruiting combine with Cleveland.

These groups have been keen to debate buying and selling their integrity for an opportunity to construct a winner with Watson. They couldn’t assist themselves, couldn’t wait to see what would develop into of the civil instances. They disregarded victims and their accounts.

Sure, Cleveland acquired him. However in case you are a fan, an worker or an proprietor of a staff that went after Watson, nicely, bear in mind the previous saying: Typically the very best prayers are those who go unanswered. That now applies to you.

In Cleveland, it is going to be a unique story. Watson initially spurned the Browns, however the staff beckoned with a deal so lavish it appeared meant to coat him in a patina of respectability: 5 years, $230 million, each greenback assured.

Roger Goodell, the league commissioner, might have checked out all the publicly recognized allegations and determined sufficient was sufficient. He might have despatched a robust message by placing Watson on depart for violating the N.F.L.’s conduct coverage — it doesn’t matter what occurs within the authorized combat.

Goodell hasn’t completed that.

As an alternative, from N.F.L. headquarters, we hear that the league remains to be conducting its personal investigation — molasses sluggish when the sign despatched by decisive motion is warranted.

How can we be shocked by something from a league that hardly covers itself in glory with regards to standing up for the rights of girls?

The N.F.L. allowed Antonio Brown to play for Tampa Bay whilst he confronted accusations of sexual harassment and a lawsuit accusing him of rape. The N.F.L. stands idle whilst one in all its foundational groups, the Washington Commanders, is saddled with accounts of harassment from over a dozen girls that even contain the staff proprietor Daniel Snyder. There are many comparable tales. By now they’re a part of the N.F.L. material.

As I mirrored upon the Watson story over the previous few days, I couldn’t assist however consider one other aspect. What about girls who’re merely attempting to outlive harassment and abuse? How did information of Watson’s signing have an effect on girls at a spot just like the Cleveland Rape Disaster Heart?

“There was outrage, confusion, ache and ladies right here wanting to grasp how on the planet this might even occur,” stated Donisha Greene, the clinic’s director of neighborhood engagement, who spoke to me on a video name.

“It positively triggered plenty of terrible feelings,” she stated. I might hear the weariness in her voice. “Lots.”

Greene pointed me to startling statistics displaying the quantity of sexual assault in America and the way arduous it’s for ladies to obtain justice within the court docket system. Of each 1,000 instances of sexual assault, the overwhelming majority will go unreported. Of the 50 that result in arrest, solely 25 perpetrators might be incarcerated.

Relating to sexual abuse, we dwell in a world the place males typically get second probabilities and ladies are left with unfathomable ache that society fails to acknowledge or see.

“Sadly,” Greene stated, “tales like this usually are not stunning to us.”