I woke up on Sunday morning brimming with excitement for a new NFL season. Week one, you see, is typically the high point for Cleveland Browns fans. No games have yet been lost, no players injured, no coaches fired. By around 5 p.m. on Sunday, my day had been ruined. The Browns were being dominated by the Dallas Cowboys, and our quarterback, Deshaun Watson, was playing some of the worst football you’ll ever see.
I’ve borne witness to arguably the worst stretch of quarterback play in football history in the decade and a half since I’ve been a die-hard Browns fan, but Sunday’s performance was especially painful because the Browns had handed Watson the largest guaranteed contract ever. Watson’s failure to perform not only handicaps the team this year — it also eats into its available cash pool for years to come.
Then, yesterday, a lawsuit was filed against Watson alleging extremely disturbing sexual assault. Watson had previously been suspended by the NFL for a series of inappropriate interactions with Houston massage therapists, but the type of conduct alleged in the most recent lawsuit is far more severe. Besides the warranted disgust they are feeling at the allegations, Browns fans may very well be the first in NFL history to be praying for their starting quarterback’s suspension — it would give the team a shot at voiding the guarantees in Watson’s contract. Regardless of what happens, the Browns are screwed, and the season is but days old. I am gearing up for another year of Sundays filled with misery and rooting for the team that plays in a stadium nicknamed “the factory of sadness.”