With Deshaun Watson, the Cleveland Browns tear a family apart
Sports fans are deeply invested in the franchises they follow and the players and staff who represent those teams. They are part of our families. The “family” here means the broader community of like-minded folks who sport their gear and raise their cheers. They’re not at the level of spouses, children and parents. They don’t even feel like first cousins — usually. But there is that sense of connection and belonging.
Such communities exist everywhere and around almost everything. Think of Deadheads following their favorite band or people deeply devoted to a politician or celebrity’s every move. It’s just human nature to love that extended family, because they are interconnected with your lives and the lives of your real family.
When the team you support has people who act with authentic kindness, enthusiasm or just basic decency, it makes the club feel even closer. Conversely, when a niece or nephew or first cousin does something unexpected — or worse — the public response is usually filled with grace. “That’s just Joe/Jane,” you say, shaking your head. Privately, it’s likely to be accompanied by intra-family chatter and concern, but that doesn’t get shared with strangers. When my mother was growing up in Ashtabula, Ohio, on the shores of Lake Erie, her folk — “lace curtain Irish” they were called — were careful about not opening the blinds to allow the town’s other communities to look in. If arguments spilled onto the street, the elders would step in and get everyone back inside — because families don’t air their problems in public.
When the Browns made the biggest trade in franchise history for Watson, the new “face of the franchise,” millions of fans reeled. Some did applaud, but the shock for many others is still palpable, as demonstrated by Andrea Thome’s announcement. Her decision triggered a whole tidal wave of online criticism — inexcusable but predictable given social media. People who live in the public eye learn not to read comments or pay much attention to trolls, but Web-based vitriol can still surprise those who haven’t faced an online mob. Her stand was both wildly popular with some fans and extremely controversial with others, because it was “in the family.”
But it was the Browns, not Thome, who triggered the meltdown by buying into Watson despite his facing civil lawsuits from 22 women accusing him of sexual harassment and assault. No one among the owners, senior management or coaching staff is willing to say, “We believe Deshaun is innocent,” but they went ahead with the transaction because they did a lot of due diligence over five months and “got comfortable with Deshaun.” Their fans, however, didn’t have those five months, and as a family are still shocked. It is like being a daily Mass-attending Catholic who lived through the priest scandals of the past two decades, when there has been only one question: “What is going on?”
When any public figure you have known a long time (whether personally or at a great distance) is suddenly in the middle of an intersection of fire and brimstone and online fury, you are likely to be very conflicted. Some will wash their hands of the problem. Others will raise the barricades. The best course may be to sit quietly for a while, for months even, and be generous with the grace — like families everywhere living through an unexpected and jarring turn of events. Talk to me in five months, and like most Browns fans, I’ll have come to a conclusion. Maybe. Depends. It’s family.
