Editor's note: Tony Grossi is a Cleveland Browns analyst for TheLandOnDemand.com and 850 ESPN Cleveland.Takeaways from Friday’s Deshaun Watson introduction and the Haslam Zoom fest …Deshaun Watson had not faced questions from media for 14 months until he was interrogated on Friday. The uncomfortable questions focused on the 22 civil lawsuits pending against him, his bizarre methods of seeking upwards of 40 massage therapists over a five-year period, and his desire to clear his name and reputation following some nasty accusations.
For the most part, he held up well. Considering the sensitive and awkward line of questioning, Watson never lost his cool or composure.
But his credibility nose-dived when he answered a comparatively insignificant question about why he changed his mind about the Browns after initially eliminating them from consideration. When the Browns re-upped their contract offer to a fully guaranteed $230 million, blowing three other competing teams out of the water, Watson waived his no-trade clause to play in Cleveland.
And then this happened:
“Actually, it had nothing to do with the contract,” Watson said. “I did not know about the contract until I told my agent that I wanted to come and be a Cleveland Brown. That was secondary. That was after the fact that we spoke on the phone with [Browns GM Andrew Berry], Kevin [Stefanski] and the Haslam family. That had nothing to do with me choosing the Cleveland Browns.”
Whomever prepped Watson on this answer to this inevitable question failed him.
He should have just admitted, “It was an offer I couldn’t refuse.”
There’s no shame in that. I mean, Watson did not demand the largest fully guaranteed contract in NFL history. Jimmy Haslam wrote that check to seal the deal and clean up a mess created by the pursuit of Watson, which inspired under-contract QB Baker Mayfield to stomp his feet and request a trade.
Watson’s advisors should have taken notes from the day before, when Tyreek Hill faced a similar moment at his introduction with the Miami Dolphins. The former Chiefs receiver was asked how hard it was to leave an ideal situation in Kansas City.
“It’s tough,” Hill said. “It’s tough, man, but somebody comes to you with a lot of money, it changes. The feeling started to change a little bit.”
Similar candor was expressed by defensive end Jadeveon Clowney after the Browns’ final game in 2021. Clowney, an avowed businessman heading towards free agency, was asked if money was going to be the top priority in choosing his team in 2022.
“Always,” Clowney said matter-of-factly. “Especially coming out of this, you’re playing at a high level and you want to get paid like it.”
Who can’t respect that?
Watson’s less-than-honest response to a question about a contract that has rocked the NFL ruined his credibility and made you wonder if he was being honest in other answers to far more important questions.
Women yielded the powerIn their effort to explain the lengths to which the Browns meticulously considered all facets of the Watson acquisition, the Haslams said they gave their two adult daughters the chance to kill the trade over concerns about the sexual harassment accusations made against Watson.
Jimmy Haslam said that daughters Whitney Haslam Johnson and Cynthia Haslam Arnholt were engaged in “open, honest conversations” with Berry, coach Kevin Stefanski and chief strategy officer Paul DePodesta about the 22 civil lawsuits.
Haslam said he had “extensive conversations” with a counselor who works in the field of sexual abuse. According to Haslam, the counselor told Haslam, “Your daughters and [wife and co-owner] Dee ought to have veto over this trade. If they are not for it and any one of them is not for it, you should not do it.”
And so, the boldest trade in Browns history, one sealed with the largest fully guaranteed contract in NFL history, came down to three women in the Haslam family signing off on it.
In the middle of Women’s History Month.
The odysseyI always maintained that Mayfield’s demise began not with the injury to his left (non-throwing) shoulder but with the souring relationship with Odell Beckham Jr.
That relationship exploded into a messy divorce after Odell Sr. released the 11-minute “Odell Beckham Jr. Is Always Open …” video on Nov 2.
It turns out that the release of that video coincides with the beginning of the Browns’ pursuit of Watson to replace Mayfield.
In his opening remarks, Berry described the Browns’ research and vetting process of Watson as a “five-month odyssey.”
So, that takes us back to early November, when the video went viral on the Internet. On Nov. 5, the Browns and Beckham’s agent reached a settlement that granted Beckham his release and voided the final two years of his Browns contract in exchange for making him a free agent in 2022.
I asked Berry if the Browns at that time had made up their mind to replace Mayfield as quarterback.
“No,” Berry answered. “I think I mentioned to you guys before that every offseason, we do go and look at player availability or look at the roster as if we have an expansion team. Certainly, as we got more involved into the research process, we did think through a number of different possibilities, but I can’t say that there was a specific decision made at that time.”
As the season went on, Mayfield kept dropping hints that his injury was worse than the Browns were letting on, and dissatisfaction with Stefanski's offense grew, and Mayfield's play on the field regressed.
The Browns steadfastly refused to sit Mayfield down, claiming he showed no signs of injury in practice. They even played him in Green Bay after Mayfield missed 10 days of practice quarantined with COVID-19 and had to be flown privately to Green Bay on the morning of the game.
Berry’s revelation of the “five-month odyssey” either makes sense of what was going on or further confuses the Browns’ actions as the team’s playoff hopes blew up in smoke.
On his Zoom conference, Haslam made reference to my question to Berry.
“Let me address something that Tony actually asked the question this morning,” Haslam said, “and I just want to clear up, when Andrew said we started working on it five months ago – I think some of you all understand this – midway through the year or three-fourths of the way through the year, our personnel group analyzes every single position on the team, obviously including quarterback. When Andrew said when you start looking at it five months ago, that is correct. We did not begin earnestly looking at what our options were, including Deshaun, until after our last game against Cincinnati on January 9.”
Okay. Yeah. Right.
