Browns sell their souls, biggest trade,…

(Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports)

The Cleveland Browns traded a haul to the Texans, including three first-round picks, for DeShaun Watson. And of course, the Browns released statements shortly after the trade insisting that they had done all their due diligence, blah blah blah. They also backloaded Watson’s new contract to prevent Watson losing too much money if he’s suspended in 2022, which he almost certainly will be. There’s a lot to cover here, and we won’t be talking about what Watson brings to the Browns in a football sense for a while, but where are you with this whole thing?

Doug: To mangle a lyric from the great Elvin Costello: I used to be disgusted, now I can’t stay amused. You expect what you expect, and in this case, it’s exactly what you think it is. I was not surprised at all by the fact that several NFL teams went all in and created a sweepstakes for a player who has been credibly accused or sexual assault by 22 different women. I was not surprised at all by the Browns’ statements from everyone, because the NFL always says it’s doing its due diligence, and it never actually does.

And I will not be surprised when the NFL’s water-carriers – the same water-carriers who have done their level best to pump up the Watson deal and move it to how many touchdown passes he’s going to throw, or how this affects the AFC North. There are people who are desperate to keep their NFL-related jobs, and there are people who are desperate to get those NFL-related jobs, and you can tell exactly who they are in situations like this. This is the NFL forwarding the myth that anything, no matter how repugnant, is just business as usual. 

Luke: I really don’t know what else there is to say about this at this point, Doug. Like you said, it’s just the latest example that the NFL will ignore just about anything if it serves their interests. It feels like “due diligence” in these situations simply translates to, “We got ownership to sign off on it, and we have a plan to deal with the backlash” instead of a genuine effort to get to the bottom of a situation.