For Browns (as with most teams), winning wins the…

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Friday should have been a celebration for the Browns. It was more like a root canal.

But it was a necessary evil for a franchise that has struggled to find a true franchise quarterback. The Browns now have one in Deshaun Watson, a player who ideally will play the position for years to come.

The organization knows that pain will come before payoff. And the Browns are fine with that. Do they know what happened between Watson and 22 different massage therapists in an around Houston? No. Do they care? Also no. They only care that Watson won’t do it again.

That was the big takeaway from Friday’s press conferences, with G.M. Andrew Berry, coach Kevin Stefanski, and Watson appearing in the team’s press room and owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam meeting with reporters via Zoom. They did it because they want to win, plain and simple. And they’re willing to take the heat now, because (ideally) it will lead to hoisting a trophy later.

At one point in the earlier session, a reporter hit the nail on the head, asking Berry if the Browns would have gone to the lengths they did with Watson if he was an average-random player. Said Berry, “I would tell you that on the one hand, any player we would try and do as much work on as possible, and then on the other hand, if we did not get comfortable with Deshaun the person, it would not have mattered how talented he was; we would not have pursued the trade.”

Berry deftly evaded the question. The answer, if he were being truthful, would have been simple. No, they wouldn’t have done it for any player other than a franchise quarterback.

“I consulted, as did Dee, several people I trust and respect outside of the organization,” Jimmy Haslam said. “Both of them said exactly the same thing, they said. ‘Your daughters and 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.’ At first, I thought, ‘That is interesting,’ and then I thought, ‘It makes a lot of sense.’ Everybody was on board with doing this — some later than earlier, but everybody was on board with moving forward with this trade for Deshaun.”

That is interesting, because it would be interesting to know what they would have said if they’d been asked this question about a backup guard or a long snapper or a third-string tailback or anything other than a quarterback who potentially will make the Browns something they haven’t been in a decade under the Haslams — a year-in, year-out contender.

There’s the answer. They’re putting up with an unsettled and superficially troubling legal situation because of what Watson can do for the Browns. Jimmy Haslam was a minority owner of the Steelers in 2010, when Ben Roethlisberger became a pariah before taking the Steelers to the Super Bowl in the season that began with a four-game suspension. Winning makes fans and media forget.

With Watson, the unique circumstances may make it more difficult for fans and media to move on. Friday’s press conferences may not make it any easier. But if/when Watson leads the Browns to perennial playoff appearance and perhaps even the team’s first ever Super Bowl appearance, the franchise will say that the price for getting a franchise quarterback was worth it.