Most of Deshaun Watson’s stint with the Cleveland Browns has been disastrous, between injuries, his poor play, and the legal issues stemming from more than 25 civil lawsuits alleging sexual misconduct during massage therapy sessions. Now, as Watson and the Browns are finally doing well on the field, one prominent NFL insider is not willing to call it a redemption story.
After Thursday night’s showdown between the Browns and the Pittsburgh Steelers, Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk called out what he saw as a “deliberate effort to boost his redemption story” regarding Watson, and he clearly was not a fan, given that Watson has never shown much remorse.
Watson’s Legal Issues
Beginning in March 2021, 24 massage therapists sued Deshaun Watson, alleging sexual misconduct during sessions while he was with the Houston Texans. Two Texas grand juries declined to indict him. By August 2022, he had settled 23 of the 24 suits.
Disciplinary officer Sue L. Robinson found a preponderance of the evidence determining that Watson had committed sexual assault, as the NFL defines it, but suspended him for just six games. The NFL appealed, and the sides settled on 11 games, a record $5 million fine, and mandatory evaluation and treatment.
In September 2024, a woman sued Watson for allegedly assaulting her on a 2020 date. He settled in October, and the NFL closed its probe in December, citing insufficient evidence. Watson has consistently denied all allegations.
Watson did offer an apology after his suspension was announced.
“I want to say that I’m truly sorry to all of the women that I have impacted in this situation,” Watson said at the time. “The decisions that I made in my life that put me in this position I would definitely like to have back, but I want to continue to move forward and grow and learn and show that I am a true person of character and I am going to keep pushing forward.”
However, Watson has also said multiple times since that statement that he has no regrets about his life.
No ‘Genuine Remorse’
Throughout Amazon Prime Video’s coverage of Thursday night’s game, Florio said the broadcast “featured plenty of tiptoeing around the elephant that Deshaun Watson dragged into the room with his own actions.”
Florio highlighted the sit-down interview with Taylor Rooks and the periodic vague references from Al Michaels and Kirk Herbstreit to Watson’s past issues as examples of the broadcast tiptoeing around Watson’s self-inflicted legal issues with no direct mention of the self-created adversity Watson has experienced since 2021.
He saw the broadcast as trying to push an overall depemption narrative, with Watson finally playing well after the legal issues, injuries and on-field struggles.
“On one hand, it’s a four-year-old story. On the other hand, the effects of it continue to linger. Thursday night’s handling of Watson felt like a deliberate effort to boost his redemption story. But redemption can’t come without genuine remorse. And the full scope of his limited comments about the incidents that derailed his career show that he has never expressed true and full and unequivocal remorse,” Florio wrote for Pro Football Talk.
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