Browns Owner Asked Whether He’d Do Deshaun Watson Trade Over Again

Editors’ note: This story contains accounts of sexual assault. If you or someone you know is a survivor of sexual assault, contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673 or at https://www.rainn.org.

Although Deshaun Watson won’t play in a regular-season game until December, the Browns’ owners stand by the decision to trade for the quarterback—and would do it again. 

The franchise’s dubbed “QB1” will be suspended 11 games and dealt a $5 million fine after the NFL and players association reached a settlement agreement concerning his disciplinary process. In a statement released Thursday, Watson delivered a broad apology “for any pain this situation has caused” and took “accountability for the decisions I made.” 

In the eyes of Browns owner Jimmy Haslam, he feels Watson “deserves a second chance.” 

“In this country, and hopefully in the world, people deserve second chances,” Haslam said in Thursday’s press conference. “I really think that and I struggle a little bit—is he never supposed to play again? Is he never supposed to be part of society? Does he get no chance to rehabilitate himself?

“And that’s what we’re gonna do. O.K. And you can say, well, that’s because he’s a star quarterback. Well, of course. But if he was Joe Smith, he wouldn’t be in the headlines every day. So we think people deserve a second chance. We gave Kareem Hunt a second chance. O.K. And that’s worked out pretty well.”

Haslam went on to say “that doesn’t mean we don’t have empathy for people affected, and we will continue to do so. But we strongly believe people deserve a second chance. We believe Deshaun Watson deserves a second chance.” 

Haslam, his wife and team co-owner Dee, and general manager Andrew Berry gave a joint press conference moments after Watson held one of his own, in which he maintained his innocence when faced with a slew of questions from reporters. 

Rosenberg: Deshaun Watson Allegations Should Stick to Him for the Rest of His Career

In addition to the suspension and fine, Watson will undergo counseling, something Dee emphasized “takes time.

“You don’t just go to a counseling session and wake up and understand the impact it has. I think it’s a layering effect that takes weeks, months, a long time to get where you understand so much more about yourself. And I think Deshaun has made progress from the time he came here to now he’s making progress, but it’s not gonna happen overnight.”

One of the larger questions that has surrounded Watson and now the Browns is how massage therapy sessions will occur given his reported behavior. From March 2021 to June ’22, more than two dozen lawsuits were filed against Watson, detailing graphic accounts of sexual harassment and sexual assault. Only one was dropped due to privacy concerns in April ’21. The accounts range from Watson refusing to cover his genitals to the quarterback “touching [a plaintiff] with his penis and trying to force her to perform oral sex on him.”

Earlier this summer, a report from The New York Times’ Jenny Vrentas described that Watson booked massage therapy sessions with at least 66 women over the span of 17 months dating back to the fall of 2019. The Times also reported the Texans provided facilities and nondisclosure agreements for his sessions.

Berry faced the question: “How will you handle Watson’s massage therapy sessions moving forward? Will it be a male or female? And what’s the plan?” 

“Yeah, so I’ll be honest, in terms of the soft tissue work for massages, that’s something that we’ve had a plan in place since the start of the transaction,” Berry said. “That’s not something that’s new now because, you know, year-round athletes need that type of soft tissue work as they train and prepare for the upcoming season. So that’s something that’s already been implemented in place for the past several months.”

The general manager did not go into detail about whether the individual would be a “male or female” when prompted again with the question. However, he confirmed it is team-approved. 

When asked whether they were concerned about death threats, for example, given that his first game back will be against Houston, Dee responded, “I hope the conversation comes to what can we do going forward to get the information out to help other people. And I think there’s just a huge opportunity to talk about the major issues in our country in this area, such as sex trafficking and massage parlor use, etc. There’s so much information that we can glean from this, and the opportunity is tremendous. So we can continue to talk about Deshaun or we can talk about the major issues our country faces and make a difference.” 

Watson previously denied all allegations against him, and two Texas grand juries declined to indict him on criminal charges earlier this spring. However, he still faces legal trouble. He has reportedly settled all lawsuits but one.