After going 11-5 last season, no one could have predicted that the Browns would go 1-6 and not score above 20 points in their first seven games of the new season, but here we are.
Much to the fans’ disappointment, the Browns opted to trade away QB Joe Flacco as their $230 million QB Deshaun Watson would be back to start the season from his season-ending shoulder injury. Of course, they didn’t exactly bank on him suffering a season-ending Achilles tear against the Bengals. Or going 1-6. OR the Bengals winning in Cleveland for the first time since the Browns 0-16 season.
What should have been a good week for the Browns (Nick Chubb is back!), turned into a nightmare scenario for any sports franchise. Not just because their franchise QB went down, but because of the fans’ reaction on national television. Watson came out of the tunnel to boos to start the game, and when he went down, the boos started again.
Watson and the Browns are no strangers to their home crowd booing them this season, as they’ve been doing it since the Week 1 loss to Dallas. They are, however, new to fans booing a hurt player. As Nick Chubb had described in his letter to the fans, when you get hurt, you don’t feel anything, but you definitely hear everything. And normally, it’s silent. The Cleveland fans took a different approach. Rather than a silent stadium, the boos started, to the shock of the players and some of the people watching at home.
Others watching at home, particularly Cleveland fans, weren’t exactly surprised by the reaction. The fans are tired, and the team’s abysmal performance against the Bengals came on top of the news that the Browns are moving to Brook Park and the Guardians getting eliminated from the Playoffs by the Yankees. Browns fans have been through a lot with a 0-16 team, a 1-15 team, and of course Art Modell. It would take a toll on any fandom, and being promised results only to have a QB that most morally don’t agree with on top of not even being able to score 20 points in the first seven games is frustrating. The fans wanted to take out their frustration on someone and Watson ended up being that someone.
The players didn’t see it that way, however. Understandably so, the players were not happy with the fans’ reaction to Watson going down. Defensive Player of the Year and team captain Myles Garrett admonished fans for their reaction. “We don’t boo guys that are injured on the field, especially when the cart comes out.” However, he also said that Watson “does pretty much everything right” and he’s “been a model citizen through college and most of the pros.” Collectively, the sports world did a double take and pointed out that Watson has more sexual misconduct lawsuits than he has touchdowns, so not exactly a model citizen.
Backup (now starting) QB Jameis Winston also had words towards the fans that made the sports world again point out Watson’s off-field legal struggles. Winston stated “But I am very upset with the reaction to a man, who has had the world against him for the past years and he has put his body and life on the line for this city.” Besides the legal problems, the other issue with Winston’s statement is that Watson has only played 19 games in the 3 years he’s been in Cleveland. For reference, every team plays 17 games per year not including the playoffs, so fans didn’t exactly agree that Watson has put his body and life on the line when he has only played essentially the equivalent of one season in 3 years.
With Watson out, the media was wondering who the Browns would add to the roster as they moved Winston up to starter and in a surprising move to everyone, the Browns have signed former Patriots QB Bailey Zappe. More notably, off the field, the City of Cleveland has sued the Browns (due to Brook Park) and the Browns have sued the City of Cleveland. Yep, it’s going to be a long season for Browns fans.
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