Late in Sunday’s loss to the Cowboys, Browns guard Joel Bitonio was on the ground. Quarterback Deshaun Watson approached, extending a hand to help Bitonio up. Bitonio slapped Watson’s hand away.
And the video went viral.
On Thursday, Bitonio downplayed the situation.
“Truthfully, I didn’t even know Deshaun was there,” Bitonio said, via Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. “I was just trying to roll over. I think when I went to bring my hands up, I ended up swatting his hand away. I didn’t know it was a thing honestly until after the game. A few people texted me about it. “
Bitonio explained that he addressed it with Watson.
“I talked to Deshaun,” Bitonio said. “We’re all good. There’s none of that here. I’m a big dude. It’s hard for me to get helped up anyway, so I was trying to flip over to push myself up anyway.
“If you watch the rest of the game, there’s times where I’m helping Deshaun up. When we scored a touchdown, I celebrated with Deshaun. There’s no animosity there. I just was too big to get helped up, and I truly didn’t even know it was him there. I was just trying to roll up and ended up slapping his hand.”
Bitonio’s bigger concern is that the offensive line didn’t protect a quarterback with a history of getting banged up.
“He’s tough, he took a lot of hits,” Bitonio said. “He wants to be out with us and I hate seeing him get hit like that. We don’t want him to get hit like that, but he kept getting up and he kept going and he kept working. I’m sure he’s beat [to] crap right now, which we don’t want to see, but he kept getting up. He kept fighting and that’s all you can ask of your quarterback.”
So, despite how it looked, Bitonio said it was nothing. Yes, it looked like something.
For now, Watson has bigger issues than a perceived spat with a teammate. Watson desperately needs to regain his playing form, and he suddenly needs to sweat out a new lawsuit that could lead to a fresh suspension — which would wipe out $92 million in guaranteed payments for 2025 and 2026.