The Browns fans who had a negative reaction to the season-ending injury suffered by quarterback Deshaun Watson prompted a negative reaction from players like defensive end Myles Garrett. Another major figure from the sports world also had something to say on the matter.
Cleveland icon LeBron James called out those who failed to follow the normal injury decorum after Watson went down.
“Cleveland Fans!” James said on Twitter. “Yall know how much we’ve been thru throughout the years both good, bad and indifferent. With that being said booing anyone that’s down with an injury let alone your own player is LAME AF!!” He then gave a salute emoji to those who didn’t participate.
Garrett and James are right. However, it’s an unfortunate reality of spectator sports. Too many fans believe that buying a ticket gives them license to do and say whatever they want. The anonymity of a crowd causes them to behave in a way they wouldn’t, if they were alone.
And while most in the stadium surely didn’t know the extent of the injury at the time, the overall circumstances set the stage for toxicity. The tone-deafness was obvious when the team inexplicably chose to introduce the individual members of the offense. What did the Browns expect would happen when they called Watson’s name for the first home game in four weeks?
Entering 2023, the Browns were a wild card. They managed to put together a very good season. Entering 2024, the Browns once again were an unknown, largely because no one knew what to expect from Watson, who played in only six games last year, due to injury.
The season has gone poorly. To make matters worse, management has stubbornly refused to remove Watson, who quickly became the worst starting quarterback in the league, statistically. Refusal to admit the mistake in trading for and paying Watson possibly morphed into another soft and strategic tank, punctuated by the unusual decision on Sunday to demote backup quarterback Jameis Winston — if only to prevent open calls from the customers for Winston to supplant Watson during the game.
The team’s handling of the situation laid the foundation for the reaction to the reality that the fans were getting what they wanted: Deshaun Watson out of the game. The reaction from a portion of 68,143 paid attendees should not have surprised anyone, no matter how unpleasant and unsavory that reaction might have been.
It all could have been avoided, if owner Jimmy Haslam had simply made and implemented the right decision, for everyone. Watson shouldn’t have been playing. Trotting him out there while pretending not to heed the unanimous external opinions set the stage for what happened when he was injured.
Was it wrong to boo Watson and/or cheer his injury? Yes. Was it foreseeable based on the organizational failure to supplant him before Sunday with Winston? Absolutely.
Indeed, it’s possible that the response from some to the Watson injury wasn’t about Watson at all. It’s possible that they were sending a message to those who refused to pull the plug on the Watson experiment, well after it had become clear that it hasn’t worked, it wasn’t working, and by all appearances it never will.
Browns fans are now forced to wait and see how management handles the aftermath. Watson will have surgery. He’ll rehab. He’ll recover. Will ownership put him back on the field, since they’re already paying him $46 million next year and $46 million the year after? Or will they turn the page to a future that will be murky in the short term, thanks to the cash and cap realities of the last two years or the Watson contract, but perhaps a little brighter over the long haul — especially if they use their first first-round pick since trading for Watson on a young quarterback who might become what Watson never became for the Browns?
However the Browns do it, it’s in everyone’s best interests (including Watson’s) to sever ties and move forward with a clean slate. Even if that slate will be more than a little muddy until Watson’s contract and cap charges are off the books, for good.
