Last week the Cleveland Browns opened their 2024 training camp at the Greenbrier Resort in West Virginia. The Cleveland sports media had access to Browns players, coaches, and the owner. Cleveland Browns franchise quarterback Deshaun Watson was open and honest about his struggles in Cleveland the last two years.

Watson admitted that he is not happy with the current results as the Cleveland Browns quarterback. He understands that the organization invested draft picks and money in him. He also admitted that the off the field issues and media scrutiny did distract him as well. He dropped many expletives in the training camp press conference. That wasn’t too concerning for me, because there is a great deal of emotion and passion with competitive athletes. Watson is no different.  What concerned fans was the admission of the distraction. My question is, who wouldn’t be distracted?

Let’s review the facts of what happened with Deshaun Watson. One he was never accused of rape or sexual assault. He was accused of sexual misconduct. Two Texas Grand Jury’s did not find enough evidence to indict Watson on the charges. The 23 women accusers did file lawsuits against Watson. All but one settled out of court. All accusers were represented by the same attorney. The final case is pending litigation. As of today, Watson still believes he did nothing wrong. That can be debated. But in accordance with the law, he did nothing illegal.

More than likely something inappropriate happened with these women. Were they coerced or manipulated to do things they didn’t want to do? Honestly, I don’t know what happened. I do know that many professional athletes have been accused of things like this in the past. Some allegations were proven to be false, and some were proven true in a court of law. We may never know the entire story of events with Deshaun Watson. However, the events showed poor judgement on Watson’s part. His comments on moving on from this shows me that he learned from it and grew. His actions were not repeated either. Let’s hope other professional athletes can do the same. And Browns Fans hope it will show in the field for Watson.