As I watch holiday movies on the biggest holiday of the year and munch on a bunch of food that is really good and really bad both at the same time, I think about the Browns.
They are my team, passed down to me by my dad like a precious heirloom. I think I have probably thought about the Browns every single day since I can remember, even days in the middle of the summer when it was hot and humid. Football was the farthest thing from most people’s minds.
But when I think about the Browns now, I see not the bright things of my youth but the dark things that have entered the picture in this, the darkest season of my sports life.
The reason for that is named Deshaun Watson. But it goes far beyond the moral issues which are huge and with which I have struggled mightily since he arrived about nine months ago.
Not only do I openly wonder — and with good reason — about his character, his ability as a person, but I also wonder about his ability as a quarterback, at least for the Browns.
What I saw in the 17-10 loss to the New Orleans Saints on Christmas Eve was a guy who looked like he had never played a down of football in the cold in his life.
And perhaps he hadn’t, at least not many.
That would not be surprising for a guy who played at Clemson and with the Houston Texans.
Yes, it was brutally and historically cold, but there was something more than that. Unlike a guy named Sipe who had played at San Diego State, a guy named Kosar who had played at Miami, not the one in Oxford but the one in Miami, a guy named Nelsen who played at USC, and a guy named Ryan who had played at Rice, all of whom adapted seamlessly to the cold of playing on the shores of Lake Erie, Watson looked so out of place and out of his comfort level. He looked scared to death. Moreover, he looked like he didn’t want to be there — ever again.
What if the Browns paid a fully-guaranteed $230 million for a slick convertible that’s fantastic when if’s 80 degrees and sunny but is ill-suited for anything under 50 degrees.
Did any of the Browns’ young guys who perceive themselves to be really smart, think about that?
Steve King
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