By STEVE KING

The Browns are under siege right now following the trade with the Houston Texans for quarterback Deshaun Watson, who leads the NFL right now — no one else is close, really — in being served with civil lawsuits from women claiming sexual misconduct.
In fact, the Browns are facing the most criticism in their history, all this coming just months after the team finished the celebration of its 75 anniversary season.
Great job by the organization in having the proper respect for the Browns’ past, right?
Geeessshhh!
Again, all those great early Browns — Paul Brown, Otto Graham, Lou Groza, Marion Motley, Bill Willis et al — must be turning in their graves.
It can’t get any worse.
Or can it?
Yes, it could get worse — it can always get worse; never, ever say “never” and “always” because the truth usually lies in that big in-between gray area — and in fact it would have been worse — a whole heckuva lot worse — had the trade happened last year.
In mid-April 2021, the Browns were getting ready to host the NFL Draft. They and the leaders of the city and community were excited to open their doors to the rest of the league, the rest of the country and football fans throughout the world.
“Hey, come take a look at us. We’re happy to be able to give you a tour and show off what we have.”
They wouldn’t have been able to do that — any of that at all — because the ugly shadow of the Watson trade that was lurking in the background would have made it completely impossible to keep people’s focus on anything else.
Now, as bad as the current situation is, that one would have been much, much, much worse. It would have been an unmitigated disaster, the likes of which can torpedo and sink even the best organizations, let alone one that, following more than 20 years of ownership, front-office and coaching dysfunction to the nth degree in this nightmarish expansion era, was just starting to get its act together after making the playoffs for the first time in 18 years.
As such, then, the top people on the Browns ought to get down on the knees right now, look to the heavens and offer a word of thanks for a rare stroke of good luck amidst all the controversy.