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When Browns head coach Todd Monken announced that Deshaun Watson had won the battle to be the starting quarterback, he said he based his decision on his full body of work since practice began way back in the spring.

I laughed, and then bristled, when I first heard it, and I still laugh, and bristle, when I think about it now.

That is absolutely the wrong way to do it. You don’t worry about what happened beginning way back when, but instead, you worry about what is going on as you’re making that decision. And when you do that, you see that Shadeur Sanders was way ahead of Watson. He looked like Bernie Kosar in a couple of those last games in the preseason, while Watson looked like an “extra” cast member in the movie, “Weekend at Bernie’s.”

Fir the purpose of this story, though, let’s use Monken’s reasoning of “the full body of work.” In doing that, however, you have to incorporate the things that are going on now, such as the discovery that Watson was pulled over for speeding recently, going a robust 86 mph in a 60 zone. For those of you keeping score at home, he was 26 miles an hour over what he should’ve been doing. That difference is more than what you are allowed to travel in a school zone.

If the left tackle gets pulled over for going 86 in a 60 zone, it’s not good. It’s also not good if the strong safety does it, or the middle linebacker, or the tight end, or the long snapper. Not a good look at all.

But the quarterback is the face of the team. He is supposed to be out there leading away on and off the field. So when he does something stupid like that, it means more than any other player doing it. It casts aspersions onto the whole franchise, like, say, the owner of a team dabbling in prostitution along the Ohio-Pennsylvania border.

Here’s this guy Watson who is the GOAT in the NFL when it comes to, shall we say, crude and lewd behavior. With that, then, he’s already used up all his “get out of jail” cards, if you’ll pardon the pun. He has none left. But there he is doing something else misguided, and we’re all just supposed to sit here and take it. In anyway, where in the world was he headed going that fast? Was it to enhance his aforementioned reputation even more? I guess we’ll never know.

I know Monken wasn’t around here when all these guys were playing, but I don’t remember any quarterback in Browns history, especially the good ones like Kozar, Brian Siie, Frank Ryan and Bill Nelsen, ever getting pulled over for speeding. In fact, I don’t think they were in trouble with the law concerning anything.

That is how it should be.

Watson is different. He’s privileged. He’s above the fray. The rules don’t apply to him. That’s the way you have to look at it, because he should already be in jail and yet there he is doing something criminal once again.

If Watson can go out and pretend like he’s some kind of Indy car driver and not get into any trouble with the Browns organization, then why can’t other players on a team do it? Remember, he’s setting the precedent for the whole roster.

This situation with Watson, whatever you want to call it, keeps looking worse and worse and worse with each passing day. But we’re going to forge ahead with him as the starting quarterback. If only he were as quick with his decisions on the football field as he is on the highway. You have to really pay attention that you don’t do something crazy like hit another motorist when you’re going almost 90 miles an hour on a public road.

Again, what Watson did back in the springtime when the flowers were just starting to bloom, doesn’t hold any water for when we are putting out our mums out in the fall. So, then if he stinks it up in his first two games, I hope and pray that Monken has the common sense to bench him and go with Sanders. I fully expect Watson to struggle mightily in those games, and I fully expect the Browns offense, and the team overall, to pay dearly for it.

Monken says that Watson “gives the team the best chance to win to start the season.” But I think what is going to happen is he will be the reason why they lose.

At what point, then, do the Browns rid themselves of this albatross named Deshaun Watson?

I hope they do it as fast as he was driving that time he got pulled over.

Steve King