Bossman
I’m out. I’m honestly surprised and a little bit ashamed of how long it’s taken, and what it took in the end, to get me out. But I can no longer idly push so much under the rug and turn a biblically-accurate-angel worth of blind eyes for a player with such little discernment and empathy for a serious situation. I don’t know how much of a fan I was before, but I am all out on Deshaun Watson, and it’s because of eight words he said during Wednesday’s press availability.
It is customary for a team’s quarterback to have a press conference weekly with the local media, and Cleveland usually handles theirs on Wednesdays. This week, coming off a horribly played game on Sunday, [Give any caveat you want: good defense, injured offensive line, coming back from injury…it was still a bad game] Watson also had to navigate the fact that he was sued in civil court about a sexual abuse case stemming back in 2020. The case details indicate this issue is of a darker, more violent incident, and is being investigated by the NFL as part of the Personal Conduct Policy.
We can get into whether or not the team can and will and should use the case as a way to get out from underneath the Watson contract, but this is specifically about Watson and this presser. When asked by a reporter, “why does this keep happening to you?”, Watson gave an answer so out-of-touch, I think my head popped off my shoulders and spun around. His response: “I’m in the same boat as you, bossman.”
I don’t want to write off the mental toll Watson has likely had to deal with for the last three to four years. Yes, it absolutely has been self-imposed and I am not saying it’s been unwarranted, but having so many vociferously announce their hatred of you while maintaining innocence has to be a catastrophe of the mind. So when he was asked the question, it can be understandable that he is over any and all of this media circus. But to give such a bogus answer, an answer that encapsulates a large part of the reason why fans have turned so vicious on the player…it boggles the mind. It shows a lack of care for your fellow man, for any fan that might be teetering on the edge of support. And I never expected him to say the incriminating things or do anything that would indicate guilt. Neither did I expect him to give a villain-esque answer like “I applaud anyone trying to secure the bag on me” type of response.
The issue is the callousness and flippant attitude of the answer. “I’m in the same boat as you, bossman” is what the middle-aged accountant you share a cubicle with that no one wants to talk to gives you when he overhears you telling a fellow coworker about how rowdy your kids are, further detailing a gruesome trip to the apple orchard for fall family pics where they all wore the same flannel. “I’m in the same boat as you, bossman” is what you say to your buddy when they are telling you how much they loved Applebee’s new Florentine Topped House Sirloin. Not the answer you give when someone asks you “Why do all of these women keep saying that you’ve sexually abused them? Why is it that we keep seeing reports about new and horrible things that you’ve allegedly done to females in and around the Houston area?”
So like a business shark that’s just been asked to give $600K for 35% of a foot fungus cleaning company, I’m out. I can’t support it anymore. I can be a party to giving him the benefit of the doubt. I can’t pretend like he is just misunderstood, that he is the target of ambulance chasers and bag securers. As an avid fan of How I Met Your Mother, the glass has broken on Watson and I see him for what he is, and all I have to say is, I’m out, bossman.
