Your Cleveland Browns are now 3-1 after edging Pittsburgh 27-24 on Thursday night, and now everyone's wondering if the Browns are actually good or just, you know, playing the usual cruel tricks on their ever-suffering fan base.
It was a game in which a lot of stuff happened -- including Steelers head coach Mike McCarthy getting caught calling his quarterback, Aaron Rodgers, a "(bleeping) (bleep)hole," for which he profusely apologized even though, let's face it, he wasn't wrong. Meanwhile, Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson once again played effectively, completing 24-of-33 passes for 268 yards and a touchdown.
It continued Watson's brisk start to the season, during which he's thrown for 855 yards and six touchdowns in four games. It also continued some folks' attempt to sell this as some sort of half-assed redemption story, which is absurd if not exactly surprising given the national zeitgeist these days.
Watson, see, was sued by 20-plus women between 2021 and 2024 for sexual misconduct during massage sessions, which suggests at the very least that the guy has a problem keeping his hands (and perhaps other appendages) to himself. In the midst of all that, the Browns handed him a ginormous stack of money to come play for them. This is because, well, they're the Browns.
Then he got hurt. Now he's returned, a "comeback" which Prime broadcasters Al Michael and Kirk Herbstreit treated with what seemed undue sympathy.
Rational people, of course, would suggest the sympathy was misplaced, because Watson was solely responsible for derailing his own career. Framing his current success as something inspiring -- Hey, he made some mistakes, but he's a generally good guy who hung in there despite his travails-- therefore seemed a trifle ...
I was going to say "obscene." But I'm not unreasonable. I'll settle for "distasteful."
No, obscene is closer to what President Donald John Trump said the other day, on the subject of the Cornell 7.
Now, unless you've been living on Tom Hanks' island in "Castaway" lately, you know this story: A young woman and former Cornell student has sued seven members of the Chi Phi fraternity for gang-raping her a couple of years ago.
The suit alleges that seven Chi Phis took advantage of a drunk 20-year-old, dosed her with fetanyl, and spent the next seven or so hours having their way with her. One of the entitled little snots even sent out text messages to his fellow frat bros that there was "free p****" available and to come join in.
What's remarkable about that (or not), is that none of the fellow frat bros responded by saying "What the HELL??" There were 57 of them, and not one tried to put a stop to it. Not ... a single ... one.
Who's raising these kids? What kind of twisted values are they being taught? And who's doing the teaching?
I'll tell you who.
The broadcasters trying to suggest Deshaun Watson's journey is a redemptive one, as if his troubles were not well-deserved. And the aforementioned President of the United States, who the other day said he feared the Cornell 7 wouldn't get a "fair shake" because the lead prosecutor in the upcoming criminal proceedings is Letitia James, whom Fearless Leader has been mad at since she dared to prosecute his corrupt ass in New York.
A "fair shake"?
One wonders what kind of fair shake F.L. thinks that young woman got when the Cornell 7 allegedly treated her like a piece of meat on that dark endless night. Hey, guys! Free p****!
Now that's obscene.
So is what Kirk Herbstreit contended on Thursday.
"You want the fans to get behind you, and that goes for pretty much any market," Herbie said to Michaels. "This is an extreme case because of what you laid out with Deshaun Watson, but if you convert third downs, you hit passes, you lead this team to victories, those boos turn into cheers."
And what was obscene about that?
He was absolutely right.
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