Football Blues

DeShaun Watson, a talented quarterback, is ready to begin practicing with his new team, the Cleveland Browns.  

He's also been accused of sexual assault by 24 women, massage therapists for his former team.  He's not been convicted, and the old team settled lawsuits with most of the women, facts which some use to cast doubt upon his culpability.  And I get that athletes are prey to these kinds of accusations.  

But two dozen times?  Even the NFL couldn't look past it. They decided that missing 11 games and getting therapy was punishment enough.    

Oh, yes, there was a financial penalty as well, a $5,000,000 fine and $690,000 in lost salary. 

Of course, he has already received a $44,965 million signing bonus, and he has a fully guaranteed, five-year, $230 million contract.  Is there that much difference in living on 275 or 270 million dollars for the next five years?  I'll never know.

What I do know is that I wouldn't want my husband or son or brother to share a locker room with him. 

Yes, I'm judging him.  If the Texans weren't worried about it they wouldn't have settled 30 cases.  If he weren't a talented quarterback neither team would want him around.  There's not been a spirited defense of his character.  And there are two dozen women willing to talk about his penis in public.

The football world is all agog.  Will he be in sync with the rest of the team?  Will he be in shape?  I could  care less.  

I've put my money where my mouth is, so to speak.  In the weekly family pool, I pick teams based on where I've lived, where those I love live, and a random something - blue uniforms; mammals; predators - for the rest.  Some years I win, most years I lose.  My system requires no real involvement in the game itself.  There are always certainties, teams in New York and Northern California and Chicago and Indiana and Arizona..... and, until now, Cleveland, TBG's home town. 

Now my pick is Not The Browns.

It's all I can do.