00:00If the Browns come back to Cleveland week three and they're 2-0 and Deshaun has played his best
00:05two games as a Browns quarterback, there might be a chance that he doesn't get booed out of the
00:11building in week three. Is that the scenario? In that scenario, do I lay it out? If they're 2-0
00:18and Deshaun has played really well the first two weeks, no boo birds week three?
00:22Jimmy Haslam believes that everyone just wants to win, and if you win, then all of a sudden
00:26everything's going to get taken over. I don't know that it's a matter of just winning, though,
00:29because Deshaun at one point went 5-1, and we still could acknowledge that he wasn't the reason why.
00:34It was still because of the defense, right? And so I don't know that he completely escapes the
00:39boo birds, but yeah, they'll be quieted. For sure they'll be quieted. You saw it at training camp,
00:44the amount of people that were lined up to get his autograph and to go ahead and basically
00:48genuflected the altar of Deshaun for 30 seconds because he was going to go over there and sign
00:52a little football mini helmet. People are very, very easy to win over if you start playing good
00:59football. I just don't live in a world where I think that that's going to be reality.
01:03I think what's surprising, because you are correct, I mean, Jimmy Haslam is right. It might be a very
01:08cynical way to look at the world, but yeah, if you're good at football, people will forgive you
01:13for a lot of terrible things. The sad part about that is, and this is where maybe I just differ
01:16with a lot of people listening. I think a lot of people agree with me on this, though, and I
01:20think
01:20I'm with more people than people are against me. The idea that I still get angry about how the last
01:25four years of our lives have gone. Maybe it's because we're in it every day and we've got to
01:28discuss this thing every day and a lot of other people, if you're listening right now, you're a
01:32big enough fan. You should be angry, but there are enough people that can just kind of come in
01:36and then they'll just show up and they'll watch the games on Sundays and they'll come in, they'll
01:40come out, they'll take in what they want to take in. I'm pissed that the previous four years of our
01:44lives have been dealing with the repercussions of not only that trade, but Deshaun Watson
01:49staking at football on top of it and then everything that has come with that. It genuinely makes me angry
01:55and I don't know, maybe I'm more stubborn than other people. Is that all this is? But the idea
01:59that people could just come and let that go after a 2-0 start is bonkers to me. I just,
02:04I'm like
02:04Michael Clark Duncan in Green Mile. I'm tired, boss. Like I, there's, I'm tired of watching
02:11Deshaun. You're the Popeyes worker on the bench. Yes. I, or Ben Affleck smoking the cigarette,
02:16rolling his eyes. Like I am any one of those gifts and it's, and it's a two-parter. One, I'm
02:21sick
02:22of watching Deshaun play crappy football. And so the idea of, of doing it is more exhausting
02:28to me of like, I've watched this play four times before. This is, uh, this is Transformers
02:33five. Nobody likes it. Nobody's buying it. Yeah. Where's Shia LaBeouf, right? Very drunk
02:40there. I don't know what the hell that was about, but I love him. Great actor. He's the best.
02:48Great guy. Uh, don't look it up. Slightly problematic. More than slightly. He's on a
02:58bender. The best bender. Okay. Stop it. Good Lord. We're not, we're not going to be able
03:03to get back now, are we? No, we're not. That was a really impassioned Deshaun thing we went
03:06with there. Much like Shia LaBeouf's life. It all falls apart with Shia LaBeouf. Is that
03:10it? Yeah. But I'm, I'm just exhausted at the idea of seeing this again. And there is, I'm,
03:16I am exhausted at the unmitigated gall of the Cleveland Browns. And, and listen, I
03:22am, I am very fortunate that we spent, uh, what is it? Eight days in the last couple
03:27of weeks out there. Yeah. I enjoy any of the people that, that we're talking about
03:33personally. I've talked to, to Jay Dub. I met him at the card show a couple months
03:39back. Like I, it's not a personal thing that I dislike it. Right. Just like anyone
03:44specifically. I think we like a lot of people over there more than we dislike a lot of people
03:47over there at this point. There's nobody I really dislike over there. So this is not
03:51about the human beings that work there, but it is about the collective gall of an organization
03:56that had the temerity to pull off the worst trade in NFL history. And now five years later
04:02goes, looks at you like you're the idiot for being like, what? Deshaun again?
04:08And then wants to service more of that. And I, I just don't understand why. And it was,
04:12it was really pissing me off at the drive in that idea that I, and I laid it out, but
04:16it's like so maddening to me that we're going to have to go through this again, more likely
04:21than not. And everybody just seems cool with it. And if he starts off two and O people are
04:25just going to be like, all right, way to go. Deshaun Watson. We're getting some value out
04:29of this thing. No, you're not four years of awful football at the hands of Deshaun Watson
04:34doesn't get offset by a two and O start to the season. It just doesn't, but it will
04:38nobody doesn't. It's a part that I don't understand. Again, am I, am I just so stubborn
04:43about things that I can't let this go? Am I the only person that can't let this go?
04:47Because I don't know why it's so easy for people to say the past four, all past four
04:50years, not completely his fault. Yes. So here's what it is. You don't just need Deshaun to overcome
04:58the amount of crappy football. You also need him to overcome the injuries. And the only thing
05:04like one of those, like if he just plays three good football games, you can go, maybe Deshaun
05:09did find it. Cause, cause again, we can have the extreme recency bias and it's, and by the
05:15way, the only played like one full season amongst the four previous years. So there's 19 games.
05:20You can even say sample size, right? Three, a three games versus 19 games. You can do that,
05:25but it's that. And then, oh, I don't trust you to stay healthy. It's not just one reason
05:31to doubt Deshaun. And by the way, that's before any of us get to the obvious off the field stuff.
05:37And the fact that like, when I hear Deshaun speak, I don't think I'm getting the truth.
05:44That's not how that has never really helped him here either. In the same way that when Stefanski
05:49was farting cliches into microphones left and right, nobody cared about it. When you were winning 11
05:54games a year, it really does matter when you win eight games in two years and the offense falls
06:01apart and near the offensive head coach. Same thing with Deshaun. If Deshaun had had a, if Deshaun had
06:06been a really good football player in the 19 games he did play, and it was only injuries, we could
06:12be
06:12deluding ourselves here. This might be the year he stays healthy. It would be a tragic story. It'd be,
06:16it'd be, if he was really, really good in the 19 games and just could not get away from the
06:21injuries,
06:21it would be a tragic story. The idea that he just, he just, he was made of glass and he
06:25couldn't get
06:26out of the way, but, but the idea was sound and all of it made sense, but that's not the
06:30reality.
06:31That's not what we're living in. I think the reason why you've seen the Browns and the Browns have done
06:35a great media tour. I cannot count the amount of times I've walked into Berea the last three weeks
06:42and Andrew Barry was having some very important conversation with some name that, you know,
06:48some media member that, you know, I think the Browns have been very smart to canvas. I think
06:53they're interviewing people as much as they're being interviewed because I think they're trying
06:56to figure out how the Deshaun Watson thing is going to go over with people and why that matters is
07:02I
07:03think they might think, all right, now this is where I'm putting a little bit, it's not tinfoil hat,
07:08but I'm putting a hat on a hat here. I think they might think that two or three games in,
07:13there might be this comeback player, this underdog Deshaun thing brewing, and my response will be,
07:22I don't know Deshaun will ever get that no matter how healthy he stays or how good a football he
07:28plays.
07:28He shouldn't. No part of him should ever be an empathetic figure in the city of Cleveland.
07:31Oh, well, no, I'm trying nationally.
07:33Well, and that's where the conversation might differ, but they didn't go through the four years
07:36the way that we all went through the four years. They didn't go through the fallout of him being
07:40injured and not being good at football. And then us having to go through what was essentially bad
07:45season after bad season and why we've won eight games in the previous two years. They have to go
07:49through that. And so like there, there should never be any empathy towards Deshaun Watson as a football
07:53player. And for, if he absolutely stinks up the joint, be like a, or even if he's great this year,
07:58turn around and be like, Oh, but I, I just, I felt so bad. People treated him that way. I
08:03felt so bad
08:04that he wasn't it. No, no, no. He made your lives stink. Your football lives stink for four years.
08:09It's a good thing. A lot to offset that for myself. Jeffrey in Cleveland. Hello, Jeffrey.
08:14How you doing? Good afternoon, guys. Good afternoon, buddy. What you got for us?
08:18Uh, JP, you're really getting under my skin this afternoon, man. Oh, he's doing it. Like,
08:22you're bothering me, bro. Like how can one, how can winning games not be a good thing?
08:26And for a quarterback to become a comeback player, like... We said 2-0. We said 2-0 to start
08:30the year. And 2-0, people are already turning around. It doesn't matter. The point is we're
08:35winning games because of Deshaun. You suck for four years because of Deshaun.
08:37That's pretty good, JP. JP wouldn't have the Browns. And a lot of that is because of
08:40Deshaun. Why are you not recognizing that? Five years? The Browns have been good since
08:4399. Because of the trade. The last four years is directly related to Deshaun Watson tanking
08:49this franchise and ruining it because of the biggest contract of guaranteed money in NFL
08:53history. You're complaining about him like he's not going to play. What you're complaining
08:56about doesn't hold any weight because he's still going to play. And if he wins two games
08:59in a row, yes, it will be a turn of cheap. We're talking about people changing their
09:03perception over two games. I'm talking about myself. Why is two games going to wipe away
09:09four years of misery? Four years? Deshaun did this to you for four years and it's going
09:14to be taken away in two games? Oh, boy. I'd love to be around you. You just forgive anything,
09:18don't you? You just let anything go. It's been 25 years since the Browns won anything.
09:22The way you're describing it, I could go up to you, slap you in the face, and if I go
09:26ahead
09:26and buy you a 25-cent lollipop, you'd be like, this is a good dude right here. I like this
09:30guy. He's a good guy. That made no sense, bro. That made no sense. He's a good guy.
09:34What do you mean it made no sense? Deshaun Watson's been slapping the face for four years and then
09:37he gets you two wins to start the season and you're like, oh, I like this guy. Let's root
09:41for this guy. Jeffrey, what the hell are you talking about? Jeffrey, listen to yourself.
09:46What are you talking about? You're talking about a guy that can't come back. That's what you
09:50expect. You expect him to be a bum and I expect him not to be. I do expect him to
09:52be.
09:53Yeah, I expect him to stink. When he wins the first two games and I'm going to call you back
09:56and I want to hear your tone of voice then. It won't change over two games. Jeffrey, it
10:01won't change over two games. That's the point of the conversation. Two games can't rectify
10:06four years of suck. Don't change your tune. Don't change family. Which of the eight games
10:11that we won the last two years was your favorite, Jeffrey? Which ones? When the five games, five
10:15weeks into the season, six weeks when we're doing good and we look like a good team and all
10:19the narrative changed, you don't change your narrative. So five weeks is enough for you to
10:22race four years of bad, Jeffrey? All right, Jeffrey. Five weeks? I want to be winning
10:26right now, JP. If I can get winning right now, I don't care about five years, 20 years ago.
10:30I care about what happened for the previous four years. All right, Jeffrey, we're really...
10:33Do you care about what happened yesterday or do you care about today, JP, and your life?
10:37Do you care about yesterday or today? Do you understand the previous four years and how
10:40bad this has been? I don't care. It's been 30 years of bad football, JP. Why are you
10:44complaining about four? Because Deshaun's the reason why. Why can't you recognize that?
10:49Why do you refuse to acknowledge that, Jeffrey? I really appreciate you, buddy. I'm shocked
10:57that there's people like Jeffrey that exist out there that can say two wins a race is
11:01four years of bad play, though.
11:02So here's where I am. Going into it, I'm all the way out on it. I don't really feel the
11:09need to see Deshaun ever again, but the chance that I'm giving them and the chance that I'm...
11:15And it's really about my trust in Todd. It is about trying to fall back on the fact that
11:19I like Todd Munkin. And if I screamed for four years at Kevin Stefanski kept trying to shoehorn
11:25Deshaun Watson into his offense, which I don't think is the number one reason Deshaun has
11:30failed to this point in Cleveland, but I sure as hell don't think it helped. I have to give
11:35some glimmer of new head coach who has an experience building systems around quarterbacks.
11:41I will at least give it the chance of, if we're two weeks in and you're 2-0 and Deshaun
11:46looks good,
11:47I don't know that if I was going to that game, I don't know I wouldn't boo, but I don't
11:53know that I
11:54would. Where I'm at, and I think maybe where Jeffrey was, I am hungry for a winner, and I'll
12:01take it any which way I can get it, even if it comes with a series of complications. If it's
12:06with
12:06Deshaun, I need to be a 10-win team to do it.
12:08I think it's going to be impossible for him to live up to any sort of expectations anyone would
12:12have for them to completely say to themselves, I am no longer angry at Deshaun Watson, or I am no
12:19longer upset with how the Deshaun Watson contract went down, or I'm no longer, like he's done enough
12:24to offset that, and now he's done good. It would take so much for myself. And I don't know that
12:30it's
12:30enough that he could do in one year.
12:31I think a nice 10-win season, maybe a playoff win, that's at least a good start.
12:35It would be a good start, but it wouldn't take away the previous four years.
12:38No, but it would at least be worth this year of it. And then he would have to do another
12:43year. At some point, we've got to start stacking seasons here.
12:46That's a one-for-one, and that's a nice way of looking at it. But for myself, you're not
12:51erasing all that in the snap of the fingers.
12:54And listen, I don't think Deshaun will ever be my quarterback. I just don't.
12:58Well, that's the end result here. I'm just never going to get to a spot where Deshaun's
13:02my guy. That's not going to happen. This is going to be a transactional thing. And
13:07some of that is, we didn't draft you, and in the four years you have been here. Like
13:12I said, when I hear Deshaun speak, I hear a guy that spouts cliches, and I hear a guy
13:19that doesn't really tell us who he is. That's not who he was in Houston, by the way. Who
13:23he was was kind of a wear your heart on the sleeve and be the guy that his presence fills
13:29up rooms. We haven't gotten that. I've gotten the sad Deshaun. I've gotten the broken Deshaun.
13:34I don't know that all of a sudden we're going to get the guy because of what's transpired
13:38the last six years. I don't know that other guy's going to walk through here. So if you
13:43win 10 games and you have us in the playoffs and we're winning a playoff game, yeah, I
13:49will. At some point, I won't become a Deshaun guy, but I'll be excited about what's going
13:53on.
13:53Yeah, but that's also very different than starting the season off 2-0 and then saying everything's
13:57going to be just wiped away and everything's cool.
13:59Oh, I just, I think my bar is higher than everybody else's. I think I'm much more closer
14:03to where you are.
14:03I mean, where I got an argument with Jeffrey was him saying 2-0 makes everything happy
14:07go lucky. And it's like your four years are going to be gone after 2-0? That's all it
14:11takes for anybody? I just, I can't believe that's the standard that people are upholding
14:15themselves to.
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