Charita Goshay: Browns are just the latest to prove that talent trumps trouble

There's no way for most women who are Cleveland Browns fans to feel good after the team's decision last week to add quarterback Deshaun Watson to the roster.

The former Houston Texans star missed the entire season last year due to allegations that he sexually harassed and propositioned 22 women, including a number of massage therapists.

A grand jury in Texas found no grounds for criminal charges; however, it speaks to character and a behavioral pattern that was whispered about at Clemson University long before he entered the NFL.

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When was the last time someone accused you of harassing 22 women?

A massive a civil suit has yet to be resolved.

The Browns are paying Watson more money paid that anyone in history of the league.

Makes you wonder how much he could have gotten had he been an officer and a gentleman.

We find ourselves here because Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield has been consistently inconsistent for four years while fighting with the media at every turn, and because the front office sabotaged his future with the team, in plain sight.

The Browns pivot to Watson reminds us of a bitter truth in professional sports: Talent trumps trouble.

Case in point, 14 teams — nearly half the league — courted Watson.

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Man trouble

Let's not pretend that no NFL team has miscreants. Disgusted Browns fans who have jumped ship and are dogpaddling toward the Cincinnati Bengals conveniently have forgotten how that team's star running back, Joe Mixon once broke a woman's face with a punch, and there aren't enough hours or newsprint to recap the escapades of former Bengals defensive star Adam "Pacman" Jones.

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Last year, Seattle Seahawks lineman Chad Wheeler tried to kill his girlfriend after refusing to take his medication for a bipolar disorder. Also last year, Las Vegas Raiders rookie Henry Ruggs III crashed his car into another vehicle at 156 mph while allegedly intoxicated.

We all saw former Tampa Bay Buccaneer Antonio Brown's end-zone meltdown when he didn't get his way, his latest in a series of eye-popping, hot-mess behaviors.

Now, Brown has stated that he wants to play for Cleveland.

Tom Brady, come get your guy.

However what should have been a career-ending incident in Tampa Bay, won't be.

Someone will sign him, even if it's to his own detriment.

Browns fans, too, have a habit whistling past Jim Brown's dark history of roughing up women. Who can forget when Cleveland running back-turned-bust William Green was chased and stabbed by his fiancee. Perhaps she should have been the one signed since she clearly had quicker hands and was able to catch up to a guy who had one job: running.

Before he was making touchdowns in front of the Dawg Pound, Kareem Hunt was caught kicking a woman in a hotel hallway.

And these are just the incidents that have seen the light of day.

Circling the wagons

In an attempt to control the narrative, the Browns front office didn't even bother to contact the attorney of the 22 complainants before making the deal with Watson. But wagon-circling almost always results in a pile-up.

There are those who say all will be forgiven and forgotten should Watson lead the Browns to the Super Bowl. That's not only incorrect, it's a disrespectful dismissal of fans' feelings and concerns over the messaging his signing sends.

It also ignores that 50% of the NFL's fans are women.

If Watson doesn't win one, then what?

But I'm not smashing my team mugs. I'm cheering for all of the Browns faithful, the generational fans who stood by this team when they were so bad, the stadium was rechristened "The Factory of Sadness."

For the people who get up at dawn to make their way to the games to support the only team they've ever loved; the ones who endure the snow, and the wind that cuts your coat to shreds.

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I'll be cheering for Myles Garrett, though he, too, got into big trouble for nearly cracking open an opposing player with a football helmet, Denzel Ward, and Jedrick Wills Jr.

I'll be cheering on the guys who still will play to win when Watson enters the new season riding the bench because of a league suspension.

I'm rooting for the team that was mine before Deshaun Watson was ever born, and will remain so when he hangs up his jersey for the last time — preferably somewhere else.

Charita M. Goshay is a Canton Repository staff writer and a member of the editorial board. Reach her at 330-580-8313 or charita.goshay@cantonrep.com. On Twitter: @cgoshayREP

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Charita Goshay: Browns prove talent trumps trouble with Deshaun Watson