Speaker 1: Ian. Where is DeShawn going next? Deshaun Watson is expected
Speaker 1: to be a member of the Cleveland Browns. Yes, the
Speaker 1: Cleveland brown in an unbelievable, stunning turn of events, and
Speaker 1: that is not all. When this trade is completed, Watson's
Speaker 1: expected to get a five year, two hundred and thirty
Speaker 1: million dollar contract that is fully guaranteed. That is eighty
Speaker 1: million more than the previous record for fully guaranteed money
Speaker 1: at signing. And now Deshaun Watson headed to the Cleveland
Speaker 1: brown There are Browns fans who are seeing this is
Speaker 1: a good day. There are Browns fans and I imagine
Speaker 1: maybe this is the majority ultimately that see this is
Speaker 1: a bitter sweet day. And then there are still others
Speaker 1: that see this as a sad day. And at the
Speaker 1: risk of being melodramatic, maybe the day the Browns sold
Speaker 1: their soul for success. Dan Hands is here, Mark Sessler,
Speaker 1: Greg Rosenthal, and yes it is melodramatic, But man, this
Speaker 1: whole saga has been melodramatic, and not in a good way.
Speaker 1: Sometimes melodrama is not uh. Cleveland Browns have a new
Speaker 1: face of the franchise. It's de Shaun Watson. The Browns
Speaker 1: who were out until they said, but how about this,
Speaker 1: And that was money. That was record breaking, guaranteed money.
Speaker 1: Dan hans Is, Greg Rosenthal, Mark Sessler, Mark, I know
Speaker 1: we've had some fun this week, even though you're saying
Speaker 1: it's not fun about getting out on the Browns retiring
Speaker 1: as a fan. Um, I don't know where you come
Speaker 1: down right now, but I think it's safe to say
Speaker 1: it's time to clear the runway and get your thoughts
Speaker 1: on one of the biggest, if not the biggest transaction
Speaker 1: in the history of the franchise, for better or worse. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, I I think I've been pretty clear about
Speaker 1: where I've been mentally with this this past week and
Speaker 1: this whole um unexpected in Bizarre Journey, and I I like,
Speaker 1: first of all, think that there's so many other um
Speaker 1: centers of attention here and this is our show, and
Speaker 1: I get why you'd want me to comment on where
Speaker 1: I'm at, but like I I'm done with the team
Speaker 1: and like it's just where my heart's at. Like I feel, Um,
Speaker 1: it's sad to me because I even before you know,
Speaker 1: we we rushed we finished our TV show, and we
Speaker 1: rushed out to do other things than football because it's
Speaker 1: been a long week, and then this happened, you know,
Speaker 1: thirty five minutes later, and um, in the time between
Speaker 1: then and now, I've just been thinking back about, um,
Speaker 1: kind of what the Browns meant to me that I
Speaker 1: definitely wouldn't be sitting here, um talking to you guys.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't have pursued football as a career on any level. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, I don't even really like other sports. It
Speaker 1: was a football thing always, and it was a Cleveland
Speaker 1: Browns thing, and it was, um one of the biggest
Speaker 1: magnetic polls of my youth. Um. But but I've changed
Speaker 1: a lot, and like going through the years, the Browns
Speaker 1: have felt more and more. I mean you, I think
Speaker 1: even when they were dysfunctional, but um, you could understand
Speaker 1: it was on field dysfunction. Uh. They were a one
Speaker 1: side of relationship that often felt like I was just
Speaker 1: you know, the butt of all jokes, um, you know,
Speaker 1: with them playing the jokes on on Browns fans directly.
Speaker 1: At this point, this is a different type of leverpool
Speaker 1: and organizational decision. It's a huge decision. I think that
Speaker 1: I don't know if they understand inside their bubble, um,
Speaker 1: what it means to different types of Browns fans and
Speaker 1: people out there and how their organization will be perceived forever.
Speaker 1: To your point, Dan, I think it's the biggest transaction
Speaker 1: they've ever made. And I I feel like I just can't, Um,
Speaker 1: there's sports already feel cynical enough to me. I can't
Speaker 1: sit around and raw raw this. I'm I'm out. And
Speaker 1: it's like, you know, that's it, Like that's sort of
Speaker 1: where I'm at right now, and like, uh, I need
Speaker 1: a break. I need a break, and like, but but
Speaker 1: this isn't this? This is also like why why am
Speaker 1: I out? It's like because they've gone and put there
Speaker 1: all the chips in on someone that I think where
Speaker 1: we are in one and I don't care about. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm gett I'm already getting killed by pockets
Speaker 1: of Browns fans like what about Kareem Hunt? What about this?
Speaker 1: Or that You're right? I like, I don't think personally,
Speaker 1: like as a fan of the team, I ever thought
Speaker 1: about taking certain stances. I don't know why. I I
Speaker 1: can't explain the past, but this stands up to me
Speaker 1: as something completely different. Um, I think everyone has to
Speaker 1: make a choice. If you're a Browns fan on on
Speaker 1: where you are on this and I don't really care
Speaker 1: about anyone else's. I care where I'm at, and I
Speaker 1: like at my age at forty eight, Like is it
Speaker 1: more important to be loyal as a fan to a
Speaker 1: team or to just think about where I where I
Speaker 1: am today and I'm done, It's it's over right, like
Speaker 1: where my My experience obviously so different than yours watching
Speaker 1: this story, Mark, But I was with Keisha Um had
Speaker 1: like a nice what an hour or so in between
Speaker 1: picking you know, before picking up the kids, and she
Speaker 1: was already out watching games, uh college basketball. She's into
Speaker 1: the attorney and eating sandwich and got the news. Well,
Speaker 1: I was with her, and it got me thinking about
Speaker 1: kind of what you're talking to and about like we
Speaker 1: were saying what West would say in that situation, and
Speaker 1: it was something West and I talked about a lot,
Speaker 1: was like we get we love sports, and we get
Speaker 1: so into it and there's something like beautiful about it.
Speaker 1: And I think personally, like this story has been especially
Speaker 1: troubling just because it's just such a reminder that it's
Speaker 1: it's not sports. Isn't just like some distraction from from life,
Speaker 1: Like the same shittiness that's in life is in sports,
Speaker 1: and this one was just so shameless about it and
Speaker 1: so bald about it, um that it was just disheartening
Speaker 1: And like, I I love doing this job. You guys
Speaker 1: know that and stuff, But it's like we were all
Speaker 1: sick of talking about Deshaun Watson. It's not it's not
Speaker 1: about us. It's like we we've kind of set set
Speaker 1: our piece, like like I'm I'm sick of the coverage though,
Speaker 1: Like I'm sick of every network's coverage, you know, and
Speaker 1: just sick of like hearing the reaction to it. Sick
Speaker 1: of hearing like what Andrew Berry Savile did to like
Speaker 1: bring bring Watson in with the guaranteed money, Like the
Speaker 1: terms are kind of part of what's sickly, Like I'm
Speaker 1: sick of like needing to make content out of it too, though,
Speaker 1: like that cynical I'm sick of people like saying, oh,
Speaker 1: you did a good job, like talking about it's like
Speaker 1: all that stuff. It's just like it's it's not why
Speaker 1: we are in on this job. It's not why we
Speaker 1: love sports. And it's just frustrating because it makes you
Speaker 1: think about the people that you work with and the
Speaker 1: people that you work for and how disappointing they are.
Speaker 1: And like again I was with Kesha and she had
Speaker 1: a very West like sage wisdom in the moments, like
Speaker 1: it's everything. It's not like you know, it's not like
Speaker 1: something changed, It's not like, um, this this story is
Speaker 1: is totally unique in some ways, but in many ways
Speaker 1: it's not. It's just like, that's the world we live in.
Speaker 1: And for some reason, being up close and kind of
Speaker 1: knowing how the machinery all works behind the scenes of
Speaker 1: how these things get covered and then how the teams
Speaker 1: are making these decisions, and you said it like how
Speaker 1: cynical they are and how how they aren't thinking about
Speaker 1: anyone else on the outside. Uh, it's just it's just
Speaker 1: for us. It's just frustrating. And what it came down to,
Speaker 1: now that we have the full timeline in front of us,
Speaker 1: was once the NFL, and by the NFL, I mean
Speaker 1: the thirty two teams. Here I knew that Deshaun Watson
Speaker 1: wasn't gonna go to prison for what he's accused of, um,
Speaker 1: despite all these standing civil cases. That once that hurdle
Speaker 1: was cleared, that's where, yes, you could say the shamelessness
Speaker 1: came in everyone said I not everyone, but a lot
Speaker 1: of teams said, I want that guy to be the
Speaker 1: face of my franchise, and the Browns it wasn't. Even
Speaker 1: though we've talked about the inconsistencies and the failings of
Speaker 1: the reporting UH in the industry around the story, what
Speaker 1: it sounds like here is that they didn't get the
Speaker 1: story wrong. Um. In the last twenty four hours the
Speaker 1: Browns were out, they were told they were out, and
Speaker 1: when then the reporting was this morning that it was
Speaker 1: gonna be the Falcons or the Saints. And then the
Speaker 1: Browns had conversations obviously behind the scenes they have all
Speaker 1: the Baker speaking of melodrama Baker Mayfield situation brewing, and
Speaker 1: they said, what if we did something unprecedented? And I
Speaker 1: guess you could call that savvy by Andrew Berry and
Speaker 1: the Browns um or whatever term you want to use.
Speaker 1: But ultimately it was like the desperation of it all
Speaker 1: five years fully guaranteed two thirty million contract UH to
Speaker 1: to make Deshaun Watson change his mind. And it's it's
Speaker 1: good you said that, Greg, because that's something I wrote
Speaker 1: down when I was just thinking about the situation. We
Speaker 1: talked about the bills yesterday, and I talked about on
Speaker 1: the podcast how there was a desperation to the Bills,
Speaker 1: but not necessarily the bad kind of desperation was just
Speaker 1: that feeling that we're right there and we we wanted
Speaker 1: so bad to finally bring a Lombardi to Buffalo, that
Speaker 1: we're gonna give von Miller this contract we might regret.
Speaker 1: The Browns this is the other type of desperation. This
Speaker 1: is the team that's been a laughing stock for so
Speaker 1: long that finally had a taste of success and then
Speaker 1: all of a sudden things started to back up on
Speaker 1: them again, and you had the Baker Mayfield story spinning
Speaker 1: out of control, and everyone was looking at the Browns
Speaker 1: and talking about the Browns. Oh Man, same old Browns.
Speaker 1: So they do this too in their estimation, change the
Speaker 1: trajectory of the franchise or put them back on a
Speaker 1: championship path. But I don't know if the trajectory here
Speaker 1: Mark is gonna be what they bargain for. Yes, they
Speaker 1: are a much better team now, even though losing all
Speaker 1: those draft sets is problematic. You now have one of
Speaker 1: the top five quarterbacks in the sport, arguably locked and
Speaker 1: loaded for years to come. But ultimately at what cost
Speaker 1: beyond two thirty million, because I think, and this is why,
Speaker 1: even as a non Browns fan, it's just like it
Speaker 1: changes the trajectory of how people see the Browns, who
Speaker 1: are never going to be seen as a levable fund
Speaker 1: upstart team to root for when they do get on track,
Speaker 1: they're gonna be seen as the team that hired the
Speaker 1: guy that's facing sexual assault charges or allegations from dozens
Speaker 1: of women. And there's just no way to go around that.
Speaker 1: They looked at that and said, we can deal with
Speaker 1: that because we need to get to where we want
Speaker 1: to go when it comes to wins and losses. And
Speaker 1: that's just disappointing. Yeah, I think it's you know, it's
Speaker 1: blind ambition. And I get also that in a vacuum,
Speaker 1: if you're a general manager, um, you're measured by the
Speaker 1: players you bring in and the roster that you build,
Speaker 1: and and and if this were, you know, simply a
Speaker 1: data driven computer game, than Andrew Barry is savvy, and
Speaker 1: Kevin Stefanski and the ownership and everyone else they are.
Speaker 1: But the problem is is that football, I mean, the
Speaker 1: way that I view football and what got me into football,
Speaker 1: there's always this immense human side. Like I didn't get
Speaker 1: into football um as a fan. I don't mean just
Speaker 1: to go down this road. But by watching athletes do
Speaker 1: special things, that's cool. But then when you watch that
Speaker 1: three hundred times, like anything that you do three hundred
Speaker 1: times starts to get wrote. Um. But it's the story
Speaker 1: behind it, the people and and and especially like when
Speaker 1: I came in as a Browns fan, Um, it was
Speaker 1: Bernie Kozar, it was Marty Schottenheimer, Ernest Biner. Think of
Speaker 1: people like that. How we think about those people today
Speaker 1: and how they were. They were faulty and they failed.
Speaker 1: And I learned a lot right out of the gate
Speaker 1: with the drive and the fumble about um failing and
Speaker 1: then getting back up. And that's always what the Browns
Speaker 1: were to me. This is the reverse. This is the
Speaker 1: story you can't root for. I can. I don't think ahead, No,
Speaker 1: I I mean I just I think that. I think
Speaker 1: that a big chunk of fans ken And that's the
Speaker 1: difference between how some of us view sports and attached
Speaker 1: to it or willingly detached from it. That's what I
Speaker 1: was gonna say. I don't want to be hypocritical about this,
Speaker 1: Like if if it was the Jets that were getting
Speaker 1: Deshaun Watson. I I try to imagine like how I'd
Speaker 1: be feeling. I would definitely be unhappy with the process.
Speaker 1: It would be the same thing I just said about
Speaker 1: the Browns of the Jets, if they ever get there together,
Speaker 1: would be a really great feel good story and and
Speaker 1: you that would be part of the fun ride with
Speaker 1: seeing like the nationally and internationally people getting behind the team.
Speaker 1: It's not gonna happen if you have a guy like
Speaker 1: Deshaun Watson. But then there is the part of you,
Speaker 1: the person that's the sports fan that where your I
Speaker 1: was born into it. I was born into being a
Speaker 1: Jets fan from my dad, Keith. Like now I have
Speaker 1: one of the best quarterbacks in the league. And it's
Speaker 1: just like like we're talking about with Nick Wessling tweeting
Speaker 1: at you yesterday, Like when you are born into it,
Speaker 1: when it's in your blood, it makes something like this
Speaker 1: is even more difficult to process. And that's why I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna stand here on a soapbox and say anybody that, um,
Speaker 1: you know it was gonna still root for the fans
Speaker 1: for the Browns now it is dirt, because I know
Speaker 1: it's not that simple. But it just makes the the
Speaker 1: idea of being a sports fan and a Browns fan
Speaker 1: a much more tricky proposition. And that's and that's the
Speaker 1: bummer of it too, because it is one of the
Speaker 1: great fan pases uh in the league. And one little
Speaker 1: thing like I and I think if if you really
Speaker 1: wanted to have a fair show, you could, you could
Speaker 1: bring a Browns fan on. And I know some inside
Speaker 1: the building that's that choose to still root for the
Speaker 1: team because it's not me espousing. You know, here's my
Speaker 1: take on it, and everyone else is wrong if they
Speaker 1: think otherwise. I genuinely think that there are different people
Speaker 1: that are going to come from different points of view.
Speaker 1: This is mine. Um, it's a complex situation. I can't
Speaker 1: really remember an NFL situation like this. I think also
Speaker 1: because like we're changing, society is changing a little bit.
Speaker 1: I think if this happened in nineteen seventy two, there
Speaker 1: wouldn't really be the same discussion around it that just
Speaker 1: the woulden. And I can't explain you know all that either,
Speaker 1: but um, it is a complex problem to drop on
Speaker 1: this pool list fan base. But also think about Panthers fans,
Speaker 1: Falcons fans, Saints fans, um Seahawks, whoever else that we're
Speaker 1: in on this that failed, and you still walk away
Speaker 1: feeling like, Wow, our our organization showed their true colors,
Speaker 1: and and that creates that same dilemma for those people too.
Speaker 1: Like we we've been talking about why this story is
Speaker 1: difficult this week and everything, and I know some listeners
Speaker 1: are probably sick of that hearing that side of things,
Speaker 1: but it's like, now now is the time to talk
Speaker 1: about it. We're going to talk about football when he's
Speaker 1: playing football. I never was from the vantage point that, like,
Speaker 1: this guy should never play football again. I was from
Speaker 1: the vantage point of nothing's changed since this started. He's
Speaker 1: still the same. The allegations have only grown worse. Um
Speaker 1: they're out there, you can read them. The NFL, I expect,
Speaker 1: will suspend him, um significantly. And and it was just
Speaker 1: all the ways to get to this point, like the
Speaker 1: process of like that, you didn't have to do it
Speaker 1: that way. You didn't have to kind of whitewash everything
Speaker 1: for his agent. You didn't have to be an advertisement
Speaker 1: for David Muggle Muggle Etta, because that's that's sort of
Speaker 1: what this all felt like to me. The most powerful
Speaker 1: agent in the league controlling this as well as humanly possible,
Speaker 1: and and partly like using that as an advertisement of
Speaker 1: how powerful he is in the kind of clients that
Speaker 1: he's going to get in the future, and how far
Speaker 1: out those tentacles go in terms of power inside of
Speaker 1: the media, inside of you know, the front front offices, ownership,
Speaker 1: all of that. Like you didn't you just didn't have
Speaker 1: to like contribute to that. You didn't have to pay
Speaker 1: two forty six guaranteed million dollars, like you didn't have
Speaker 1: to give up three for surround traffics. In the end,
Speaker 1: you did because he did this job. Um, But it
Speaker 1: wasn't like, hey, let's let's get this guy at a discount.
Speaker 1: It's it's like, not only, um, do we not discount
Speaker 1: him for the ways that he essentially was a predator
Speaker 1: for women. Not only were gonna discount I think he
Speaker 1: did better than he would have done a year ago,
Speaker 1: Like we're gonna reward it because we haven't seen him
Speaker 1: in the year going into a suspension and so it's
Speaker 1: all these like little different steps of the process. I
Speaker 1: think that are frustrating because he got rewarded like like
Speaker 1: we're we're sound annoyed about it, but like like women
Speaker 1: in this industry and and us, like I find it
Speaker 1: very it's just it's discouraging because it's like you're working
Speaker 1: in that industry and it's discouraging, and and if you're
Speaker 1: a victim of sexual violence orvice conduct or anything, it's
Speaker 1: like it's just it's so discouraging that ultimately it's like
Speaker 1: no one gives and like I should know that I
Speaker 1: shouldn't have been so naive. There's something about being a
Speaker 1: quarterback in the head of the team. But look at
Speaker 1: what's going on within ownership in our league, like many
Speaker 1: different things over the last few years that have been
Speaker 1: as bad stories and and it's like that that doesn't
Speaker 1: change either. So in part that's like part of my naivete.
Speaker 1: But I remember covering the Ben Roethlisberger story and no
Speaker 1: one wanted him, and in their different stories and you
Speaker 1: can find the differences, but that's not the point to me.
Speaker 1: It's like it's do do you care about something other
Speaker 1: than money and winds or or do you not? And
Speaker 1: the Roethlisberger thing, like the Steelers are ready to trade him,
Speaker 1: like no, like we reported at Pro Football Talk at
Speaker 1: the time, they were putting it out there. I know
Speaker 1: that for a fact no one was going for him
Speaker 1: when that thing was up in the air. This this
Speaker 1: was different because it felt like not only like, are
Speaker 1: aren't the networks talking about the other side of things
Speaker 1: in the fan base and the fracture that you're seeing
Speaker 1: that like you're making Mark Sessler not route for the
Speaker 1: Browns um, but but also that that you just like,
Speaker 1: are gonna go the extra mile to be shameless about
Speaker 1: it and sort of not have any idea. Um. And
Speaker 1: and that's where they left it, like we will talk
Speaker 1: about the football, of course, that's all you know, That's
Speaker 1: all we do is talk about football two or three
Speaker 1: times a week. But like to come back here talk
Speaker 1: about him, it's disappointing. Um. Ultimately, his his reputed Watson's
Speaker 1: reputation is permanently stained. He missed the full season of play,
Speaker 1: and he'll probably miss anywhere between let's say, I don't know,
Speaker 1: four to seventeen more games uh in the upcoming season.
Speaker 1: But other than that, he's got everything he wanted out
Speaker 1: of this. At the end of the day, he wanted
Speaker 1: out of Houston. He got out of Houston, and I
Speaker 1: don't even he wasn't even initially asking to get his
Speaker 1: contract ripped up and turned into the greatest quarterback contract ever.
Speaker 1: But he got that too, And that's that's what's mind
Speaker 1: blowing and so crazy about this. And also I just
Speaker 1: went and checked on Cleveland Brown's Twitter. There's no note,
Speaker 1: there's no mention of this. Just like we talked about yesterday,
Speaker 1: I said I had a hunch that they could try
Speaker 1: to Friday news dump this. I said five o'clock. It
Speaker 1: was four o'clock on a Friday that the Browns pull
Speaker 1: the trigger on the biggest deal in the history of
Speaker 1: the franchise. And they don't even have any announcements online
Speaker 1: right now. I don't know if a press releases out,
Speaker 1: I don't know if it's official yet or whatever. But
Speaker 1: it is notable that that is absolutely what they're trying
Speaker 1: to do here. This is all part of the plan
Speaker 1: that you kind of you to keep this. They know
Speaker 1: they're gonna get killed just and they deserve to be
Speaker 1: killed in a lot of ways here, and they're trying
Speaker 1: to control that and spin it however they can. It's
Speaker 1: just Mark at the end of the day. To me,
Speaker 1: it's just it's surreal. It's just surreal that this now
Speaker 1: comes to the Brown's doorstep and they and they welcomed
Speaker 1: the situation to their doorstep, and they're gambling on the
Speaker 1: short attention span of us all because because even to
Speaker 1: Greg's point, well now is the time to talk about
Speaker 1: the nuance and layers of it. It's gonna fade away
Speaker 1: and we're just gonna wind up um tired of that
Speaker 1: aspect and talking about the football aspect, that that will
Speaker 1: become the normal way with this situation, and that makes sense,
Speaker 1: like where that's not what we're gonna do is talk
Speaker 1: about the outfit like that's why this this was like
Speaker 1: the time to talk about it and watching like I
Speaker 1: just like what or like what did all the extra
Speaker 1: like like being nice to Deshaun Watson's agent get you?
Speaker 1: No one had this story, No one had any of it.
Speaker 1: No one's had any of these stories. Like in fact,
Speaker 1: like every I know you can say like Dan, it
Speaker 1: wasn't wrong and they jumped back in and maybe that's true.
Speaker 1: Maybe that's not because the fire hose of information that's
Speaker 1: been coming out has been basically from one camp and
Speaker 1: you don't know, I don't know what happened in those
Speaker 1: meetings maybe will happen, and those meetings like, we don't
Speaker 1: we don't know how all that happened, but it didn't.
Speaker 1: It didn't get you anything like all of it. What
Speaker 1: would would have happened anyways? All right, Yeah, and you're
Speaker 1: in the college job man. That was a that was
Speaker 1: a truth bomb you sent out on a dart on
Speaker 1: Thursday night. And when you said it, I was like,
Speaker 1: that was pretty good there. Maybe no, I mean it's
Speaker 1: it's I guess we've been doing this long enough where
Speaker 1: you start to you start to see some of those things.
Speaker 1: But even within the realm of having some experience in
Speaker 1: this business, now, the fact that this is it will
Speaker 1: never there will never be one that's at this level
Speaker 1: because a name this big, a transaction this big is
Speaker 1: thorny is. The issue is to pull it the Friday
Speaker 1: News dump onto Shaun Watson is that's an all timer.
Speaker 1: And I will tell you one thing. I don't care
Speaker 1: if Tom Brady in the next sixty minutes is kidnapped
Speaker 1: by like land pirates. We're not doing another We're not
Speaker 1: doing another show this week. This is We're done. This
Speaker 1: is it. You're lucky if you're gonna get me next week.
Speaker 1: In fact, I'm going to Disneyland next week. You'll get
Speaker 1: me maybe Monday, and that's it. Um, And you're right, Mark,
Speaker 1: you are absolutely right. And I'll be cynical here too. Now,
Speaker 1: Yes we are. Everyone's in their feelings about this story.
Speaker 1: In two years, no one's gonna care, and the Browns
Speaker 1: will be an a f C contender and they might
Speaker 1: win a Super Bowl or they might not, but there
Speaker 1: will be people that always bring this up. But I
Speaker 1: just feel like the story, as we talked about it now,
Speaker 1: is going to fade away and the Browns will have
Speaker 1: their finally have their answer at quarterback. And that's why
Speaker 1: they did it ultimately, because they're banking on history repeating itself. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, as as much of a bummer as that
Speaker 1: might be. Here are the trade terms, just to get
Speaker 1: it out there, and then we're gonna we're gonna sign
Speaker 1: off in a couple of minutes, just because we wanted
Speaker 1: to get the reaction in. In fact, we kind of
Speaker 1: wanted to let it simmer a little bit. But we
Speaker 1: had some uh inside the building shadowed with league figures
Speaker 1: saying get it up there, get it up there. And
Speaker 1: you know, it made sense though it was just one
Speaker 1: of those things, you know, right, I was like, I personally,
Speaker 1: just speaking for myself, was in my feelings and in
Speaker 1: the in the immediate feeling, just as related even to
Speaker 1: the show, was like, screw that guy. We're not doing
Speaker 1: anything for that guy. By the way, again, I'm supposed
Speaker 1: to be at a bar by the way watching Matt
Speaker 1: March Madness with my friends drinking beer this son of anyway,
Speaker 1: the trade terms it is three first round picks in
Speaker 1: addition to a rounder and rounder. Um, so the Browns
Speaker 1: mortgage their future entirely obviously here and and and hope
Speaker 1: that Watson will be great enough to cover up the balance.
Speaker 1: And I would think for the whoever the team was
Speaker 1: going to be, including the Browns, I'm not they'll never
Speaker 1: admit this, but I assume, and maybe they know more
Speaker 1: internally these teams than the outside does, that the suspension
Speaker 1: will be beefy. And you combine that with no first
Speaker 1: round pick and any other roster flaws you might have,
Speaker 1: and now maybe some salary cap tightness because of your
Speaker 1: deal you just did, and maybe you're like punting on
Speaker 1: the season and you're looking at the long game here again,
Speaker 1: the long game, it's gonna be a little rough for
Speaker 1: a year or two here when people are upset about this,
Speaker 1: But in the big picture of Browns are going to
Speaker 1: be in a really good place. I wonder if they
Speaker 1: thought about that too, like the prospects. But we see
Speaker 1: a bigger picture here with Watson leading the way for
Speaker 1: a long time. I remember that Mark Sanchez apology contract
Speaker 1: when they went after some other quarterbacks. They went after
Speaker 1: Peyton Man and he felt bad and then they gave
Speaker 1: him the a apology contract. In fact, Dan got in trouble,
Speaker 1: Arthur Blank and give Matt Ryan like an apology corporation,
Speaker 1: like give him home depot or give him an apology
Speaker 1: yacht like your friends, Like that's the thing we we
Speaker 1: We had a show today that got blown up it
Speaker 1: or it stopped in the middle of the show. And
Speaker 1: you mentioned like all the losers in this situation. It's
Speaker 1: like there are other losers in this too, and the
Speaker 1: Falcons are right there at the top of the list. Geez.
Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, the only thing worse than showing your
Speaker 1: butt to get Deshaun Watson is showing your butt and
Speaker 1: then not getting Deshaun Watson. So you know, whatever, man,
Speaker 1: this is the last podcast of the week. Better believe
Speaker 1: it is, Mark, I really yeah, it's going to be
Speaker 1: interesting to see what happens with this our podcast as
Speaker 1: well as I look insular with the Browns. Now it's
Speaker 1: it's man, I don't know, Man, I don't know what's
Speaker 1: going to happen with you. I'm really interested to see
Speaker 1: what happens next, because yeah, you have one of the
Speaker 1: best quarterbacks in the league now, But what people, it's
Speaker 1: crazy Mark, because like, yeah, I was sitting with Keisha
Speaker 1: and I'd like to think we're all close friends, and
Speaker 1: you know, our first reaction, of course, both of our
Speaker 1: first reaction was like, oh poor Mark, and just like
Speaker 1: a little worried, you know, And then I know on
Speaker 1: Twitter it's the it's the same. It's what there is.
Speaker 1: I will say there is. I'm I'm going to explore this.
Speaker 1: But I kind of feel free, Um that's been hanging
Speaker 1: around my next for thirty five plus years, Like this
Speaker 1: kind of feels maybe like what I needed to do.
Speaker 1: So but psychologically it's it's it's a mind bender, Mark,
Speaker 1: because you now are going to be in a situation
Speaker 1: potentially where the Browns rise up as an organization with
Speaker 1: a superstar quarter. I'm just again, like I said earlier,
Speaker 1: I want to make it very clear, there's no soapbox
Speaker 1: here or judging of Browns fans because it was the
Speaker 1: Jets that got Deshaun Watson. It's in my blood. It's
Speaker 1: something I can't escape from, and I don't know how
Speaker 1: I would react to it, uh and and make peace
Speaker 1: with it. You are right now saying you're out, and
Speaker 1: that's because you're a passionate man, and that's part of
Speaker 1: the one of the many reasons we love you. I
Speaker 1: want to see how the next six to eighteen months
Speaker 1: play out, alright, six days to eighteen months play out,
Speaker 1: to see how this really that's fair? And almost said
Speaker 1: one thing, I like, I didn't grow up in Cleveland.
Speaker 1: I can't say it's in my blood. I found them
Speaker 1: on my own growing up on the East Coast, and
Speaker 1: I love having been to Cleveland a bunch of times.
Speaker 1: I love the city. I love Browns fans in general.
Speaker 1: They have been one of the I mean, it's one
Speaker 1: of my best experiences of working at them and has
Speaker 1: been Browns fans, and so I'm not whatever they choose
Speaker 1: to do. I I want happiness for them. But like
Speaker 1: we can go in a different way. All right. We
Speaker 1: have done five podcasts and a television show this week. Well,
Speaker 1: now break and I'm turning off my phone and and
Speaker 1: deleting my work email and no one can touch me
Speaker 1: for the next two days. And oh no, what Power
Speaker 1: Rankings is do on Monday morning. I'm not even thinking
Speaker 1: about that right now. I want everybody have a nice weekend.
Speaker 1: I want everybody enjoy themselves, have a safe weekend, get
Speaker 1: a little loose if you have to process some things,
Speaker 1: and then we'll see you again on Monday with another
Speaker 1: edition of the podcast. I didn't I was a little
Speaker 1: bummed I didn't get a chance to do it on
Speaker 1: Thursday night. But now that we have this uh extra chance,
Speaker 1: I want to bring in Grave Digger, but he knows
Speaker 1: he can't come in unless he does his new intro.
Speaker 1: And we want to thank you justin for awesome work
Speaker 1: all week. You you picked one hell of a week
Speaker 1: to be a full time producer for a t N
Speaker 1: and the shows were great with you leading the way.
Speaker 1: So thank you, good man. I appreciate it. It was
Speaker 1: a fun week alright, good stuff. You know what? You
Speaker 1: know what else we gotta do this weekend? I feel
Speaker 1: it stronger than ever at this moment, we got to
Speaker 1: heed the call. Yeah, Like beautifully said Greg Rosen, thought
Speaker 1: Chris Westling, we wish you were with us right now
Speaker 1: to be discussing this madness. But we'll be thinking about
Speaker 1: you while we spend our time with our families and friends.
Speaker 1: So until Monday, yes, heed the call. S