The owners, players and coaches of the National Football League are a collection of greedy sociopaths, billionaires, multimillionaires wrapped in a cloak of phony morality. The super macho aesthetic of the (mostly) male world is old and easy to find. I just watched “North Dallas Forty” the other week and while the clothes and hairstyles are dated, the basics of players, coaches and owners are not.
This week however, the sleaze factor increased by a function of 100. Long time readers know that I have been very hard on Deshaun Watson, former QB of the Houston Texans who was not indicted by two Grand Juries in Texas, but has been sued in civil court by approximately 24 massage therapists for sexual misconduct. The “ick” factor only increased when the Cleveland Browns signed Watson to a $230 million dollar, fully guaranteed contract even as the lawsuits continued to roll in and the NFL promising a suspension of some amount of time. The contract however, allows for Watson to be paid a minimal amount per game this season (I want to say $20 to $50 thousand per game, so that when the NFL levies its punishment, Watson will lose very little money. (Although, the contract will help other players in the league in that superstars will be requiring fully guaranteed contracts going forward.)
This week, it was reported that 20 of the 24 lawsuits had been settled, meaning that money is saving Watson’s ass, like it has many rich people. Houston attorney Tony Buzbee, who represents all 24 women, said in a statement that once the paperwork is finished on the 20 settlements, “those particular cases will be dismissed.” He added that the terms of the settlements are “confidential.”
However, Buzbee said he plans on taking the four unsettled lawsuits to trial, including the first one that was filed by Ashley Solis, who has previously made her name public. In an interview with HBO’s “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel,” Solis said she felt threatened by Watson after their massage session when he told her that she had a career to protect and “I know you don’t want anyone messing with it just like I don’t want anyone messing with mine.”
Watson still faces discipline from the league, which conducted its own investigation into the 26-year-old’s behavior and is expected to make a decision before the Browns open training camp on July 27. NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said the agreements have “no impact on the collectively bargained disciplinary process.” Another league official told the AP “settling doesn’t give someone a pass” and indicated a lengthy suspension remains in order. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation hasn’t concluded.
However, Watson may not be the man in the most trouble this week. Washington Commanders owner Daniel Snyder may be the most hated owner in football. Stubborn not to get rid of the offensive “Redskins” for years, putting sub-par teams on the field, and generally being a conceited ass, are just some of Snyder’s issues. For the past several years, the Washington Football Team (which should have remained the name instead of the “Commanders”) has been the subject of 2009 sexual misconduct allegations against Snyder which weren’t originally reported until 2020.
A culture of sexual harassment at all levels of the team’s organization including acts by Snyder has been alleged, leading to an investigation by the NFL, law enforcement and eventually the House Committee on Oversight and Reform in Congress. Snyder had been called to appear before Congress yesterday, but the team reported that Snyder was “out of the country on team business”(although it i=has been said he spent the day on a yacht in Europe).
With Snyder a no show, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell testified before the committee via Zoom about the league’s internal investigation into workplace misconduct within the Commanders. The Commissioner testified to the toxic, inappropriate, and unacceptable culture amongst the team at all levels as Snyder himself “glorified drinking and womanizing.” The league imposed a $10 million fine on the team as well as requiring improved accountability and HR staffing and procedures. However, Goodell said that he has no power to remove Snyder or force him to sell (although perhaps NBA Commissioner Adam Silver‘s ruling to remove Donald Sterling from ownership of the L.A. Clippers may provide a precedent).
Twice now, Snyder has declined to appear before the committee, but this time, the Committee released a 29-page memo detailing the evidence it found against Snyder. That included an allegation that Snyder tried to discredit former team employees, their attorneys and journalists with a “shadow investigation.” Snyder allegedly hired private investigators and lawyers to find inappropriate emails and evidence, per the memo, to send to the NFL and attorney Beth Wilkinson during the league’s investigation. This included sending investigators to the homes of former cheerleaders to gather emails from former Commanders president Bruce Allen and blame Allen for the toxic environment within the team.
Lawyers for Mr. Snyder used their shadow investigation to create a 100-slide dossier with emails, text messages, telephone records, and social media posts from journalists, victims, and witnesses who had made credible public accusations of harassment against the Commanders,” according to Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.), the author of the memo.
The memo featured a significant amount of damning allegations against Snyder, including testimony from former employees that said Snyder played a role in covering up allegations of workplace misconduct while they were happening as well as during the NFL’s investigation. The report also concluded that Snyder used fear tactics to stop employees from speaking out against the toxic workplace environment.
Along with the millions paid to the NFL, Snyder reportedly paid $1.6 million to settle with the accusers. Snyder also faces allegations of fraud by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, but now Rep. Maloney said that she plans to issue Snyder a subpoena that would compel him to testify. “Mr. Snyder has not been held accountable. His refusal not to testify sends a clear message that he is more concerned about protecting himself than coming clean with the American people. If the NFL is unwilling or unwilling to hold Mr. Snyder accountable, then I am prepared to do so,” chairwoman Malone said. That is why I am an announcing now my intent to issue a subpoena for the testimony of Mr. Snyder for a deposition next week. The committee will not be deterred in its investigation to uncover the truth of workplace misconduct at the Washington Commanders.”
The NFL has many issues that threaten the sport’s livelihood if not existence: CTE, the impact of legal gambling and deals made with sports betting casinos and online books, corruption in the league and owners’ offices. There has always been the issues between men and women, players and owners taking advantage of and often abusing women and spouses. The NFL’s shield often appears to be made of Teflon so that none of these issues stick to the multibillion-dollar per year enterprise, but will the overwhelming number of black eyes give the league a concussion?

The NFL has done an excellent job in sweeping the Deshaun Watson situation from the front pages. In case you’ve forgotten, Watson was accused by 22 massage parlor women of forcing them into sex and sexual acts. The NFL suspended Watson and he did not play one game for the Houston Texans last season. Two Grand Juries failed to indict Watson for breaking the law, but there were still 22 lawsuits out there, and the women have retained the same attorney, making for a do-it-yourself class action.
Watson was traded to the Cleveland Browns, given a $250 million, fully guaranteed contract (which pays him nearly nothing per game for next season, so if the NFL suspends him for X number of games, he will lose a very small amount of money). The Browns Owners – Jimmy and wife Dee Haslam signed Watson to the contract, defending the move the day of the trade that the team did “significant due diligence” before the trade.
This week, two more women joined the litigation, but more damming was an excellent article by Jenny Vrentas of the New York Times. The article showed that what we know was just the tip of the iceberg. Watson says that he hired 40 different therapists during his five seasons in Houston, but the Times found that there were 66 different women hired in just a 17-month period. Many of them did not wish to sue, and one reportedly asked him – what’s it like to be a celebrity? You are going to mess up your career doing this.
One of the women interviewed stated that when she threatened to go public, Watson gave her a nondisclosure agreement provided by the Texans, which leads to the old Watergate question – what did the Texans know and when did they know it? Houston is a major city, no question, but in many ways, many southern cities are like small towns in terms of having lots of gossip around town. Were the Texans aware of what was going on? (Some of the attacks reportedly occurred on Texans’ property.) We all know that in football, talent outweighs questionable conduct. There’s other issues here – first, is Deshaun Watson a sex offender? I think that we can all agree that he has a real problem, and what does it say that many of the massage therapists are Asian women? On top of that the Haslams were not the most popular people at the recent owners’ meeting because by giving Watson a fully guaranteed deal, has now opened the floodgates to that demand from other superstars.
Personally, I believe that if true (and there’s too many different victims to say that they are all lying) Watson should not be allowed to play another minute in the NFL. If true, he should be charged and tried for criminal behavior; I don’t care how football players can damn near get away with murder in Texas – these are crimes. The Haslams and every Texans owner or front office person who knew what was going on and even abetted Watson’s behavior should also be run out of the game and perhaps prosecuted as accomplices.
I am an old-fashioned person – I was raised hoping for every despicable, heinous crime was not done by a Black person. It was embarrassing. And Deshaun Watson is a true tragedy – a talented kid, a once in a lifetime talent, who could have done many great things on the field and off the field. Instead, he could not control his libido and treated women like prostitutes or worse.

Long time readers know that have no interest in golf, so, I’ve not really commented on the apparent golf civil war between the established PGA and the LIV Tour which is backed by Saudi Arabian oil billions. in oil money. I did not have much to say when Phil Mickelson’s first joining LIV while admitting that there is a cloud over the Tour as a result of the murder of Jamal Khashossi and many other human rights violations. Mickelson was shouted into silence and self-inflicted exile, then returning to LIV and interviews.
This weekend, the LIV has it’s first event in London, and Mickelson is back being interviewed, Major champions Bryson DeChambeau and Patrick Reed have joined, along with Dustin Jonson and Sergio Garcia. Since the PGA did not grant players an exception to play in London this week, several have resigned their memberships in the PGA.
Interest in golf is down; fewer young people are playing. It’s expensive; time consuming, seen as something for Dads and old men. Maybe a rival league will bring interest to the sport, maybe not. None of the LIV tournaments are in Saudi Arabia, I believe, so the tournaments will be played in the U.S. and Europe. Plus, it is hard to criticize golfers for doing business with a horrendous regime when the United States and other Western governments do business with them. The tour is the latest effort by Saudi Arabia reposition itself as a backer of lavish sports events rather than one associated with human rights abuses, which rights groups call ‘sportswashing.’
For the players, this is easy – huge, guaranteed money to play golf, compared to less money for playing in tournaments because the PGA as a nonprofit, cannot sign golfers to contracts. The biggest way that the PGA could keep golfers in line are the Majors, but as it turns out, the Masters, British Open and The Open Championship are all “invitation only” (I cannot say if the fourth major, the PGA Championship could keep them out because the PGA sponsors that tournament. If the players can make millions of guaranteed money and still play the Majors, there is absolutely no downside.
However, I ordinarily wouldn’t write about this, but there was a comment that one of the new LIV pros stated that I think was disingenuous at best, pure BS at worst.
In a press conference earlier this week, Northern Ireland’s Graeme McDowell accepts it is “incredibly polarizing” to join the Saudi-funded golf tour while trying to avoid discussing the specifics of the country he is effectively working for. He went on – “I really feel like golf is a force of good in the world — I just try to be a great role model to kids,” he said. “We are not politicians. I know you guys hate that expression, but we are really not, unfortunately. We are professional golfers. If Saudi Arabia wanted to use the game of golf as a way for them to get to where they want to be and they have the resources to accelerate that experience, I think we are proud to help them on that journey using the game of golf and the abilities that we have to help grow the sport and take them to where they want to be.”
The reporters jumped on the inconsistency. McDowell was asked, how is that journey helping women who are oppressed in Saudi Arabia, the LGBTQ individuals whose rights to live freely are criminalized, the migrant workers whose rights are violated, the victims of the Saudi-led bombing of Yemen, or the 81 men who were executed by the kingdom in March? “I wish I had the ability to be able to have that conversation with you,” McDowell said. “As golfers, if we tried to cure geopolitical situations in every country in the world that we play golf in, we wouldn’t play a lot of golf. It’s a really hard question to answer. We’re just here to focus on the golf and kind of what it does globally for the role models that these guys are.”
The point that I am making is the very first sentence quoted – “golf is a force for good in the world.” Is it? Only in recent years have country clubs opened their memberships to Jews, Blacks, women, and other minorities. I scoured the Internet looking for a number of “exclusive” clubs, but they still exist. Five in South Florida alone. How can something be a force of good in the world and discriminate?
More, Tiger Woods has been the biggest star in the sport, drawing lots of people of color to begin playing the game. Yet the tournaments I flash by on the TV headed to something much more interesting are mostly played by white men. Tiger’s first major win was at the 1997 Masters, 25 years ago. Yet, why are there no great POC players on the links?
Maybe that’s the reason I have always been ambivalent toward the game? Maybe because I don’t want to wake up in the dark to go and hit a white ball and walk after it? Perhaps I don’t need an excuse to drink – I’ll just go to a bar.

Tonight will be the final broadcast in the 39-year, Hockey Hall of Fame career of Blackhawk announcer Pat Foley. It’s going to be an emotional night, the only reason to watch the listless, playoff eliminated Blackhawks against the also eliminated San Jose Sharks. I will be watching for the legend and all of the festivities.
It is somehow fitting how this final chapter has played out for the most honest broadcaster in town. Foley has gotten into trouble several times for things he said on air, most problematic being criticism of the team, especially during the team’s darkest times, the 1980s and early 1990s when Owner Bill Wirtz and his toady GM Bill Pulford put a lackluster team on the ice but still demanded big money for the “privilege” of watching these guys. Foley called the players out for substandard effort and the front office for not building a winner. When Foley’s contract expired in 2006, he was not retained.. Foley went over to broadcasting the Wolves AHL team, but when Bill Wirtz died and Rocky Wirtz took over, his hiring of Cub executive John McDonough was contingent on being able to rehire Foley. Since 2008, Foley has been on the air again.
I admit that this is a little more bittersweet than ever because it still doesn’t seem to me that Foley wanted to quit. Again, his contract was up, and Foley admitted that travel no longer appealed to him, which says to me that he offered to do home games, or at least some home games. Suddenly the team announced (not Foley) that this would be his final year on the air. It seems to me that the Blackhawks and NBC Chicago just can’t get past being cheap.
Still, Foley, the gentleman gives credit to the Wirtz’s. “Some people want to compliment me on telling it like it is,” he said in an interview with the Chicago Tribune. “But Bill, Michael and Rocky Wirtz were the reason I could do that. They didn’t mind hearing the truth. I asked Rocky recently, ‘What’s the maddest you’ve ever been at me?’ He said he didn’t have anything. Of course, they were winning when I came back. I did it and would’ve done it anyway, but remember, I was allowed to speak my mind. All it means is that I would’ve been fired sooner (without ownership’s support).”
A personal aside – I knew Pat, WAY back when I was an Andy Frain Chief Usher. The Andy Frain supervisors of the ballparks would let Pat into baseball games on both sides of town, and then send him down to see me in the old Golden Boxes at old Comiskey Park or the club boxes at Wrigley. He was as unassuming and friendly as he is on air. I used to tease him that in return for the seats, he would have to get a ticket to “Winnnnepppeg” I said in an imitation of his famously drawn out words. He would come back that the loser got two tickets to “Winnnnepppeg.” A few years ago, when he returned to the Hawks, I spoke with the late Chet Coppock, asking him to contact Foley to congratulate him on being voted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. Chet said that Foley thanked me, but would not accept my contact information because he is very private.
The rest of the season will be announced by Chris Vosters, Foley’s successor, not a bad announcer but about as distinctive as a slice of Wonder Bread. Of course, we will still have Eddie Olyczyk, who I have never liked as a broadcaster (too many “tips” to young hockey players in an attempt to be an NHL Coach someday), but it will definitely not be the same.
So, I wish Pat Foley nothing but the best. He deserves it because he is a decent man who became the soundtrack of hockey in Chicago for those who aren’t old enough to remember the great Lloyd Pettit. How many of us realize that we will have had the honor of listening to a legend? I had the honr of knowing him a little bit.
Bye Pat – don’t be a stranger.

The very rich obviously believe themselves to be better than normal people. Whether they actually built the base of their riches, lucked onto them, or inherited them, they are, to themselves, obviously the chosen ones. Their opinions should be sought and followed as their needs are catered to beyond the wealthy of any other time in human history. Against this wealth and power and all of the rules stacked against us, one might think that we might as well quit now, or become toadies like politicians and business people around the world.
There is one glimmer of hope though – nothing causes carelessness more than hubris, and often, it seems that each successive generation of the rich are more pampered and fail to ever think for themselves, and thus, stupider than the previous generation.
The other day I wrote about the greed and stupidity of Daniel Snyder, owner of the Washington Commanders, but his parents weren’t especially rich, although he did attend private schools. In the earlier article I mentioned the ridiculous tirade performed by Rocky Wirtz, the owner of the Chicago Blackhawks whose grandfather bought the team and father inherited before Rocky. It was only a couple of days before another spoiled rich kid would insert his foot into his mouth.
This week is the annual rite of spring and nearly national holiday called Opening Day, which means that all of the owners of the Major League Baseball suddenly come out from their homes and yachts to suddenly take the spotlight. The oldest baseball franchise and historically the first to open the season are the Cincinnati Reds, and the team’s President and COO Phil Castellini needed to express his opinions publicly before the first pitch. The Reds sold off most of their best players over the past year and along with the owners’ lockout of the players which shortened spring training and delayed the start of the season by a week, are about as popular in Cincinnati as L.A. Rams fans showing up at a Bengals game.
Castellini, son of Reds owner Bob Castellini, was asked in a pregame 700-WLW radio interview about why fans should remain loyal after the organization lowered player payroll during the offseason. The Reds haven’t won a playoff series since 1995 and have only five winning seasons since Castellini’s ownership group bought the team in 2006. He opened his mouth and said, “Well, where are you going to go? Sell the team to who? That’s the other thing: You want to have this debate? …. What would you do with this team to have it more profitable, make more money, compete more in the current economic system that this game exist? It would be to pick it up and move it somewhere else. Be careful what you ask for.”
The backlash was quick and furious. Sports writers and broadcasters in every US market including ESPN jumped in to say that this was an incredibly stupid statement, especially since Reds fans are among the more passionate and loyal. By Tuesday night, the younger Castellini issued an apology: “I apologize to Reds fans and regret the comments that I made earlier today. We love this city, we love this team, and we love our fans. I understand how our fans feel and I am sorry.”
Sports owners walk a very fine line, having to make business decisions that are public to every sports fan, reader and sports radio listener. Most owners bought their teams to 1) play real life fantasy sports, and 2) become famous so that they get their names and likenesses in the paper regularly. What many don’t understand is, that while they “own” the team financially, they have a unwritten bond with the fans, who “own” the team through buying tickets and jerseys and parking and food. As much as the owners want to ignore the fans, it is the fans’ money that run the team, that pay the players and front offices. Some owners, not many, are beloved by their fan base (only ones I can think of are the Rooneys who own the Steelers in Pittsburgh). The others can find their popularity fluctuate like a feather in a tornado (like Rocky Wirtz – loved during the Stanley Cup Championships, now a pariah) or just outright hated like Snyder. Owners believe that they are invulnerable – they can’t be forced to sell, and like the younger Castellini said, untouchable by the fans. Except owners have been forced to sell (Donald Sterling and the Los Angeles Clippers, and perhaps Snyder soon), or have been blacklisted by the fans and more importantly taxpayers who they want new stadiums from. I think of the old Minnesota North Stars, whose owner Norm Green failed to convince politicians to give him a new stadium. At first, he wanted to move to Anaheim, but Disney had already agreed with the league to create the Mighty Ducks. Green moved the team to Dallas, where they remain, but the moving trucks hadn’t made it to Texas before the hockey mad Minnesotans had begun funding a new stadium and petitioning the NHL for a team. The Wild have been there ever since.
Can baseball punish the Castellinis? Not much even though baseball suspended former Reds’ owner Marge Schott. Maybe Daddy will step in and either take over, or order his son to keep his mouth shut and stay away from public appearances, especially to the ballpark. Maybe fans will organize and stay away? Refuse to give the team any money, like Blackhawk fans did back in the 1990s? It wasn’t until “Dollar” Bill Wirtz died and Rocky took over that old, stubborn policies ended and the team started winning. Can the Reds do this? Will they? Will it matter to a pissed off fan base?

There is more often no love between professional sports owners and the fans; and they already are disliked by the players who are often at odds with them over collective bargaining agreements. Owners try to conduct civic blackmail for new stadiums and tax cuts, charge huge amounts of money for tickets, parking, personal seat licenses, not to mention food and drinks. And they often make bad decisions about their teams, GMs, managers.
Just this year, we’ve had the owners of the Cleveland Browns Jimmy and Dee Haslam defending the gigantic trade they made to get troubled quarterback Deshaun Watson from Texas, saying that they did an extensive investigation on the allegations that Watson committed sexual assault against 22 massage parlor workers. None of the workers nor their lawyer have been interviewed. So far, there have been no criminal charges sticking, being denied by two Texas Grand Juries, but civil trials await the QB along with a probable NFL suspension. All the while, he has pocketing a guaranteed $250 million contract that pays him $54,000 per game this upcoming season so he will only lose that amount per game if he’s suspended.
Jump cut to Blackhawks owner Rocky Wirtz, who at a press conference scheduled to address changes in the team’s culture and controls angrily refused to answer any questions about the response to the sexual abuse and cover-up performed by a video coach. The event wasn’t questioned, just want changes had been made in controls so it wouldn’t happen again. Of course, Wirtz’s dad “Dollar” Bill was hated by most of the fan base for his money pinching ways. Just in Chicago, we have an ownership who may be to the right of 1963 George Wallace (Cubs), an ownership family that has mismanaged its team for decades and who are more concerned about building a new stadium in Arlington Heights than building a winner (Bears). Only the owner of the Bulls and White Sox is not held in contempt at this time (although many people will never forgive him for holding Illinois hostage to build U.S. Cellular/Guaranteed Rate field).
As bad as a group that includes Jerry Jones, the Griffiths of the Twins, the late George Steinbrenner, it is possible that the owner of the Washington Commanders Daniel Snyder. Already, Snyder fought for many years pressure to change the old politically incorrect Redskins, before changing the nickname to something cool (“Washington Football Team”) then something stupid (“the Commanders”). The PR debacle is a drop in the bucket compared to the fact that the team has been under investigation for condoning sexual harassment of cheerleaders and other women. Snyder himself has been implicated in sexual impropriety. Now, he now has Congress and perhaps the other owners hating him too.
The Washington Post is reporting that the U.S. House Oversight Committee has sent a 20-page letter to the Federal Trade Commission saying Snyder and the Commanders “may have engaged in troubling, long-running, and potentially unlawful pattern of financial conduct.” The allegations state Snyder and the NFL’s D.C. franchise underreported ticket revenue from the NFL, which means that he is cheating the other owners of their share of revenues from home games. They also state Snyder and the Commanders had two sets of books, one of which was used to underreport ticket revenue. Fans have been cheated too. The letter states that as much as $5 million in “refundable deposits from season ticket holders” was also potentially withheld.
Snyder, like the other owners are fabulously wealthy. Yet, it is no surprise to me that he is ripping off the season ticket holders. We fans are the sheep to be fleeced of our money. It does surprise me that he is willing to screw his fellow owners. In the socialistic world at the top of the NFL, all of the money is split between the teams – TV revenue all the way down to tickets, and we’re talking about billions of dollars. The Tribune Company Cubs got in similar trouble when the team set up a ticket brokerage to scalp their own tickets. Like Snyder, this revenue was off the books, not shared with opposing teams.
Considering the fact that it has been contemplated that the NFL might force Snyder out in Washington as a result of the sexual allegations if proven. That Congress was brought in to investigate Snyder’s finances because his team is in the Nation’s Capital, is another embarrassment to the league. The one thing the owners do not want is investigations into their books (except of course for the publicly held Packers). Now, he’s cheating the other owners out of revenue, and the owners are a vicious bunch. While the NFL has never forced an ownership change, the Los Angeles Clippers being taken away from the repulsive Donald Sterling sets a precedent.
All sports fans think that the owners of their local team(s) are the worst, cheapest, most deplorable people on earth, Dan Snyder may have them all beat.

Sorry for not posting more frequently – lots of work and stuff happening.
For the past few weeks, I have wanted to post something about Deshaun Watson. Officials in Houston announced that Watson would not be subject to criminal charges despite the 22 civil lawsuits filed against him by women who work in massage parlors being shown his private parts. As soon as it was announced that Watson wouldn’t be going to jail (at this point anyway), the bidding began. The Buccaneers, Falcons, Panthers and Saints were all inquiring as to Watson’s availability. This offseason will likely be known as the Time of The Quarterback shuffle. Rodgers staying put; Russell Wilson taking his show on the road to Denver, the musical chairs of starting QBs has been dizzying.
Finally, over the weekend came the news that Watson would be traded to the Cleveland Browns for the whopping hail to the Texans of first round draft picks in 2022, 2023 and 2024 along with a 2023 third round pick and 2022 and 2024 fourth rounders. Of course, the Texans are in full rebuilding mode and have been since they traded all of their other major stars. Of course, the team has been so mismanaged for so long, one has to say that just because you have picks mean that you do good things with them (see Akili Smith, Ryan Leaf and other majestic busts).
What is truly dishonorable about this is the behavior of the Browns. Of course, they traded for a player who is likely to face some suspension from the NFL in the coming season. So what do they do? Sign him to a $230 million contract ALL GUARANTEED, and the biggest travesty is that in the first year, he gets paid $57,000 per game, which means that if he is suspended, that is all he will lose. On a football note, the ripples went out – the first loser is Baker Mayfield, who officially knew that he is not the man in Cleveland. Atlanta being in the mix said it all to it’s long time QB Matt Ryan, who wanted out and will now play in Indianapolis.
Of course, this is not the biggest message sent by the Browns. This is an affront to every woman and anyone who knows that the odds of people who actually get jail time for sexual assault is so miniscule to be nonexistent. Worse is that most of the teams would have done the same thing. Winning which begets money is the only important thing (meanwhile Colin Kaepernick can’t even get a tryout). What message does this send? The message that women should not be believed since men accused of sexual misconduct mostly get off with little or no penalties. In today’s America, foreign women are held in even less esteem. The women are reportedly mainly Asian, another marginalized group of people.
The owners show themselves to be completely tone deaf to public opinion. Once the trade was finalized on Sunday, Owner Jimmy Haslam released a statement so unbelievable that he obviously thinks that the whole world is stupid. First, the statement says that they did extensive research into the civil suits. Hard to say that there’s much of an study being done when none of the women or their attorney were interviewed. The statement said “(w)e (Haslam and his wife Dee) are acutely aware and empathetic to the highly personal sentiments expressed about this decision.” Empathetic? Is the fact that the Browns have never been to a Super Bowl have something to do with it?
This whole incident is another black eye to the NFL and smells like a polluted river at low tide. Anyone and everyone who participated in this whole sad, sick, cynical incident should be ashamed of themselves. It makes this NFL fan feel like he needs a shower; one that lasts for weeks to get rid of the stench.