In Browns' curious PR handling of Deshaun Watson saga, honesty would be the best policy

This is a column by Morgan Campbell, who writes opinion for CBC Sports. For more information about CBC's Opinion section, please see the FAQ.

The Friday News Dump is a relic from our industry's tree-killing past, when daily papers fed readers a big serving of current events once every 24 hours. That schedule allowed people to leak unsavoury news on a Friday night, when most reporters had finished work for the week, and news consumers tuned out for the weekend. By the time the news cycle restarted, fresh developments would have buried your scandal.

So if you're wondering why the Cleveland Browns waited until after work hours last Friday to announce that they had traded for Deshaun Watson, the quarterback facing 22 lawsuits over alleged sexual misconduct, it was likely a failed attempt to limit backlash.

LeBron James, an Akron, Ohio, native and lifelong Browns fan, loved the deal, as did several other NFL players commenting on Instagram posts announcing the trade.

And, naturally, the move left plenty of football fans disgusted. It's expected when an underachieving club stakes its present and future on a quarterback who spent the 2021 season in limbo, while a growing list of women accused him of non-consensual sexual contact during massage sessions.

We're still waiting for the media meet-and-greet that would normally accompany a transaction of this magnitude, but the Browns and Watson's camp likely figured — correctly — that they'd lose control of messaging in a press conference setting. Reporters would ask about the massages and the lawsuits. Watson could either no-comment and appear shady and stand-offish, or explain what happened with all 22 women and look even worse.

By Monday, the Browns offered their first official statement addressing the controversy around the Watson trade.

"We are acutely aware and highly sympathetic to the highly personal sentiments expressed about this decision," it read, in part. "Our team's comprehensive evaluation process was of utmost importance due to the sensitive nature of this situation and the complex factors involved."

Anybody believe all that?

I'm not even sure the Browns do. It sounds like a hedge against people accusing them of ignoring egregious alleged behaviour to acquire a superstar.

The best spin is the truth

I've spent half my life as a professional journalist, and dealt with every level of public relations functionary, so here's some advice for the Browns, as useful as anything coming from a crisis communications firm, but at none of the cost:

Sometimes the best spin is the truth.

Here we have Watson, also facing criminal charges until earlier this month, when a Houston grand jury declined to indict him. We have the Browns, in urgent need of an upgrade from incumbent quarterback Baker Mayfield. And we have fans who view sport holistically, rightfully concerned about a record-breaking contract — five years, $230 million US, all guaranteed — for a player who, while cleared by a grand jury, certainly hasn't been vindicated.

So why not issue a statement that mirrors the message you send by trading six draft picks — including first-rounders every year until 2024 — to the Texans, while also bumping Watson's salary?

"Watson is, technically, not a criminal, and he's better than Baker Mayfield is. We're desperate to win a Super Bowl before our other superstars get old, and, between now and 2024, Watson gives us the best chance."

Callous? Sure. But callous and honest beats callous and insulting.

If you're the Browns, you hope Watson, who in 2020 led the NFL in passing yards (4,823), yards per attempt (8.9) and yards per completion (12.6), serves the suspension the NFL will probably impose, then makes your team a winner — quickly enough to justify his $46 million annual salary.

But you also want the process to unfold slowly enough for people to forget why trading for Watson made them feel anything from uneasy to disgusted. Treating your audience like it's too dumb to understand that football is a business is a good way to make them angrier with you than they already were.

If the Browns' current strategy seems not to make sense, it's because hardly anything about the Watson saga does.

'Tis the season

March, after all, is pre-draft season, when insiders routinely leak unseemly details about pro hopefuls. Kenny Pickett's hands are too small to play in the NFL, and Laremy Tunsil smoked weed. Trevor Lawrence doesn't have a chip on his shoulder; does he even love football?

None of it predicts how well a player will perform in the NFL, or even whether a team will pick him. But pre-draft scandals, real or fabricated, can crater a player's stock. He'll still land in the NFL, but as a lower draft pick, for less money.

So imagine what would happen to a guy with first-round talent, but 22 accusations of various sexual offences. Watson's massage-table antics certainly qualify as what draft evaluators term "character concerns." What happens to a prospect who spends an entire season on the bench because of it? You think all that drama makes him an even higher draft pick?

Never.

Yet here's Watson, with $230 million guaranteed. The deal tells us how little all this data and anecdote-collecting and background research matter to an NFL team with its mind made up. If you're worried that Colin Kaepernick's pro Black politics make him a locker room distraction, but aren't similarly concerned about Watson's off-the-field behaviour, then, as Randy Savage once told Gene Okerlund, nothing means nothing.

But you know what means something?

Watson's base pay for 2022: just more than $1 million.

If the rest of his deal seems bloated, consider it a premium the Browns are paying to break Watson out of purgatory while running back Nick Chubb and defensive end Myles Garrett are still in their primes. They might also have padded Watson's salary to help him pay the settlements that are almost certainly coming. That's how rich people make problems disappear.

The Browns are confident Watson's legal entanglements will vanish. Their public statement makes clear that they, like an anti-vaxxer, or cryptocurrency evangelist, have done their own research on his alleged misbehaviour.

In these situations, "your own research" might not bring you closer to the truth, but it can help you justify a move you already wanted to make, like trading for a Pro Bowl quarterback who, at 26, might still be improving.

Research should also tell the Browns that acquiring Watson would break their relationship with a large number of fans. From an image and branding standpoint, the damage was done the moment they closed the deal.

After that, the best damage control is honesty about why they did it.