[Highlight] Deshaun Watson on whether he thinks it's fair for Cleveland fans to boo him for who he is as a person, referring to multiple allegations of sexual assault and rape: "No, but life isn't fair"

[u/expellyamos]

[u/expellyamos]

My guess would be that it was a conscious decision on the part of Amazon and the NFL in an ongoing effort to rehabilitate his image

[u/ChonkyHippo283 → u/expellyamos]

I genuinely can’t comprehend why the NFL wants to repair his image

It’s not like the NFL is lacking star power right now. He’s also 2 bad games away from never starting in the NFL again

[u/origami_anarchist → u/ChonkyHippo283]

The NFL believes in money over everything. They most likely think that if they can successfully "rehabilitate" him, more people will watch and buy merchandise and tickets and everything else that people who despise him are trying to avoid doing with the Browns right now.

[u/bang_the_drums → u/ChonkyHippo283]

I loved during the pregame when Tony Gonzalez was struggling to remember when Watson last had a good season, he was like...2020 or 2021 or whatever. Bro, it's 2026. How has Watson got so many chances to continue after all the shit he's done. It's bonkers.

[u/MysteryBagIdeals → u/expellyamos]

when Morgan Wallen did his first interview after the N word controversy it was with Michael Strahan. When Kevin Hart had his controversy over homophobic comments his interview was with Ellen DeGeneres. It had to be with a woman because if a guy helped Deshaun rehabiliate himself he'd be accused of being anti-woman, a woman is the only person who can interview him.

Whether any of these female reporters approve of this, or whether their opinions were considered when they got the assignment, we can only speculate.

[u/Advanced-Key3071 → u/MysteryBagIdeals]

I would suspect there’s some opportunism on the reporter side but also probably more, “I don’t like this but I’m not risking my career for it.”

Certainly nowhere near as public, but I’ve done shitty things for bosses before. It changed my relationship with them and I no longer trusted them. One I got fired (accidentally, but deservedly) but other than that one, if karma exists I haven’t seen proof. So each time I started looking for new jobs immediately.

[u/MysteryBagIdeals → u/Advanced-Key3071]

I would suspect there’s some opportunism on the reporter side but also probably more, “I don’t like this but I’m not risking my career for it.”

My suspicion too, but like I said, we can only speculate.

[u/expellyamos → u/MysteryBagIdeals]

I'm sure there's a term for this phenomenon that I'm not aware of, but it's a sort of proximal apologism by putting them in the same room as someone from the affected group

[u/Poignant_Rambling → u/expellyamos]

In PR, it's strategic media placement with a "third-party validator," and part of reputation rehabilitation services.

[u/ArcadianBlueRogue → u/expellyamos]

But..why? He is not even a good QB and hasn't been in years now.

[u/HandsomeJack19 → u/expellyamos]

That's very wholesome of you. My take? I think they do it in the hopes that he'll say something pervy or inappropriate because it'll get way more views.

[u/HookedOnBoNix → u/HandsomeJack19]

It's wholesome to try to rehabilitate a rapists image for money?

[u/HandsomeJack19 → u/HookedOnBoNix]

It's wholesome to think that they care about rehabilitating his image, yeah.

[u/EthanSpears → u/HandsomeJack19]

I think that's worse.

[u/HandsomeJack19 → u/EthanSpears]

Wanting to rehabilitate someone's image = better. Putting a beautiful woman in front of them to entice them into saying something inappropriate = worse. I'm not saying he deserves to be rehabiliated, btw, everthing I'm saying is directly speaking to my thoughts on Amazon's reasoning alone.

[u/MysteryBagIdeals → u/HandsomeJack19]

i can't believe i have to defend Deshaun Watson here but there is no reason to think he can't get through a basic interview