by According to Bankrate, the average cost of an NFL ticket is a whopping $457. Drinks and snacks could easily set you back another $100. And there’s really no limit to how much you can spend on merchandise.
Paying off these financial and emotional investments can come in waves of euphoria after the home team wins. Your devotion and money can produce fond memories of tailgates and game day parties. for some it may be linked to certain festivities, with traditions steeped in respect for an ancient religion.
But what is the price when you continue to take into consideration a player – or a team – embroiled in ugliness and controversy? What happens when there is a stark juxtaposition between a love of the game and a loathing of an individual’s actions?
While not the first to do so, many Cleveland Browns fans have mastered the art of self-delusion when it comes to their new quarterback, Deshaun Watson. They have willingly allowed themselves to be enlightened by ignorance for the sake of the game.
Well, there was no conviction, so we can’t really know what happened.
I don’t praise the player, I praise the team!
Everyone deserves a second chance.
At first glance, comments like these may seem diplomatic, or perhaps even salutary.
But just beneath the surface lurks a much darker truth: undoing the harm fosters a world in which those evils will multiply.
The willful ignorance of Browns fans ignoring Deshaun Watson’s actions is seeding a culture shift where one man is given the benefit of the doubt over dozens of women.
This is dangerous for many reasons.
Sue L. Robinson, a former US District Judge who serves as a disciplinary officer for the NFL, previously highlighted the NFL’s finding that Watson “used his status as an NFL player as a pretext to engage in a premeditated scheme of predatory behavior toward multiple women” and found that the league had demonstrated “Mr. Watson has engaged in sexual acts such as assault (as defined by the NFL).”
So I ask, after his findings and the cooperation of Watson’s victims with NFL detectives and Houston police detectives, how is his career now being restored after his miniscule punishment?
Watson has maintained his stance of being innocent throughout this saga. So how can she find redemption if he hasn’t asked for forgiveness? The answer is simple: he can’t, nor does he deserve another chance.
It shouldn’t have allowed him to continue his career, but the precedent was set that talent trumps abuse.
When I was asked to watch Watson return on December 4, I was furious. The constant humiliation, despair and anger of knowing I lost my career to him are my constant companions.
I have not only lost my livelihood; I also suffer from crippling social anxiety. If a stranger attacked me, how can I trust anyone? I can not.
How could I bear to see my abuser return to his life of glory, the same life that enveloped him in immunity for his actions?
I wake up every day wondering what I want out of this life and I try to tell myself that I have value as a person. I seek hope and reasons to survive. Many days, they fall short of these basic comforts.
How can my life have meaning when masses of people keep supporting the return of a talented monster? To say I have lost faith in humanity would be an understatement.
At what point do we stop separating the player from the sport?
It has to be where it harms others. If not, we intentionally displace cultural expectations that dangerous men can live without consequence and their victims simply have to suffer and disappear.
