Deshaun Watson’s reputation is toxic. But do Browns fans care?

The Cleveland Browns don’t make it very easy for their fans, do they?

Their most recent championship came in 1964, and they are one of four NFL teams to have never appeared in a Super Bowl. There were no Browns at all for three seasons in the 1990s, between the time then-owner Art Modell moved them to Baltimore and the NFL gave Cleveland a new team. They have won one playoff game since 1 January 1995.

“Being a Browns fan is usually not by choice,” says Robyn Lockner, who started the Cleveland Browns Women’s Group in January 2019. “We have endured it all as Browns fans.”

Now they have a new quarterback in Deshaun Watson, who on talent alone would be easy to get behind. But many believe cheering for him is far more complicated, even questionable. Watson was suspended last week for 11 games and fined $5m in a settlement with the NFL, which investigated sexual misconduct claims against him by more than two dozen women.

Grand juries in two counties in Texas, where Watson played for the Houston Texans, declined to file criminal charges. Watson has settled 23 of 24 civil lawsuits against him, which accused him of coercive and lewd sexual behavior during massage appointments. “I continue to stand on my innocence,” Watson said Thursday, which raises questions for some critics about the NFL’s assertion that he “has committed to doing the hard work on himself that is necessary for his return.”

So: Does Cleveland cheer for him – or even for the Browns? The Browns acquired Watson in March knowing about Watson’s alleged behavior, then handed him a five-year, back-loaded $230m guaranteed contract. Without question, he is a talented quarterback. But many are understandably wary of cheering for him.

“It’s very real that the Watson