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