Deadspin Idiot of the Year: Cleveland Browns Fans

It feels like we spent the whole year, or at least a significant portion of it, talking about how terrible the Cleveland Browns fans were. Before her team signed quarterback Deshaun Watson, we could all laugh at her fans as lovable, delusional losers who thought they would reach the top of the mountain with Baker Mayfield. They weren’t as harmless as, say, Chargers fans or Seahawks fans, but then again, they wouldn’t be throw battery-powered snowballs at Santaeither.

Fast forward to 2022 and an abomination of a press conferencein which Browns owner Jimmy Haslam expressed his belief that Watson deserved a “second chance”, although at the time he had not (yet?) accepted any responsibility for it a veritable cornucopia of allegations of sexual assault against him. (HHere’s the part where I legally have to tell you that Watson has denied all allegations against him.) On this day, Haslam gave free rein to his fan base Embracing Watson and all the baggage that came with him and saying pretty much what everyone knew – sure, Watson was accused of some truly despicable conduct. BUT he was also a star quarterback in the National Football League. There’s nothing a professional athlete can’t get away with if they’re good enough.

Here’s where the Browns fans stand today after serving an 11-game suspension imposed by the league:

Oh, and if you, a typical Cleveland Browns fan who doesn’t support sexual assault in any way prepare to hit send on that email and yell “Not all Browns fans!” with us, let’s not fake this virulent Misogyny shots are unique:

There are many fans in these pictures, many fans are laughing, ignoring, and above all, not objecting to what is going on around them. And there are many more examples where these came from. It seems more and more of these images are popping up every week. Even Pittsburgh didn’t lean that hard on Ben Roethlisberger. NFL fans are known for apologizing for a lot of bad behavior from their teams, but “we don’t care if our QB (allegedly) sexually assaulting unsuspecting women” seems like a bit much even for the NFL. But hey, keep up that “No More” ad during the Super Bowl, Rog!

There’s a lot of blame here: The NFL because they’re scared of it suspend one of its stars for an entire season or more, Jimmy Haslam for his naked cynicism in bringing Watson to Cleveland, and the fans for embracing the whole circus. But the fans are the real target of the Idiots of the Year Academy’s wrath, because none of you have to be. you would have and should have fought back against its owner. You could have refused to buy Browns merchandise. They should have, SHOULD have put management in the awkward position of having to explain to fans why they had to be accused of sexual misconduct by more than 30 women on their team. There is literally nothing for you. Looks:

You sold your souls for nothing.