Cleveland Browns third-string quarterback Jameis Winston railed against fans who were heard cheering over a potential season-ending injury to starter Deshaun Watson.
Watson’s non-contact injury – a torn Achilles tendon – came during the second quarter of a game against the Cincinnati Bengals. He was attempting a quarterback draw.
Audio captured during the play in which he went down shows some fans in the home crowd cheering. And Winston wasn’t happy about it. At all.
“I was raised and I was taught to love, no matter the circumstances,” the former Buccaneers quarterback stated. “Especially for people who do right by you.”
“I’m grateful for the chance to have served Deshaun, but I am very upset with the reaction to a man who has had the world against him for the past three years,” he continued. “And he put his body and life on the line for this city every single day.”
Jameis Winston Comes To Defense of Deshaun Watson
Look, I’m not going to condone anybody – anybody – cheering on an injury to any player. It’s a bad look, Cleveland.
But Winston can dispense with the dramatics. Seriously, bro didn’t put his “life on the line” for the city.
But then, these two do share some kinship both on and off the field. They both started strong with their careers in the NFL before quickly fading away.
Deshaun Watson has yet to throw for over 200 yards in a game this season. In a pass-happy and quarterback-friendly league designed to boost the vertical game, that is unfathomable. He has an adjusted QBR of 23.4 as the Browns have sputtered to a 1-6 start.
Winston is so bad that he’s not even the backup to Watson. That distinction goes to Dorian Thompson-Robinson, who came into yesterday’s game and promptly went 11-24 for 82 yards and 2 interceptions.
Winston backs up both of those guys. For now, anyway.
#Browns Jameis Winston on fans cheering Deshaun Watson while he was down on the field with his season-ending torn Achilles pic.twitter.com/RphsiUMxG6
— Mary Kay Cabot (@MaryKayCabot) October 20, 2024
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Taught To Love
As for the shared experiences off the field well, let’s just say Winston shouldn’t be chastising anybody because he was allegedly raised better and “taught to love.”
Winston was accused of sexual assault in 2012 and would later settle out of court without admitting any wrongdoing. In 2018, he was suspended for three games by the league for allegedly groping his Uber driver two years earlier.
A league investigation found that Winston “violated the Personal Conduct Policy by touching the driver in an inappropriate and sexual manner without her consent.”
Deshaun Watson, likewise, has some very serious accusations leveled against him. A lot of them.
A new lawsuit was filed in 2024 alleging an incident of sexual assault from October 2020. This is added to the other numerous allegations of misconduct already had levied against him.
Watson had over 20 lawsuits filed against him by women who accused him of inappropriate behavior. He was suspended in 2022 for 11 games by the NFL.
I get the anger over fans cheering on an injury because let’s face it, they’re only worried about the games, not the player. It’s disgusting. But please spare everybody the ‘he’s a martyr’ shtick.
Who knows, maybe Jameis was just grumpy because he didn’t get to eat enough crab legs that day.
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