Clay Travis: “There are still 22 women that are alleging that they were sexually assaulted by Deshaun Watson. I don’t know what kind of investigation that the Browns did, but the Browns decided to not only trade for Deshaun Watson and give up a lot of draft capital to the Houston Texans, they also made Deshaun Watson the highest-paid player in the history of the NFL, and they structured his contract such that even if he is suspended for the first year there wouldn’t be very much cost to him because he’s not making much money over the course of that first year. I’ve been arguing this for a long time, this ends the argument that the NFL is in any way ‘racist’ against Black quarterbacks because Deshaun Watson got the largest contract in the history of the NFL while 22 different women are accusing him of sexual assault. The NFL doesn’t care about anything except whether or not an owner believes that you make his team more likely to win The Browns determined one significant factor -- that Deshaun Watson's talents exceed his problems, and when talents exceed your problems then you will be employed. Not just in the NFL, but anywhere. If you are getting the largest contract in the history of the NFL with 22 women accusing you of sexual assault, than the message that the NFL is sending is pretty clear: ALL we care about is your talent and nothing else matters. For better or for worse, the NFL is a meritocracy and nothing but your production matters. If Colin Kaepernick had Deshaun Watson’s talents nobody would have cared if he took a knee. The reason why Colin Kaepernick is not in the league is not because he took a knee during the National Anthem, it’s because he took a knee during the National Anthem AND wasn’t talented enough to take a knee during the National Anthem. Deshaun Watson has shown us that if you are talented enough, what you do doesn’t really matter very much at all as long as you make it more likely that a team you’re on is going to win, and that’s the bet that the Browns are making.” (Full Video Above)
Listen to Clay Travis of Outkick the Coverage explain why he thinks Deshaun Watson’s record-breaking contract with the Cleveland Browns shuts down the narrative that the NFL is ‘racist’ against Black quarterbacks.
Earlier this month, Lamar Jackson appeared on LeBron James’ ‘The Shop’ show on YouTube saying that Black quarterbacks still face a bias when it comes to the QB position, proclaiming ‘it’s dying off, but it’s still there. That’s why I need that championship.'
Hall of Fame NFL executive Bill Polian, who was the GM for the Bills during their golden era in the early 90’s, and for the Colts during their Super Bowl season with Peyton Manning, once notably said that Jackson was better off playing wide receiver when Jackson was coming out of the Draft in 2018.
Jackson won the Heisman Trophy at Louisville in 2016 as an electric dual-threat quarterback but finished his career with an underwhelming 57.0% completion percentage that caused many scouts to doubt whether Jackson could have success throwing in the NFL. Jackson was coming off back-to-back 1,500-yard rushing seasons with the Cardinals, adding 39 rushing touchdowns combined in 2016 and 2017.
Despite there being a history of college quarterbacks successfully switching to wide receiver like Julian Edelman, Hines Ward, Antwaan Randle El, Josh Cribbs, and Terrelle Pryor, many felt it was a slight at Jackson since no NFL teams were asking Josh Allen, who also had a questionable completion percentage at Wyoming, to try out at tight end.
Jackson would go on to have a very successful NFL career, winning an MVP in 2019, and having Polian later admit that he was wrong about Jackson.
Despite Jackson’s feelings, Clay thinks the contract of Watson makes it hard to believe there is still a ‘bias’ against Black quarterbacks, considering Watson just received the most guaranteed money in NFL history by a wide margin even though 22 women are accusing him of sexual assault and sexual harassment, saying that NFL teams surely only care about your talent and not your skin color.
Check out the full video above.
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