It's a poor choice of words for Deshaun to want to be "hands-on" in the Cleveland community.
At his formal introductory press conference this afternoon, flanked by a GM and a coach, he insisted that he had never attacked a woman in his life.
Yesterday, a second grand jury declined to indict the last criminal charge still on the table, and today the new Cleveland quarterback said that he does not plan to settle any of the civil suits. He wants to clear his name. When asked if he was saying that nearly two dozen women were lying, why he used 40 different massage therapists, and what work he was willing to do to rebuild his image, he repeated over and over again that he couldn't get too far.
He is ready to move on, but he may be joined in that sentiment by other people. The GM said that the Browns began looking into the former Texans quarterback five months ago, but denied that they had made a decision on Baker Mayfield's future with the team.
Berry said that the organization spoke to people who had knownWatson throughout different phases of his life and used independent investigative resources within the Harris County and Houston law enforcement to get an unbiased, well-rounded perspective on the allegations.
According to the attorney for the massage therapists, not a single one of the 22 people who sued them were ever contacted. Tony Buzbee, their lawyer, said that no NFL teams reached out to him during the comprehensive evaluation process.
We don't have to keep repeating that the Browns were willing to overlook anything to acquire a top-level quarterback, as it's clear at this point. Berry is sitting five feet away, refusing to answer the question of whether or not they are victims of sexual abuse. They didn't.
Berry replied that he was not going to go into the details of the lawsuits, but Jake Trotter asked for clarification on whether or not the Browns had spoken to any of the women involved.
Trotter was not satisfied.
So if they didn't speak to any of the women, what is the basis for you calling your investigation extensive, given that some of the women haven't given sworn testimony yet? They don't have anything on the record.
Here was Berry's response to that.
“So again, Jake, I’ll refer back to my statement. The independent and unbiased investigators were able to be comprehensive in all the information they were able to bring forth. Some of the information, quite honestly, I understand can’t necessarily be public, but we do feel good about the work that we did. We feel good about the work investigators did for us. We got a comprehensive perspective of all the cases.”
Not the 22 women's perspectives, clearly.
Berry kept repeating the line that the Browns were comfortable and confident in Deshaun as a person.
Let's be real here. The Browns were never going to come to a conclusion that they weren't the right fit for him. Everything else can be swept under the rug because his talent spoke for itself. Berry is sensitive about the nature of the allegations and wants to move on, though he did say that the Browns would cooperate with any NFL investigation.
As for him? He wants to get back to the person he was before the allegations were made.
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