What would a Steelers fan do?
This commentary was published in the Cleveland Plain Dealer and cleveland.com on Oct. 25, 2024.
By Dennis Robaugh
In the worst of times, in an age of foolishness, in a season of darkness, in what’s certain to soon be a winter of despair — this is a tale of two cities.
On Sunday, Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson — unpopular for his off-field behavior with women, poor play, and an enormous guaranteed contract — fell to the turf in obvious pain after an ankle injury. Doubled over in agony, Watson buried his head in the grass. Players for both the Browns and the Cincinnati Bengals offered their support. Slow-motion replays would show a disturbing ripple in his calf muscle, likely an Achilles tendon rupture. Watson was lifted onto a cart and driven away, in tears.
Some Cleveland fans celebrated this misfortune, booing Watson. Online comment threads lit up with similarly awful sentiment.
Said Browns superstar Myles Garrett after the game: "Ultimately everyone’s human and they’re disappointed just like we are, but we have to be better than that as people. … At the end of the day, it’s just a game and you don’t boo anybody being injured and you don’t celebrate anyone’s downfall.”
Coincidentally, this game marked running back Nick Chubb's return to the field after a devastating knee injury in Pittsburgh last year — one that could have ended his playing days forever.
When Minkah Fitzpatrick destroyed Chubb's knee on impact, how did Pittsburgh Steelers fans react to seeing a game-changing nemesis go down?
Did they celebrate? Did they cheer Chubb’s misfortune?
No. The crowd gasped as the replay appeared on the stadium Jumbotron.
“These fans here in Pittsburgh, so classy,” ESPN game broadcaster Joe Buck said. “They groaned when they saw the replay. When Chubb got on the cart, they were chanting ‘Chubb’ for Nick Chubb, and they gave him a huge ovation as he was carted away.”
Watson’s no Nick Chubb, that’s for sure. But Browns fans should be better than this.
I’ve loved hating on the Steelers my entire life.
But when Art Modell’s Browns played their final game against the Cincinnati Bengals on Dec. 17, 1995 — and angry, grieving fans tore rows of seats out of Municipal Stadium to take them home — I was visiting a friend in the Steel City.
Steelers fans, total strangers, took note of my Browns jacket that day. They went out of their way to tell me how sorry they were for me, our fans, our city — and how unfair, unreal, and wrong it all was.
That’s empathy. That’s class.
I am no fan of Deshaun Watson. Trading away the store to get Watson in 2022 and granting him a $230 million guaranteed contract that reset the QB market for the entire NFL — even as he faced certain suspension and nearly two dozen lawsuits for his disgusting, predatory behavior during massages — will go down in league history as one of the worst mistakes ever made. He never should have worn the orange and brown.
Browns management deserves to be shamed for that.
Watson deserves no ovations, and the world owes him no apologies.
But Garrett and the other players who chastised Browns fans have a point. Neither Watson nor his teammates deserved to hear their hometown crowd gleefully celebrate an injury.
Long-suffering Browns fans who pay their hard-earned dollars to attend games and clad themselves in Browns merch deserve far better than this season’s horrid, unwatchable on-field performance by Watson and the Browns.
Still, our disappointment does not justify such shameful, vulgar behavior.
Do we need Steelers fans, of all people, to be exemplars of decency, empathy, and class?
Dennis Robaugh is a writer and Cleveland native who sacrifices three hours and his sanity every Sunday to watch the Browns play.