Al Michaels, Kirk Herbstreit gave Deshaun Watson far more benefit of the doubt than he deserves

I appreciate Al Michaels as much as any broadcaster I’ve ever watched, listened to, or covered. And there’s a good reason Kirk Herbstreit has been near or at the top of the college football analyst food chain for decades.

So it was disappointing and surprising to hear them discuss Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson as someone once regarded as a good and generous guy and hinting that he might turn out to be a story of redemption during Amazon Prime’s Patriots-Browns preseason matchup Thursday night.

Watson has settled more than 20 civil lawsuits accusing him of sexual misconduct that were filed by massage therapists in the Houston area, where he began his NFL career. Most of the suits, but not all, were filed in summer 2022. The settlements are confidential. It takes some real effort not to conclude that he is, at best, a creep.

This is of far less significance, obviously, but any suggestions that he’s a man of character should note that just last week, Watson ripped the Browns fanbase for booing him during last weekend’s preseason game. Given that he has a $230 million contract and has been an injury-plagued, incompetent debacle as the Browns QB, he should at least have some idea of where they were coming from.

Yet during Thursday’s broadcast, Michaels and Herbstreit talked up the old and clearly mistaken perception that Watson was a decent guy. It wasn’t a whitewashing of his transgressions, but it sure sounded like it might turn out to be while they were talking.

“When that news broke [about the sexual misconduct accusations], everybody was kind of like, ‘Whoa, what’s going on?’ Everybody was kind of surprised,” said Herbstreit. “I don’t know. I’m a guy that believes that everybody deserves second opportunities, and I know that this has been a disaster. One of the worst trades maybe in the history of the NFL, but he’s still a 30-year-old. And at one point was viewed as one of the top quarterbacks in the league.”

That would be all right if this was Watson’s second opportunity. The more clear-eyed among us might suggest he’s 20 or more opportunities beyond his second.

At least Ryan Fitzpatrick had no interest in buffing Watson’s image or suggesting he could find redemption as a player. On the postgame show, the Harvard quarterback bluntly indicated that Watson, who beat out Shedeur Sanders for the starting job, won’t have the gig for long.

“Once [Watson] fails, Shedeur is going to jump into this thing, and he’s going to be the guy,” said Fitzpatrick. “And this city is going to be behind him.”

Replied Herbstreit, “You think he’ll fail?”

“Yeah. It’s gonna happen,” said Fitzpatrick, matter of factly.

Some analysts never figure it out or are simply too protective of their turf to approach their jobs with such candor and strong opinions. I appreciate that Fitzpatrick is not one of them.

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Every sports media and sports business professor worth their syllabus ought to prioritize studying the Good Good Golf debacle. On multiple levels, the popular YouTube channel and brand just endured one of the most disastrous self-owns in modern sports marketing.

A brief synopsis of Good Good’s whirlwind of stunningly bad decisions and the fallout: Garrett Clark, one of the founders of Good Good, and fellow Good Good content creator Alexis Miestowski were featured in an ad as part of a collaboration with golf equipment brand Callaway. In the ad, for a new driver branded by both companies, Clark sees Miestowski reaching for the club in his golf bag. He charges her, knocks her to the ground, and warns, “Do not touch my new driver.”

The ad purports to be a spoof of the recent massively successful horror movie “Obsession.” I’ve seen that movie twice, and I don’t get what the spoof was supposed to be. He’s obsessed with … his golf club? So he pulls a Terry Tate, Office Linebacker, on a female golfer? Is that it? Even if it was clear, the ad itself is a staggering example of awful judgment, both by Good Good and Callaway.

The fallout has been overwhelming. Callaway has ended its relationship with Good Good while announcing it has made “appropriate internal corrective actions,” presumably regarding those that signed off on the ad. The company also said it will donate $1 million in support of organizations dedicated to preventing domestic violence against women.

On Thursday, Golf Channel spiked its new season of competition show “Big Break,” which was Good Good branded. The same day, Good Good also stepped away from a sponsorship of a PGA Tour event in November.

It’s fair to presume that “stepped away” actually means it was shoved away so hard by the Tour, it’s somewhat surprising Good Good isn’t trying to turn it into their next ad.