Despite the 22 civil lawsuits that Deshaun Watson faces, the Browns gave him a five-year, fully guaranteed $230 million contract. That has created some grumbling among other teams.
Peter King reported this week that Browns owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam could expect a cold shoulder from the rest of the league at the NFL owners meetings this week.
But the Haslams told the team’s beat writers Tuesday that they have received no negative reaction to Watson’s deal, which guarantees him $80 million more than any other player in NFL history.
“Normal. Yeah, I mean, really good,” Jimmy Haslam said, via Mary Kay Cabot of cleveland.com. “I saw Peter King’s story, and there may be people that don’t want to say something to your face, but we’ve had great interactions with the owners like we always do. So we’ve noticed no difference.”
Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti publicly questioned the deal Tuesday, but it is unknown whether he spoke to his division rival about it.
“Yeah, I haven’t had anybody make any comments positive or negative,” Dee Haslam said.
Jimmy Haslam has talked to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell about Watson, who Goodell said Tuesday will not be placed on the Commissioner Exempt List but could be suspended following a league investigation.
“I think it’s probably appropriate that stays between us, but we’ve had good conversations,” Haslam said of his conversations with Goodell. “He didn’t ask me like, ‘Why did you do this?’ It was more I was asking him about, ‘Well, where are we on the investigation?’”