Deshaun Watson’s first press conference since being named the Browns’ starting quarterback opened with him trying to clean up any lingering bad feelings about his last time in front of the microphone.
Watson was booed during his appearance in Saturday’s home preseason game and said that it was “disrespectful” and personal rather than a reaction to his performance on the field. Watson cited cheering from home fans when he tore his Achilles as an example of that before going on to say that he feels “like I get more love on road games” and that it’s a “mental battle every day” because of the reception he gets at the team’s stadium.
On Monday, Watson said that he’s human and that his comments on Saturday were an emotional response to a situation that didn’t go as he expected it to go.
“I thought I was going to get a different response,” Watson said. “My emotions got the best of me. My comments weren’t intending to go at any of the fans around in the city. There’s been a lot of great fans that have supported me. . . . Things haven’t been going in the right direction that we thought it was. A lot of injuries, a lot of time off and not the best football. I understand the frustration, I understand everything that goes into that and, moving forward, I just want to focus on football.”
That focus will be on what Watson can do as the team’s starter. He said it felt great to learn that he will be in that role and that he hopes to make his next home appearance in Week 3 a more pleasant one.
“I just want to make sure I can give the city something to think about in the first two games and when we come back home, we have something to cheer about and we can celebrate and do what we want to do,” Watson said.
Browns head coach Todd Monken has said multiple times in recent days that he thinks winning will make a lot of the bad feelings around Watson and the team go away. The quarterback now has a chance to prove that’s the case.
