CLEVELAND — Cleveland Browns fans are no strangers to booing our own team, and the Browns are no strangers to deserving it. When you’re as consistently bad as this team has been since 1999, booing might be considered tacky, but it’s far from irrational.
We booed the likes of Charlie Frye, Derrick Anderson and Deshone Kizer, and they all deserved it. Those were well-earned boos and I stand behind them.
We booed Tim Couch even though he didn’t deserve it. It wasn’t fair, but it was understandable. Those were boos of frustration aimed more at Art Modell and the NFL for stealing our competent team and replacing it with the Pet Cemetery Zombie husk of a team that returned with the same name.
But the boos yesterday felt a little different than usual, because it felt like some of them were aimed at ourselves.
As Browns fans, we’re used to supporting an incompetent team. But there was always a cleanness to it. We stunk, but we had the moral high ground. We were the lovable losers who deserved better, but couldn’t catch a break.
But when ownership made the controversial Deshaun Watson deal, it came to represent all of us, whether we liked it or not.
As you may recall, when the team committed to Watson long-term, in spite of a bevy of assault allegations, the fanbase was not universally ecstatic.
Some fans were totally unbothered. They stayed. For some, it was a bridge too far, and they left.
And then some fans, like myself, were none too pleased, but stopped short of renouncing the football team that they’d supported since childhood and pressed ahead in spite of any nagging moral reservations.
After all, we told ourselves, the NFL is full of problematic characters and no team is full of angels, right?
Of course the fact that Watson was a three-time Pro Bowler didn’t hurt either. So, we came to terms with the deal and looked forward to being rewarded for our indulgence by the sort of consistent success that tends to alleviate any pesky second-guessing that inevitably follows difficult ethical decisions.
And that’s what makes this whole situation so uniquely tragic. Where is the payoff for our moral compromise?
Well, it makes me think of Robert Johnson. He's recognized as a master of the Delta blues and one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century. According to legend, Johnson met the Devil himself at a crossroads, and in exchange for his soul, he was granted mastery of the guitar.
It’s one of the best known examples of what is known as a “Faustian bargain,” or a pact whereby a person trades something of moral importance, for some worldly or material benefit.
Faustian bargains are by nature ultimately tragic and self-defeating, because that which is surrendered is ultimately far more valuable than what is obtained.
And that’s what makes this Browns situation particularly tragic: It’s not just that we made a Faustian bargain, it’s that the Devil isn’t even holding up his end of the deal.
We’re not just booing because the team played poorly, we’re booing because when Robert Johnson made his unsavory bargain he at least got to enjoy some amazing music as a result.
So, as Browns fans, where is the temporary reward we are due in exchange for the moral compromise we made? Because until we see it, I’d wager that we’re in store to hear a lot more booing this season, on the field and in our minds.
But hey, it’s just one game folks. And after yesterday, the music can’t much worse. Stay up, gang. And go Browns.