Deshaun Watson and the Cleveland Browns were back on Prime Video this week for\u00a0Thursday Night Football, and the streamer\u2019s broadcast team again offered a simplistic take on the beleaguered quarterback\u2019s comeback.<\/p>\n
During the preseason, Prime\u2019s Al Michaels and Kirk Herbstreit pressed for Watson\u2019s \u201csecond chance<\/a>.\u201d The veteran Michaels described the nearly two dozen sexual misconduct lawsuits levied against Watson as Watson\u2019s career getting \u201call turned around,\u201d while Herbstreit emphasized the charitable giving and mutual aid work that Watson engaged in during his early years in Houston.<\/p>\n Two wins and a strong first half later, the\u00a0TNF announcers \u2014 with a bigger regular-season audience \u2014 were back with a similar message on Watson this week.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you follow football, you know the story. We don\u2019t have to go through the whole Deshaun Watson thing,\u201d Michaels said<\/a>, before breezing past the contents of the allegations that forced Watson to be sidelined for nearly a season-and-a-half earlier this decade.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s got this career in Houston, it\u2019s great, all of a sudden he\u2019s got these issues. We all know what they were.\u201d<\/p>\n Then, Michaels cited the familiar football phrase that \u201cwinning is the best deodorant,\u201d before Herbstreit predicted that Browns fans would eventually embrace Watson after previously booing him in the preseason<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cYou want the fans to get behind you, and that goes for pretty much any market,\u201d Herbstreit said. \u201cThis is an extreme case because of what you laid out with Deshaun Watson, but if you convert on third downs, you hit passes, you lead this team to victories, those boos turn into cheers.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018TNF\u2019 sums up Deshaun Watson\u2019s season\u2026 \ud83c\udfc8 \ud83d\udcfa<\/p>\n Al Michaels: \u201cIf you follow football, you know the story \u2026 we don\u2019t have to go through the whole Deshaun Watson thing.\u201d<\/p>\n Kirk Herbstreit: \u201cWhen you convert on 3rd downs, you hit passes, you lead this team to victories, those boos\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/UVcgsCAaoK<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) October 2, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n Earlier in the\u00a0TNF\u00a0broadcast, Prime Video aired an interview between Watson and reporter Taylor Rooks. In the segment, Rooks pressed Watson<\/a> on whether he could understand the \u201cskepticism\u201d and \u201capprehension\u201d that Browns fans feel toward him after their team moved heaven and earth to acquire him while he was still navigating nearly two-dozen sexual misconduct allegations.<\/p>\n All 27 lawsuits filed against Watson have been either settled or dismissed<\/a>. Some of the women were massage therapists who claimed Watson assaulted them after hiring them for sessions.<\/p>\n Not everyone will have the same opinion of how an NFL broadcast should address the years-old allegations against Watson. However, the last of the lawsuits was settled just this past February<\/a>. In other instances, legendary and well-paid broadcasters like Michaels are expected to summarize complex ideas in tight windows.<\/p>\n And given that during the preseason, Michaels and Herbstreit actively advocated for the quarterback to be allowed to move forward, the depiction this week of the heinous allegations toward Watson as old news that can be resolved with strong play also seems like a purposeful push on Watson\u2019s behalf.<\/p>\n \t