WHITE SULFUR SPRINGS, W.Va. — I’ve tried. I’ve really tried with Deshaun Watson. I defended the Browns pursuing him because Baker Mayfield wasn’t good enough and they needed to upgrade the most important position. Despite all his legal issues, Watson was the best quarterback available at the time. 

But Watson isn’t and has never been a victim in any of this. 

More than two dozen women said he harassed or assaulted them during massage appointments. More than two dozen civil lawsuits against him or the Houston Texans were settled in confidential agreements.

Shortly after arriving at the Greenbrier this week for the start of training camp, Watson was asked a standard, mundane camp question about rehab from his shoulder surgery and if anything has changed with his approach. Here was his answer. 

“I think, honestly, it’s really just blocking out all the bull—-,” he said. “It was tough coming in two years ago, different environment, different team, different all that. So you come in and your character’s been mentioned this way and then kind of flip on you and the biggest thing, you’re trying to get people to like you or improve. But now it’s like, at the end of the day, it’s two years in and if you don’t like me or you have your own opinions, then,…

The Cleveland Browns are headed to the playoffs. They officially clinched with a win last Thursday night, then on Sunday became locked into the AFC’s top wild-card spot after the Ravens routed the Miami Dolphins in Baltimore.

Because I expected the Ravens to win that game, and because it was a weekend off for the Browns, I wasn’t thinking much about the playoffs Sunday afternoon as I ran a few errands and pretended to be interested in helping my wife take down the Christmas decorations.

Then I saw the photo. The one I’ve been chuckling about since.

My colleague in Baltimore, Jeff Zrebiec, was making his walk toward M&T Bank Stadium when he saw this man wearing a Joe Flacco Browns jersey and took the picture. Things get done fast these days, but Flacco’s children didn’t even have that replica jersey until last Thursday’s game.

Outside M&T Bank Stadium: pic.twitter.com/Rf9vPVpYUz

— Jeff Zrebiec (@jeffzrebiec) December 31, 2023

I don’t know the man in the picture, and I don’t know his story — or the story of how he secured the jersey and why he chose to wear it to the Ravens-Dolphins game. None of us know how the fascinating and wildly improbable story of Flacco elevating the Browns and pushing them to the playoffs is going to end, but he’s been good enough to…

BEREA, Ohio — Nobody is going to feel sorry for Joe Flacco. He’s won a Super Bowl MVP and made more than $175 million in his career. He’s winning at life. 

And yet …

There’s just something about Flacco’s 16 years in the NFL that has been gnawing at me while watching this incredible last-chapter renaissance. He was always good, always consistent in his prime, but never quite elite. 

He never received a single MVP vote but Carson Wentz, Derek Carr and Tony Romo did. 

He never even appeared in a Pro Bowl. He was invited once but passed because his wife was due with their third child.

He was beloved — still is — by a large portion of the fan base in Baltimore, yet he was always overshadowed by Hall of Famers like Ray Lewis and Ed Reed. That Ravens defense still typically gets the bulk of the credit for his Super Bowl ring. 

That’s why what’s happening here is so absurd, no script writer in the NFL or Hollywood could have made it sound plausible. A quarterback that hasn’t been good in a decade going on this type of heater? Throwing for more than 300 yards in three consecutive games for the first time in his career, leading the league in passing yards since becoming the Browns’ starter in Week 13 and tying for the league lead in touchdown passes during that…

NFL team owners collect millions in revenue. They wield outsized power over their organizations and in their communities. They point to the bottom line, wins and losses, when firing coaches and executives, sometimes without giving them much time. But their own won-lost records appear nowhere.

Even people who follow the NFL closely might not know whether Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross owns a better record than New York Giants owner John Mara (he does).

They might not know whether female owners account for two of the five highest winning percentages since taking over their teams (they do).

They might not know that the only team without a traditional owner could lose 200 games overnight without dipping below .500 (the Green Bay Packers could).

They might not know that five of the last six owners to buy (rather than inherit) a team make up the bottom five in win percentage (they do — the lone exception is the Buffalo Bills’ Terry Pegula).

Some of these ownership situations are difficult to evaluate for reasons such as owners allowing their offspring to operate their teams. I’ve used simple criteria in ranking owners from worst to best win rates below. For our purposes, wins and losses are counted for owners after the NFL has approved their purchases; after an owner…

The Browns waived defensive tackle Perrion Winfrey on Wednesday after he allegedly threatened a woman Tuesday night.

According to a report by Fox8, police are investigating Winfrey after a woman reported he threatened her and showed he had a gun. The incident occurred at East 9th and Euclid after one of two women — who told police they know Winfrey — yelled an insult at him in a Cleveland hotel lobby, per the report.

A Cleveland police spokesperson told The Athletic that Winfrey will be listed as a suspect in an aggravated robbery incident report. No other details were provided.

The latest off-field issue comes after Winfrey was arrested on a misdemeanor assault charge in April for allegedly causing bodily harm to a woman he was dating. Last month, he and cornerback Greg Newsome II were reportedly robbed at gunpoint in a parking lot after leaving a Cleveland-area club.

Winfrey, 22, was a 2022 fourth-round pick and appeared in 13 games as a rookie last season with 22 tackles.

(Photo: Ken Blaze / USA Today)