PALM BEACH, Fla. -- Falcons owner Arthur Blank repeatedly tried to downplay the team’s interest in quarterback Deshaun Watson during an in-person interview at the NFL owners meeting Tuesday.
Watson, who played at Gainesville High and Clemson and was a Falcons ball boy for four years, was traded to the Cleveland Browns by the Houston Texans on March 18. He didn’t play last season after requesting to be traded and while facing 22 civil lawsuits, which included allegations of sexual misconduct/indecency.
The Falcons reportedly were the leader before Cleveland came in with a five-year, $230 million guaranteed contract offer. In the wake of the pursuit of Watson, quarterback Matt Ryan, perhaps the greatest player in franchise history, was traded to the Colts on March 21.
The Falcons issued statements after the Ryan trade. This was Blank’s first time responding to questions over the Watson matter.
Here’s what Blank had to say:
On how seriously the Falcons were looking at Deshaun Watson: We explored it enough to where we spent some time with him for maybe an hour and 15 minutes. He and his agent and trainer or something. So, I mean it got to that stage. So, it was a worthwhile use of our time. We had an opportunity to understand (things) from his perspective and ask some questions and what have you. But after that, we didn’t have any really further interaction with either the Texans to speak of or with his agent.
On how much background the Falcons did on the Watson’s civil cases: Well, we did enough at that point from a legal perspective in talking to a number of people to feel at least to just have a conversation with him that it was worthwhile doing at that point. One of the criminal cases, one large criminal case have been dropped, or had been found not guilty by the grand jury. The second one was a little bit later. So, we were comfortable with that. But we had a lot questions to go through if we were really going to do down that path and follow it super seriously.
On whether pursuing Watson was the right thing to do: I think for us, to the level of pursuit that we had, the exploratory stage, I think was the right thing to do. Would it have made sense to go further than that? It would depend on you know, what a much more intensive process would have revealed or discussions we would have had. But ... my observation about the Cleveland processes is, you know, had nothing to do with that. ... I’m not in that room. (I’m) not the Cleveland owner. Our coach is different and our GM is different. So, the point to get to the interview, I think we were comfortable with the amount of research that we had done to go through an interview with them.
On the negative reaction and if it damaged his reputation or that of the Falcons: No, I don’t think so. I think our job is to, you know, pursue opportunities. In this case, professionally, we knew he could play at a high level, but we also had an experience with him. He was in our facility for four years as a ball boy. (Watson) developed a great relationship with Matt and the other workers that he had. We had that as a frame of reference, which is a little bit different. But to get to the point of the interview, I think we felt that was a comfortable commitment for us. What would have happened if we had gone further? I’m not sure.
On the size of Watson’s contract and if the NFL owners are distressed: I think you have to leave that to (Browns owners) Jimmy and Dee Haslam to make their own judgment. The fact that it’s $80 million above the highest other contract ever given guaranteed in the history of the league that is 102 years old, you know, says a lot. Whether or not most teams in the NFL or any of the teams, the NFL would have committed to that kind of contract, I don’t know. That certainly is a huge commitment.
On if he was stung by the criticism after the team’s pursuit of Watson: We try to do the right things for the right reasons. I look back on what we went through with Michael Vick. Michael has become a great fan of the Falcons. He probably never was not even though he played for Philadelphia, the Jets and Pittsburgh for short periods of time afterwards. He spends a lot of time in Atlanta now. The last game, we had in the Georgia Dome, Michael drove around in the car with Roddy White and there was a standing ovation of 70,000 people. As Dr. (Martin Luther) King (Jr.) said, ‘You scratch the skin of anybody you’re going to find something. So with Michael, he made his mistakes clearly, they were, you know, terrible. Paid his price, personally, financially (and with damage) to his name, but he committed himself to making himself a different person and he has. He spends an inordinate amount of time traveling around the United States talking to young people about life choices. And so Deshaun, I don’t know what he did and what he didn’t do ... criminally, obviously, they’ve (elected not to indict). But in terms of civil suits, I really don’t know (how) that will (turn) out. I would hope that whatever it is, you know, he would recognize what transgressions and what he did to contribute to them and that he would understand that. Move past it. As a young man, continue to understand how we develop in life.
On if the 22 civil cases are different from the Vick federal dogfighting criminal case: We knew that the one criminal case had been dropped. The one that had the largest number of suits involved. But we didn’t know about the second one, the second one turned out a little bit later. At the level of our interest, it kind of in terms of our investigation of the process and the people we spoke to, we had spoken to from a legal perspective, we felt comfortable having the conference call with (Watson). If we had decided to go further, or if he indicated he decided to go further, you know, that would have taken a much more extensive amount of research and thought. Whether or not that would have taken us to a point of potentially signing him or not, I can’t tell you because I don’t know. But what I do know is that to have the conversation, we did enough work to at least have that … to explore it.
On whether the Falcons talked to the 22 plaintiffs: Actually, I don’t think anybody’s permitted to do that. To my knowledge, but no, I didn’t. But our appropriate people in our organization had conversations with other key individuals that told us to go that far was fine, having exploratory conversations.
On how they wanted to get involved in an obviously toxic situation: The word “explore” is the key word. I would said say exploring it, and we matched the amount of work we’re doing to the word exploring. And it wasn’t more than that. It wasn’t less than that. It was that was the commitment we made, and we had the interview with him, and that was the last of it. So, it certainly is an area of concern. ... I don’t know what the truth is. I know what Deshaun says. But I also know there are 22 allegations out there and that’s a very significant (number) and (a) serious subject. ... I don’t know what’s going to come of (the 22 cases). For us to have a conversation, we did. We felt comfortable at that point. Would it have changed our feelings going forward. I can’t tell you the amount of research (we) would have done. ... But we felt comfortable doing that at that point.
On why the Falcons didn’t pursue Watson after the hour-and-15-minute meeting: I mean, it wasn’t really our choice … Kind of the ground rules that were set up (Houston’s compensation demands) is that we had to show some level of interest to the Texans to the point of, you know, that we had an interest and the player potentially had an interest. Otherwise, I don’t know how many teams would be interviewing him. So, they wanted some qualifications around that. Because Deshaun is from (Gainesville), because he had a history with the Atlanta Falcons as a ball boy. ... He played in our market, if you will, at Clemson. (Clemson) coach (Dabo) Swinney had nothing but great things to say. When came out of college, I mean, he had a very clean report. I mean, we talked to coach Swinney. We looked at his past relationships as best we understood them. So, that was that was the process. I’m not sure how many other teams ended up talking to him. I know what was reported, but we didn’t ask the question. Even if we asked the Texans that question, I don’t think we would have gotten an answer.
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