BEREA, Ohio — Did Joel Bitonio really rebuff Deshaun Watson when he tried to help him during Sunday’s loss 33-17 loss to the Cowboys?
With the Browns trailing 33-10 in the fourth quarter, Watson reached out a hand to try to help Bitonio up from the ground, and Bitonio appeared to swat his hand away.
The video clip went viral on social media during the game, and has continued to pick up steam, especially in the wake of Watson’s poor game and subsequent new allegations of sexual misconduct from a date in 2020 in a civil suit filed on Monday.
But Bitonio (6-4, 320) explained to Cleveland.com on Wednesday what really happened.
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“Truthfully, I didn’t even know Deshaun was there,” he said. “I was just trying to roll over. I think when I went to bring my hands up, I ended up swatting his hand away. I didn’t know it was a thing honestly until after the game. A few people texted me about it. “
Just in case, he cleared the air with his QB1.
“I talked to Deshaun,” he said. “We’re all good. There’s none of that here. I’m a big dude. It’s hard for me to get helped up anyway, so I was trying to flip over to push myself up anyway. If you watch the rest of the game, there’s times where I’m helping Deshaun up. When we scored a touchdown, I celebrated with Deshaun. There’s no animosity there. I just was too big to get helped up, and I truly didn’t even know it was him there. I was just trying to roll up and ended up slapping his hand.”
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Bitonio’s close friend and former longtime teammate Joe Thomas, Hall of Fame left tackle, also jumped to his defense on X.
“Whether Joel loves Deshaun or hates Deshaun I have no idea, but this video doesn’t tell you anything…,” Thomas posted. “big old offensive lineman are like turtles; we can’t get up unless we roll over and do the “push-up to kneel to stand” routine. Achy backs, big bellies, lots of bracing on our knees and ankles: it’s nearly impossible to help us up like that, we just can’t bend like the skinny skill guys.
“I did that several times in my career and then people realized to not try and help me up!
“Carry on, nothing to see here…”
After the game, Bitonio lamented Watson getting sacked six times and hit 17.
“He’s tough, he took a lot of hits,” Bitonio said. “He wants to be out with us and I hate seeing him get hit like that. We don’t want him to get hit like that, but he kept getting up and he kept going and he kept working. I’m sure he’s beat the crap right now, which we don’t want to see, but he kept getting up. He kept fighting and that’s all you can ask of your quarterback.”
