Kelly Stafford has again hit out at the Cleveland Browns fans who cheered Deshaun Watson’s season-ending injury after recently calling for them to be banned for life.
Watson was carted off the field in tears after rupturing his Achilles tendon during the Browns’ loss to the Cincinnati Bengals last month, which brought his campaign to an abrupt end.
Yet amid his woes for the struggling team this season, some Cleveland fans could be heard cheering while the quarterback was laying on the ground in pain.
Their reaction certainly did not go down well with Stafford, who issued a furious response on Instagram after seeing them celebrate Watson’s demise.
The wife of Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew wrote: ‘Should try and find every fan that cheered and ban them for life. Makes my blood boil.’
A week on from her statement, Kelly has now doubled down on her criticism of the Browns fans who cheered Watson’s injury last month.
The NFL WAG took aim at supporters who celebrate injuries on the latest episode of her ‘The Morning After’ podcast, whether it’s their own players or opposition, insisting they are crossing the line.
‘Speaking of injuries, we had one go down – and this goes with the Deshaun Watson situation – as he went down, fans cheering during injuries. It’s just – it’s enough,’ she said.
‘And I’m not going to sit here and rail on fans because you guys are also the reason that they get to play the sport they love, but I do think there’s some sort of line that is getting crossed that should never be crossed.
‘And that is cheering when your players or when other team’s players go down. These are people who have families. This is their livelihood so to cheer as you watch their kind of dreams crumble, I’m not really a fan of that.’
Stafford continued: ‘It just shouldn’t happen. It really just shouldn’t happen. We are all better people than that.
‘When you’re at a game and you see someone go down, let’s just think about the individual and not about the sport or the team or your fantasy f****ng football team that I don’t give a s*** about. We just gotta be human in that [moment].’
Cleveland traded three first-round draft picks and five overall to the Houston Texans to sign Watson in 2022, with owners Dee and Jimmy Haslam approving the team giving him a fully guaranteed contract.
However, the 29-year-old has not lived up to expectations in Cleveland, meaning the trade has been labeled an abject failure with the Browns still on the hook to pay him $46m in each of the next two seasons.
Watson finished his third season passing for 1,148 yards with five touchdowns and three interceptions. He was sacked a league-high 33 times.
His arrival in Cleveland also came amid accusations by more than two dozen women of sexual assault and harassment during massage therapy sessions in Texas.
Two grand juries declined to indict him and he has settled civil lawsuits in all but one of the cases.
Watson was suspended by the NFL for his first 11 games and fined $5m for violating the league’s personal conduct policy before he took his first snap with the Browns.
The long layoff – he sat out the 2021 season in a contract dispute – led to subpar play, and he made just six starts last season before hurting his shoulder.
