Does Deshaun Watson have any endorsement future? | Crain's Cleveland Business

2022-08-08 07:48:00 By : Ms. Jamie Chan

Deshaun Watson's prospects might not be top of mind for you right now, but Forbes examines what's ahead for the Browns quarterback on the endorsement front.

Bottom line: He's "radioactive" for a while as a pitchman, given his just-imposed six-game suspension, now being appealed by the NFL. But that could change.

As crass as it is to discuss Watson's moneymaking future, the wheels of commerce continue to turn, with little regard for the disgusting behavior Watson has been accused of, as evidenced by the five-year, $230 million guaranteed contract he signed earlier this year with the Cleveland Browns. ...

While Watson's on-field punishment is nearing resolution, there's a separate game that NFL stars play — that of sponsorships, personal appearances and endorsements. On that front, it could be a while before Watson is rehabilitated enough to attract corporate interest, marketing experts tell Forbes.

"One year or more," says sports attorney Ed Schauder. "Nobody will touch him unless he undertakes a massive campaign, and it has to be perceived as sincere."

Henry Schafer, a marketing evaluation executive at measurement company Q Scores, told Forbes that Watson's likability metrics "declined throughout 2021," according to the piece. (Companies and professional leagues use Q Scores to measure an athlete's marketability.) He's now in deeply negative territory, and Schafer suggested it would take Watson three years or more "to get (his) image back to where top advertisers are going to feel comfortable."

The piece notes, though, that athletes including boxer Mike Tyson, the late basketball star Kobe Bryant and former NFL quarterback Ben Roethlisberger found ways to rehabilitate their image, and Watson could do the same if he expresses contrition. One expert says Watson "is more likely to get endorsements locally in Cleveland first."

ViewRay Inc. of Oakwood Village is partnering with journalist and cancer advocate Katie Couric to raise the profile of the company's MRIdian MRI-guided radiation therapy.

The company said in a news release that it will work with Couric's company, Katie Couric Media, "to launch a national awareness campaign to educate patients and clinicians about MRIdian SMART (Stereotactic MRI-guided adaptive radiotherapy) for treatment of pancreatic, prostate, lung, liver, breast, colorectal and oligometastatic cancers."

Couric and her husband, John Molner, in 2017 started Katie Couric Media, which says it creates "high-quality content in collaboration with purpose-driven brands that sparks curiosity, elevates conversation, inspires action and moves the world forward."

Molner said in a statement, "With over 5 million subscribers across multiple platforms, our audience at (Katie Couric Media) is looking to support companies and brands that are innovative, best in class and striving to make a difference. ViewRay's vision to conquer cancer by re-envisioning radiation therapy is a perfect example of this."

ViewRay says nearly 25,000 patients have been treated by more than 50 MRIdian systems in operation in the United States and around the world.

Here's another data point that reinforces Cleveland's status as a low-cost place to buy a home.

Home Bay, an online real estate education platform, reports that the median price per square foot of a U.S. home just hit a new high.

From its report: A new single-family home has a median square footage of 2,356 and a price of $397,100, making the median price per square foot $169. In 1980, the median price per square foot was only $41 — an astronomical 310% less than today's prices.

The study ranked the 50 most-populous U.S. metros by price per square foot. Here are the cities with the five highest prices per square foot: San Jose ($801), San Francisco ($656), Los Angeles ($520), San Diego ($494) and New York ($458)

Cleveland was on the other side of the equation. Per Home Bay, the cities with the lowest price per square foot are Memphis ($92), Cleveland ($103), Pittsburgh ($134), Indianapolis ($134) and Buffalo ($139).

Members of a Moreland Hills family talk with The New York Times for an article about a critical topic to cat owners: inside or outside?

You've seen them out there — well-fed cats, sometimes with collars on, stalking the streets like they own them or collapsing on a warm sidewalk to loll in the sun.

Cat lovers find them charming. Wildlife conservationists and bird lovers see furry killers and blame them for a decline in the bird population and the deaths of untold numbers of voles, chipmunks and other small animals.

How you feel about outdoor cats may also depend on where you are in the world. In the United States, about 81 percent of domestic cats are kept inside, according to a 2021 demographic study of pet cats. But elsewhere, it can be far more common to let them roam. In Denmark, only 17 percent of cats are strictly indoor pets, according to the same study. In Turkey, it is so common for feral cats to walk freely in and out of cafes, restaurants and markets that a documentary was made about the phenomenon.

Kelly Goshe of Moreland Hills tells the Times that two of her family's three cats, Catson and Puff, "are determined prowlers." They "roam around their deck and backyard" under the watchful eye of her three children, ages 9, 7 and 4.

The cats gave them little choice. Catson "will do anything to get out," one of the kids, Sylvia, says. Puff has figured out how to open the sliding door with her paws, she said.

But the Times notes that Luna, Puff's sister, is terrified of going outside.

"We let her stand by the screen door," Kelly Goshe said. "She'll just look at it and run away."

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