"Putting His Off-Field Issues Aside horizontal ellipsis ": Exploring Online Sport Fan Community Response to Allegations Against Deshaun Watson

In March 2022, a Texas grand jury chose not to indict NFL quarterback Deshaun Watson with sexual misconduct, facilitating his trade from the Houston Texans to the Cleveland Browns. This study used publicly accessible Reddit posts (n = 273) to explore sport fan conversations about Watson from the day a grand jury announced it would not indict him to the day the Cleveland Browns issued an official statement about the trade. I analyzed post text, top-level comments, and replies to the top-level comment on each post using reflexive thematic analysis. Results suggest that while most conversations about Watson avoided discussion of sexual violence, fans also supported or resisted rape culture. Few fans shared an intention to no longer support a team that traded for Watson, highlighting the cognitive dissonance fans may face when navigating opinions about sexual violence and the importance of fandom to their identity. The presence of conversations supporting rape culture and limited space for civil discussions of athlete-perpetrated violence may impact some fans' attitudes toward sexual violence while making online fan communities an unsafe space for others. These findings have implications for understanding sport fan cultures vis-a-vis sexual violence and situational prevention targeting sport fans.