DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Pure Football Forum Watson Suspended 6 Games

There is also a reason 2 grand juries did not have enough evidence to convict. Sue Robinson's decision came out much lower than media expected. The fact is there is not enough real factual evidence to support what the court of public opinion believes in this case. Was what Watson did inappropriate? Yes. Was it criminal? No! Many including you believe this man is a sexual predator and that simply is not the case.

NFL is reviewing Judge Robinson’s decision in the Deshaun Watson case, will decide on “next steps”

Posted by Mike Florio on August 1, 2022, 12:36 PM EDT
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Now that Judge Sue L. Robinson has imposed a six-game suspension on Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson, the ball is in the league’s court.

Will the NFL exercise its right to appeal the decision to the Commissioner of the NFL?

For now, the league has not answered the question. Here’s the statement from the league, issued moments ago: “We thank Judge Sue L. Robinson, the independent disciplinary officer, for her review of the voluminous record and attention during a three-day hearing that resulted in her finding multiple violations of the NFL Personal Conduct Policy by Deshaun Watson. We appreciate Judge Robinson’s diligence and professionalism throughout this process. Pursuant to the Collective Bargaining Agreement, the NFL or the NFLPA on behalf of Watson may appeal the decision within three days. In light of her findings, the league is reviewing Judge Robinson’s imposition of a six-game suspension and will make a determination on next steps.”

The NFLPA already has said it will accept Judge Robinson’s decision, and the union has called on the league to do so as well. While it eventually may, the league has yet to reach a decision.

I'll say. Look at the following.

The headline reads: "Initial public reaction to Deshaun Watson suspension is not positive." That's rather ambiguous, but it suggests that people wanted a harsher penalty.

Now, look at the actual question: "Do you agree with Deshaun Watson being suspended six games?" The choices were Yes and No. More ambiguity.

Now, look at the first comment:


Hey Florio........why not word the question like this and give the following options?

How do you feel about the length of Deshaun Watson's suspension?

___ a. Too lenient
___ b. Too harsh
___ c. Just right

The process involving the NFL's ability to review and increase Judge Robinson's penalty to Watson is the process the NFLPA agreed to with the new CBA, so its hard to see how a federal court is going to intercede on their behalf if they sue the NFL after its first implementation. In other words, this is what you signed on for.

I believe the league will come out and say they don't fully agree with the decision but they will accept the decision because they won't want to taggle with the union over Deshaun Watson. In the end they will let the media outage die down like all liberal fake outrage does eventually. Then move forward. The NFL has bigger fish to fry with the union than Deshaun Watson in the long run.

Looks like she did make reference to how the owners have been treated in the past after all.

Florio had a source making that claim and that's all he had. Everyone knows that.

That's simply your opinion.

That last sentence in the first paragraph of the Conclusion is pretty damn strong.

Interesting. So she did hint at the inconsistency of the precedent and somewhat scold the NFL for being reactive.

The same agreement said that owners/coaches/club execs would be held to a higher standard than players. How has that worked out? Literally zero punishment for any of them besides Snyder, and even his was much more lenient.

While I agree that I believe it is over and the NFL will not appeal this case. I don't think the reason was to remove Goodell from being the sole decision make with no legal background. I personally believe it was for two reasons, one to have an impartial arbitrator for the purpose of determining whether the Conduct Policy is violated on a case by case basis and set a "recommendation" from that impartial person, in case the NFLPA needs to take the NFL to court. They have lost every case they have ever filed, because of the way the previous CBA was written. They negotiated it, so they have to live with it. Now, Goodell can't change anything that the arbitrator deems didn't violate the policy. But, it also gives them ground if Goodell takes an extreme approach to punishment one way or the other. In other words, I think it removes the possibility that Goodell gives an owner nothing in the future and it also gives Goodell a much tighter leash to dole out punishment.

I do think if Goodell(by proxy the NFL) feels strongly enough that he should have been punished for a full season, he would appeal and add something like 6 games to the punishment. Why 6 games is relevant is that the player loses a year of accrual on his contract if he is not eligible to play in at least 6 games of the season. With the 17 game season, that now becomes 11 games allowed to be missed. 12 games and his current contract year tolls to the next. The league could probably argue in court that it is not in excess of their rights according to the CBA. However, going from 6 games (starting minimum for the conduct policy as written) to indefinite or even a year, would be a really tough sell in court. The NFL might lose their first case.

Regardless in this case, I will be surprised if they choose to challenge the process the first time out of the gate.

The most shocking thing in this is the clause that he can only have massages from team personnel. If it is found out he goes outside of his team organization, he can immediate be suspended again.. Not sure how this falls into a personal conduct policy. That is taking personal rights away from the facility. Kind of strange that it was part of this.

Just curious how Snyder was more lenient?

Snyder $10M, (Snyder also voluntarily removed himself from football operations for a year)
Watson, 6 games and $365,294.11

I don't see the leniency in Snyder. All others, I agree 100%, but there has been a lot of "Snyder gets off easy as an owner" talk.. I don't understand. His fine was historical, by about $8.5M from memory... none had ever come close to $2M and he didn't step foot inside the building for a year.

Kraft is the one that hurts the league the most imho.

I've posted several articles on Snyder's case. The $10 million fine is not that much for him. I know that sounds strange, but that assertion was made repeatedly. Also, the NFL isn't monitoring Snyder's self-imposed ban and Goodell admitted to that during his testimony to Congress.

She clearly calls out the owners when you read footnote 51 in her Conclusion.

One thing that is for sure, Goodell will find a way to make things worse.

It appears to me that the sticking point was about "fair notice" that was not given in advance more than anything else for requesting a much harsher penalty.

From her report...

Damn that unwanted penis contact.

i think the nfl is gonna let this go. as ive stated before, the nfl is already waste deep in it with regards to the commanders. everybody agreed to her preceding over this issue, and hopefully the nfl and nflpa just lets it go.

6 games, no fines. hopefully we move on

I think he got off really easy. I would think that the fact that the judge found no fault with the NFL's facts, the NFL may decide to increase the penalty.

Because Snyder is worth billions. The fine did literally nothing to hurt him, at all. I have no idea how involved he is in the day to day, but seeing as how he stayed on hit yacht for weeks on end to avoid Congress shows it's probably not much. He also wasn't banned. He still attended games, and his wife "ran" the team in his place. The NFL also never released the independent findings in regards to the case.

Snyder was accused by over 20 women as well, I believe. I will need to confirm that. But it was quite a few I do know. I don't know what else the NFL could do besides force him to sell.

Also, the $10 million fine was for work place culture, not the sexual allegations against him personally.

Bingo. The judge is not saying he didn’t do it. In fact she is saying he did sexually assault the women the NFL presented. She is also saying the the NFL botched things so thoroughly in the past that she can’t suspend Watson more than six games because of precedent/fair notice.

I would be very surprised if the NFL does not appeal. If the NFL appeals this will be dragged out for months and months.

The owners now may begin to weigh on this more now regarding any appeal by the NFL. We know that is one of the avenues the NFLPA and Watson's counsel undoubtedly will go down if an appeal is made, not to mention any potential lawsuit filed by the NFLPA. The owners might rather have things move on and not be dragged through more of this process now that the lack of equal treatment has been called out in the public report.

Irish, I'm not sure if you know but Snyder tried to "pimp out" the Redskin cheerleaders to rich business men on trips, several times. Then Snyder and other men in the organization were sexually harrassing women the then Redskin HDQ. The NFL had the invesitgators give a oral presentation and NOT have anything in the case written down!!... Snyder got off light as hell!!! and the fan base in DC has no love for him. So what type of investigation did he get??

I agree. Even if we go 2-4 with brissett we will still have Watson for 11 games. If we win 8 of those we will have 10 wins on the season which still gives us a shot...be it a wildcard. With Brissett I think we can realistically win 3, maybe 4 games. Who knows, maybe more but that is a stretch.

I don't buy this season throw away stuff. This isn't a QB with chopped liver around him.

This.

2 things…
I will be very surprised if the NFL doesn’t appeal. I’m not a conspiracy guy but this seems too perfect a tee up. Everyone outside of Cleveland is outraged it’s only 6 games. Here comes the NFL to right that wrong. They take it to a full season or whatever. Then Watson and & NFLPA appeal which stretches into the actual season and many fewer people notice when it’s marked back down to 8ish games. PR chess.

Second thing is I won’t be one bit surprised if Brissett ends up surprising a lot people. He’s never had even close to this level of talent around him. I won’t be surprised if he comes out of his tenure with a winning record.

Going to court would probably produce an injunction by the Federal Court,staying the penalty until the issue was heard in court.

Agreed on your first comments. Judge Robinson even described Watson's behavior as 'predatory.'

Mr. Watson’s predatory conduct cast “a negative light on the League and its players,” sufficient proof that he violated this provision of the Policy

Watson's party should be satisfied that she ruled as she did given her report and the findings. Also, thank the NFL for being a disaster.

I actually do not believe the NFL will appeal the decision. I do not think they will want to undermine the new process given this is the first case. Additionally, I do not think they (the owners) want to open themselves up to further damaging evidence that would likely become public and embarrass the owners and the League should the NFLPA actually follow through on this and sue the NFL. My guess is the NFL washes their hands of this and hopes the kickoff to the NFL season with the Hall of Fame Game changes the news cycle and shift the focus back to the upcoming football season.

We shall see!

Hmmmmm.... Predatory. Imagine that. I hope those who said they would accept her ruling will remember that.

I don't think that is true. I think some people are outraged. I think some media members are using it to get attention. I also think that there are people who feel that the suspension was too long given the facts of the case. All they had was the testimony of 4 of the alleged victims. I think a lot of people are saying that they really don't know all the facts of the case and are accepting Judge Robinson's decision. Thus, I think that saying "everyone outside of Cleveland..." is not the truth.

Btw---I'm not accusing you of trying to mislead people. I just think that we have to be careful on how we word things.

So officially the Browns QB is a sexual predator? Despite what some wish to claim?

I agree, Milk. I see it much the same way and have felt that way for quite some time.

I've seen both sides express opinions... but I believe you are correct to suggest the majority opinion outside of Cleveland media is that 6 weeks is not sufficient. Given what I have seen of the judgement Confirming the allegations of predatory behavior, I think the noise from those disagreeing with the decision will only grow.... I don't think the NFL cares if the decision is fair, I do think they will care & take action if the noise is sufficiently loud to impact their image.

So, in the court of law if someone is caught speeding, they don't ask for your taxes to determine what the fine should be.. but under the CBA policy it should be based on your net worth?

The highest fine ever imposed under ANY circumstance prior to this was $1.9M for an owner (Broncos/Pat Bowlen) and $1.2M for a player (Jamal Lewis, which includes $447.8k in game checks for his 2 game suspension and $760k fine), that is a 500% increase in one fail swoop.


Don't let the media fill your head. There has also been a lot of talk about precedence, if THIS is precedence being used to compare players and owners, then Deshaun Watson would be fined more than his 6 game checks of $345k.


All most fans care about is, how much YOU are losing from a player. This isn't a travesty in anyone's eyes because the player is being given too hard of punishment, it's a travesty because you have to be without a viable QB for so many games. No one cared about Kraft or Snyder or anyone else, until they thought it could be used to get Watson a shorter suspension.

I wasn't arguing w/you. I was just providing more information. You can believe what you want. I won't try and change your mind. I thought it was just an exchange of information.