Bottom line - you don't know if he coerced women into sexual activity involving penetration or not. Posters said they would live by the ruling by Sue Robinson. Here's some of what she said -
Involving accusations of Sexual Misconduct and Assault per the NFL's policy - Watson is guilty.
His actions were more egregious than ANY other case before the NFL.
He lied and continues to lie about what happened.
He acted in a predatory fashion regarding these sexual assaults/misconduct ... people are trying to split hairs - but if you act like a predator while committing sexual transgressions that makes you a sexual predator.
There's more to what she said - but this is sort of the crux of the issues for me. DW was not the victim of a witch hunt - the women were not all lying - this wasn't some invention of the Cleveland Media and fan base.
No wonder many want to gloss over or ignore completely the details and want to pretend like 6 games and this ruling is what they expected and we should all move on and talk about something different. No wonder so many are name calling and trying so hard to shout down anyone still talking about what Watson ha done and what it means moving forward.
She said that his actions were more egregious than any case involving non-violent sexual assault in the NFL before. There is a HUGE difference between what you said and what she actually said on that point.
Like I said before, Watson is a creep. I liken his actions to creepy guy that makes unwanted advances towards women and "feels them up." Repulsive behavior, especially when using his status as an NFL QB to commit these actions. He definitely deserves to be punished for his actions.
Is this the right punishment? I'd say it's close. I was thinking it would be around 8 games and a hefty fine.
However, many people like to think that Watson forcibly raped these women. That was never proven - in fact, the NFL never tried to argue the point that he forced or coerced anyone of the women to do anything. They had no evidence of it. People like to make these things black and white, but there is obviously varying degrees of "sexual assault" which require varying degrees of punishments.
As I said before, Robinson said it was "indisputable" that his actions did not meet the threshold that required a minimum 6-game suspension for violent sexual assault. That is pretty strong language.
