JonRowe
3007
2 games more than over inflated footballs.
About 10 less than Josh Gordon for smoking weed.
True, but this was the first case decided under the new neutral arbitrator procedure. Goodell, under the NFLPA, could reject the decision, but he’d be foolish to, because he knows that will mean that Watson and the union will go to court and he’ll have to testify as to why he’s done nothing about the owners.
Looks like Deebo Samuel winds up with basically the same contract as the other WRs in this year’s cycle.
JonRowe
3011
Story is league was pulling for a full year, but the compromise was 6 games.
One game for every four women who accused him of sexual assault. Gross.
For whatever reason, the arbitrator was given only five cases to consider, not all the women involved in the lawsuit. Also, it should be noted that the arbitrator is a woman who is a former federal judge.
Judge Robinson, in her conclusion, notes that if the NFL thinks Watson’s punishment too light, it has only itself to blame:
“[The NFL] is attempting to impose a more dramatic shift in its culture without the benefit of fair notice to — and consistency of consequence for — those in the NFL subject to the Policy.”
Well good then. I know that I certainly feel better about Deshaun Watson getting a slap on the wrist for being a rapist.
“Do you want to know the terrifying truth, or do you want to see me sock a few dingers?” indeed. Fuck the Cleveland Browns.
I agree, but, as Judge Robinson said, if you’re going to have an actual policy, it can’t be just fuck the Cleveland Browns, it has to be fuck the New England Patriots, fuck the Washington Commanders and fuck the Dallas Cowboys as well.
CraigM
3017
Considering undesired fucking is what got us into this situation…
That said I am definitely on team Kick Him Out Of The League. Just like should have been the case with Rapistburger.
LockerK
3018
I dunno, doesn’t seem like the league should be required to provide any sort of special, additional notice for a “don’t sexually assault people” policy.
That was, supposedly, always the policy. The judge is saying, “You can’t let all these people skate and then slam this guy.” It’s analagous to the constitutional prohibition of ex post facto laws. You can’t slam someone with a felony, if it was a misdemeanor when he committed the crime. To be clear, I sure as hell am not defrending Watson’s actions. But, if you’re actually going to havem a personal conduct policy, you have to be consistent from the start.
LockerK
3020
Of course not, sorry if my response came across assuming you did. I’m frustrated. Have there been other players with 20+ sexual misconduct accusations levied against them? Maybe the league only felt those 5 cases were strong enough to take to an arbitrator. Even so, I’d like to think 5 cases are worth more than 6 games.
Saying this all as someone who would’ve liked to see Cleveland do well, but no more after the trade.
Lantz
3021
I listened to Jenny Vrentas (who has been writing about it a lot for the NYT) on The Athletic Football Show podcast today and one of the factors she brought up was that a lot of the women who she had talked to had declined to speak with the NFL. Between the lack of court room documentation and not having cooperating witnesses they seemed to have focused on a limited set of accusations that they felt were the strongest. That said, she also pointed out that since it’s a private process we don’t really know exactly what case they did make. She also made some interesting points about how there is a “first time non-violent sex offender” precedent (e.g. Roethlisberger) and language setting 6 weeks as the punishment so she isn’t shocked that an arbiter would end up there.
I think it’s all gross and I definitely don’t think that it’s anywhere close to an appropriate penalty to begin with and triply so considering that they even gamed away the financial penalty with his contract. But just adding some context about the process from what I’ve heard.
Is there a reason, that I can’t figure out, why we are still time warped to 2021 here?
Or is there a 2022 thread I can’t find…?
I know! I went to the 2022 football thread and everyone was talking about it the decision, but no one mentioned what the result of the decision was. I felt like I was missing something and it was… the 2021 football thread!
Where are the admins of stitching together threads to avoid all this confusion?
