The saga has finally reached its conclusion. After years of investigations, court filings, scandals, arguments, and judge rulings, the NFLPA and NFL have come together and agreed upon an 11-game suspension for Deshaun Watson.
This saga will be remembered forever as one of, in not the, most contentious, confusing, and conflicting suspension cases in NFL history. I can’t think of any other suspension case in recent NFL history to have involved so many different aspects of the NFL league fighting either for or against Deshaun Watson’s NFL future.
This case included players, team staff, outside members of the Houston community, fans, owners, league officers, judges, lawyers, the commissioner, the players association etc. (as I could go on all day long) as individuals who provided their voice for/against Watson. That was just how groundbreaking this Deshaun Watson case truly was.
Anway, you probably want to know the full specifics of the suspension. Along with the 11 games, Watson was also fined $5M and he must complete mandatory evaluations to prevent future allegations/predatory behavior patterns from arising again before his Week 13 return.
Is this suspension long enough? No, probably not. If what Judge Sue Robinson said was correct, then Watson really shouldn’t ever play in the NFL again. Is the fine enough? No, definitely not. Watson just got a fully guaranteed $230M contract and the league only fined him $5M? That’s ridiculously low in my opinion.
Nevertheless, this case was never in the league’s hands to begin with as the NFLPA held all of the power. If the NFL gave Watson a yearlong suspension, the NFLPA was going to take the NFL to court. And you better believe that it would have been a vicious, vindicative, expensive, and pointless case as the NFL was probably going to lose it.
The league’s stupid abuse suspension lengths in the past (i.e.: Ray Rice initially only got a 2-game suspension, Roethlisberger and Winston only getting 6 and 3, respective, game suspensions) would have been used against the NFL in a court battle. Therefore, it was imperative the NFL and the NFLPA came together and negotiated a suspension longer than Judge Robinson’s 6-game ruling, while also shorter than a full 17-game one.
I know this won’t appease many fans, but the NFL and Roger Goodell has actually done the right thing for once. Not only have they given Watson a much harsher sentence with this 11-game suspension and $5M fine (which is the largest player fine in NFL history), but also rewritten their own abuse suspensions length precedence with this ban.
This suspension won’t please everyone, but it had to be done. The NFL had to update its abuse suspension precedence, and this was the only way to do it.
As for Watson, he’ll finally see NFL football again during Week 13 against…the Houston Texans. Oh, and it’s in Houston too.
Doesn’t life sometimes give a prefect brew of irony? Or does it?
Now, I’m not one for conspiracy theories, but it just seems super convenient to me that the NFL suspended Watson for exactly the right number of games in order for his return game to be against the team where he (allegedly, or is it anymore? I don’t know) committed his crimes.
Never forget people, the NFL league officer and Roger Goodell will always put profit over anything. Don’t be surprised to see this game moved to the primetime slot.
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