It was announced earlier today that Deshaun Watson would be suspended for the first six games for the 20+ sexual misconduct cases he was sued for.
Most people don’t think that was enough, considering the number of women that sued him, and even the NFL wanted an entire season, but judge Sue Robinson made her decision.
The NFL and Watson/the NFLPA have three days to appeal. It was reported that neither side liked the number of games that were decided, with Watson thinking it was too many and the NFL not thinking it was enough, so both sides could very well appeal Robinson’s decision.
If an appeal is made, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell or his designee “will issue a written decision that will constitute full, final and complete disposition of the dispute,” per terms of Article 46 in the league’s collective bargaining agreement.
In relying on precedent, Robinson sought to differentiate between violent and non-violent sexual conduct. Robinson concluded that Watson’s conduct “does not fall into the category of violent conduct that would require the minimum 6-game suspension” which the league had established as “by far the most commonly-imposed discipline for domestic or gendered violence and s*xual acts.”
The ruling relied on 32 previous suspensions under the league’s personal conduct policy since 2015. In 21 of those instances, the league suspended the player for six games, including the cases of Derrius Guice and Johnny Manziel. Greg Hardy was suspended for four games.
The longest suspension — 10 games for Jarron Jones in 2021 — involved a criminal plea and multiple incidents of domestic violence. The two eight-game suspensions — of Kareem Hunt in 2019 and Mark Walton in 2020 — also took into account multiple incidents of domestic violence.
One person who thinks we should just accept the decision and move on is none other than O.J. Simpson. O.J. uploaded a video to Twitter to talk about the decision and says that he thinks some women jumped on for money and Watson went too far with some.
He also said that Judge Robinson made her decision, so that should be it, and he just wants to see it go away.
Twitter had a field day with it.
Flip the page to see the video and reactions.