Deshaun Watson Off the Field Thread v3: 11 games, $5M

[JDailey23]

M

Not me. I thought he was horrendous. He could barely take snaps from center without fumbling the ball.

Stop. Just stop

 

[Randolphkeys]

 

[Jscc]

The Houston Texans settled with more women than cases against Watson and not a single smack on the wrist or word from Goodell. This is amazing to me.

 

[HammerGold]

How is this appeal still going on?

 

[bushwick_bill]

How is this appeal still going on?

We are talking about the Cleveland Browns, correct??? That is how...

 

[Ohio]

How is this appeal still going on?

Because they're negotiating a settlement to avoid going to court.

 

[Marcus]

The longer this drags on, the more I feel like they’re going to land on 8-10 games and a 7 figure fine. I still think there is a world in which Watson plays this year.

 

[The Human Q-Tip]

The Houston Texans settled with more women than cases against Watson and not a single smack on the wrist or word from Goodell. This is amazing to me.

It is not the least bit uncommon for businesses to pay nuisance value to get rid of certain kinds of bad PR lawsuits when they've done nothing wrong. Not really fair to assume wrongdoing just because they did that.

 

[DatDudeZ3]

The longer this drags on, the more I feel like they’re going to land on 8-10 games and a 7 figure fine. I still think there is a world in which Watson plays this year.

In my opinion, I think it’s still very likely DW plays this year. We shall see in a few days I would imagine

 

[natedagg]

It is not the least bit uncommon for businesses to pay nuisance value to get rid of certain kinds of bad PR lawsuits when they've done nothing wrong. Not really fair to assume wrongdoing just because they did that.

I mean, you know the law, so I acknowledge being outclassed here… but… if this is about conduct detrimental and damaging the image & reputation of the NFL, I don’t see how the Texans aren’t catching more sh*t here.
Like if Watson did this say 3 times then they found out and took the right steps, he would be fined/suspended a whole lot less.
So when/what did they know?
The issue here seems to be one of quantity of offenses. Like the NFL has videos of dudes punching women, and murdering people, and shipping wholesale quantities of drugs, and this case is apparently worse. So it has to be the quantity, although he wasn’t found criminally guilty of anything.

I get that they might have settled with women, but that legal side has nothing to do with League reputation and image, no? I also get that the team can’t be suspended, but they should certainly be getting lit up for this too, right? Right?!?

 

[macbdog]

So because he works in the same state as the Texans he's guilty by association? I don't get this logic Sorry, this guy is entirely right- the Browns are no victims. They bought into this circus. They can't act shocked, sorry.

the NFL isn't out to 'get' the Browns, any more than they are any other team. The NFL only cares about the bottom line: once Watson settles all his suits, he takes legit responsibility for his actions, and serves his suspension, the NFL will happily attempt to forget all this, too.

The Texans were most certainly enablers, and deserve to get roasted in all this too But they also weren't the ones exposing their genitals to every masseuse they found sexually arousing, that was Watson. And would you look at that- they covered for a guy who was helping their team win games. Kind of like what the Browns and their fans are doing now.

DEshaun is not a victim. The NFL is not conducting a witch hunt. DeShaun is dealing with the consequences of repeatedly exposing his genitals in massage sessions over a year and a half period despite warnings and being told he needs and NDA just to get a massage. He's either oblivious or a sociopath. But hes no victim, in any way.

 

[Vee-Rex]

View attachment 11395
So because he works in the same state as the Texans he's guilty by association? I don't get this logic Sorry, this guy is entirely right- the Browns are no victims. They bought into this circus. They can't act shocked, sorry.

the NFL isn't out to 'get' the Browns, any more than they are any other team. The NFL only cares about the bottom line: once Watson settles all his suits, he takes legit responsibility for his actions, and serves his suspension, the NFL will happily attempt to forget all this, too.

The Texans were most certainly enablers, and deserve to get roasted in all this too But they also weren't the ones exposing their genitals to every masseuse they found sexually arousing, that was Watson. And would you look at that- they covered for a guy who was helping their team win games. Kind of like what the Browns and their fans are doing now.

DEshaun is not a victim. The NFL is not conducting a witch hunt. DeShaun is dealing with the consequences of repeatedly exposing his genitals in massage sessions over a year and a half period despite warnings and being told he needs and NDA just to get a massage. He's either oblivious or a sociopath. But hes no victim, in any way.

No. The NFL only cares about optics. If public opinion didn't care then they wouldn't care one bit about anything Deshaun did. It's a distinction that must be made.

The rest of your post is kinda doing exactly what you're accusing that tweet of doing. Deshaun has been at the forefront of the NFL news for months now - he has been rebuked, ostracized, shunned, etc... deservedly so, and the Browns + Browns fans have received similar attention. What almost NO ONE is doing is criticizing the Texans for being enablers, and bringing that up doesn't mean someone is deflecting off Deshaun who has been getting reamed non-stop.

 

[Triplethreat]

The Houston Texans settled with more women than cases against Watson and not a single smack on the wrist or word from Goodell. This is amazing to me.

To be frank, had Watson just settled earlier and had the women sign NDA’s he’s probably looking at considerably less punishment.

 

[Vee-Rex]

To be frank, had Watson just settled earlier and had the women sign NDA’s he’s probably looking at considerably less punishment.

I'm not sure I agree.

The more I think about it, the more I believe Deshaun's refusal to settle has benefited him. I know we had an HBO special and all this public outrage that stole headlines and that's all people can think about, so they think he hurt himself by not settling. Everyone was so engrossed by those events. However, by not settling, he also put strain on the merit of each woman's story and they all had depositions that resulted in discrediting a lot of them.

Deshaun was always going to lose the battle of public opinion - there was no way to win that. But he has "won" in two areas:

1. Failure of indictment by two grand juries
2. Arbitration process that resulted in a ruling of 6-game suspension by Sue Robinson.

I put "won" in quotations because ultimately, he was able to receive a 6-game suspension ruling despite having 24 cases and 30 complainants. If he had settled before investigations and depositions, I imagine the NFL could have brought waaaaaay more cases into the disciplinary hearing without having the credibility concerns that ended up limiting them to 5 cases (1 being thrown out). 10 or 14 or 18 cases being brought before Sue Robinson could have essentially guaranteed an indefinite suspension.

I'm expecting 10 games and a sizable fine from Peter Harvey and if that is the end result then it may have turned out well for him to obstinately hold off on settling early on.

 

[Zeus69]