Judge Recommends Suspension of 6 Games for Deshaun Watson

[DJ]

Dude is a sociopath.

 

[Stakesarehigh]

A federal courtroom and take a year to get there and endanger that 46 million salary.....

Watson would be wise to accept whatever he gets and not endanger future seasons when he'll be older. Take whatever suspension he gets this season and move on.

I can't speak for him but I was referring if Goodell escalated it to an indefinite suspension.

Even if he went to a full season I could see Watson sitting on his hands.

 

[Cincyfan78]

A federal courtroom and take a year to get there and endanger that 46 million salary.....

Watson would be wise to accept whatever he gets and not endanger future seasons when he'll be older. Take whatever suspension he gets this season and move on.

Agreed.

For those thinking the juice isn't worth the squeeze - the NFL wins this 100/100 times. The only thing suing the NFL does is drag things out or the player, and not in a positive way. Sure, maybe that means Watson plays this year (after the original 6 game suspension, likely), but then he's at risk to miss time next year, and large chunks of money.

 

[DJ]

I can't speak for him but I was referring if Goodell escalated it to an indefinite suspension.

Even if he went to a full season I could see Watson sitting on his hands.

I don't think Goodell will push for an indefinite suspension.

 

[Manster7588]

I don't think Goodell will push for an indefinite suspension.

Me either. I know the NFL was calling for indefinite or a year, but I think they'll push it to 10 and call it a day.

 

[fastforward]

Maybe Mr. Goodell appeals the judgement as being too lenient, gives the case to a subordinate, and then the subordinate decides to add just 1 or 2 games. The NFL doesn't care about any of this. It just wants this matter to disappear without NFL management looking weak.

 

[wilwhite]

I think the primary question i have on the judges ruling is the 6 games was "based on precedent" that the league had set

But i don't see how there's any precedent for a case like this with so many accusers

Basing a ruling on prior guidelines is fine. We just don't actually have any

It appears she considered all of these accusations as a single offense ( which is why she called Watson a first time offender ) which to me really makes no sense at all

However that said there's nothing stopping the league from publicly stating that they'd like to establish a new precedent here


I don't think anyone would be upset if the league said

" we understand why the judge ruled as she did even if we don't agree with it. However we believe that in the past we didn't take these actions as seriously as we should have and we'd like to let our players and fans know that going forward we will be doing a far better job of recognizing how serious these cases are. In accordance we are upping the suspension in this case and that will be the new standard for all cases like this"

Only four accusers were in the record, per Robinson. She didn't consider the others.

 

[rmilia1]

Only four accusers were in the record, per Robinson. She didn't consider the others.

Sure. It's still more than 1 though. Send like she lumped them all together as one case

 

[Stakesarehigh]

Only four accusers were in the record, per Robinson. She didn't consider the others.

It would seem there is a reason for that as well as the grand jury only taking 5 into consideration.

 

[wilwhite]

Yep....this was actually part of Robinson's report. NFL needs to make these decisions without what the blowback might be. You would make the decision out of emotion.

This is not about justice, in the end. It's about what's best for the NFL as a business, taking contract law into consideration. It's about costs and revenue.

From a business perspective, the next step by the NFL will have both upsides and downsides, some of which are hard to gauge without a crystal ball. None of them are decisive on their own.

Robinson's ruling wasn't crazy if you only count four cases, given the Winston precedent and Watson's "clean slate." So the NFL/Goodell can certainly accept it. Or they can opt to go on the high side per case and consider more than four cases, or consider premeditation, which was obviously lacking in Winston's case.

 

[wilwhite]

Sure. It's still more than 1 though. Send like she lumped them all together as one case

Winston got three games for groping an Uber driver - and had been warned by the league beforehand.

 

[wilwhite]

It would seem there is a reason for that as well as the grand jury only taking 5 into consideration.

Cases being settled with confidentiality clauses, and the women not wanting publicity, probably played a big role.

 

[Stakesarehigh]

Cases being settled with confidentiality clauses, and the women not wanting publicity, probably played a big role.

For the NFL of recent sure...but much of this (the grand jury especially) was handled before they settled.

 

[wilwhite]

Having had a day to think about it, Winston's three-game suspension isn't quite apples-to-apples because he didn't plan it. It's not like he routinely called Uber drivers with the intention of groping them.

Watson's behavior is on a different plane.

In criminal justice, penalties for premeditation are usually at least twice as severe. Even if only four cases, with a six-game suspension for each, that would be 24 games, and then you might knock it down again because he had no prior issues.

Or you could say the whole "prior issue" thing doesn't apply, because every case but the last one was a prior instance, and this was repeated premeditated behavior, not just single-case premeditated behavior.

 

[wilwhite]

For the NFL of recent sure...but much of this (the grand jury especially) was handled before they settled.

That's true. Looks like a first grand jury considered nine cases, and a second grand jury also declined to indict, but we don't know how many cases they were considering.

 

[Cincyfan78]

 

[Stakesarehigh]

That's true. Looks like a first grand jury considered nine cases, and a second grand jury also declined to indict, but we don't know how many cases they were considering.

Sounds about right.

Like I said I think the behavior was egregious enough it's not completely crazy for Roger to tack on some stuff but as I previously mentioned he's wading some precarious waters.

An indefinite suspension given no criminal charges would be absolutely unheard of in all of sports save for gambling and multiple multiple time drug abusers.

 

[Stakesarehigh]

Having had a day to think about it, Winston's three-game suspension isn't quite apples-to-apples because he didn't plan it. It's not like he routinely called Uber drivers with the intention of groping them.

Watson's behavior is on a different plane.

In criminal justice, penalties for premeditation are usually at least twice as severe. Even if only four cases, with a six-game suspension for each, that would be 24 games, and then you might knock it down again because he had no prior issues.

Or you could say the whole "prior issue" thing doesn't apply, because every case but the last one was a prior instance, and this was repeated premeditated behavior, not just single-case premeditated behavior.

This is what is funny about people's memories

We all just gonna forget Jameis had a r*pe case? Ericka Kinsman I believe was her name.

 

[dtgold88]

I don't think they would be concerned about that at all.

But how about Watson? Let's say it goes that way. Normally when filing a matter like this the party who takes it to court would ask the court to delay the suspension while the case is decided upon. These things can last many months and likely go into next year. So now Watson risks losing almost $3M per game more. Think he wants that?

A good point and guessing he does not want that. Guess he'll have to wait and see if Goodell blinks to decide what to do.

The judge did put enough in there to allow him to justify lengthening the suspension (committed some of the acts and lied) question will be do they want to let it just end or spend the next year or longer in depositions, court rooms, etc.

They'd also have a current judge looking at it knowing Goodell threw out the ruling of a peer for his own selfish ruling.

Tough call.

 

[dtgold88]

A federal courtroom and take a year to get there and endanger that 46 million salary.....

Watson would be wise to accept whatever he gets and not endanger future seasons when he'll be older. Take whatever suspension he gets this season and move on.

something to be said for that....but also something to be said for the NFL to just want it to end and not be in the spotlight another year or much longer.