Trade: [CLE/HOU] Deshaun Watson (signs 5 years, $230M) and 2024 5th for 2022, 2023, and 2024 1sts, 2023 3rd, 2024 4th

[Tryamw]

NFL appealing Watson's six-game suspension

The NFL said commissioner Roger Goodell will determine who will hear the appeal. Under the CBA, Goodell has the option to consider the appeal himself or can appoint a designee to do so.

www.espn.com

appealed.

 

[93LEAFS]

The statement Robinson made in the initial findings that Watson's "pattern of conduct is more egregious than any before reviewed by the NFL" gives the NFL plenty of cover to add pretty much whatever they want to the suspension. The factual findings were largely in the NFL's favor. Watson is not going to win in court.

There own conduct policy saying owners and management will be treated more harshly than players and they did nothing about Bob Kraft using a literally sexually trafficked women at a "massage parlour" will at least make it interesting. Consdiering they did nothing at all about him.

 

[misterchainsaw]

NFL’s past behavior put them on a terrible situation vs Watson.

They won the case but past acts/current laws didn’t really allow a full year suspension

Robinson's finding that Watson's "pattern of conduct is more egregious than any before reviewed by the NFL" cannot be disputed, and it allows plenty of cover for the NFL to say that previous precedent shouldn't apply since they were all, by Robinson's own words, not as bad in sum than Watson's behavior in sum.

There own conduct policy saying owners and management will be treated more harshly than players and they did nothing about Bob Kraft using a literally sexually trafficked women at a "massage parlour" will at least make it interesting. Consdiering they did nothing at all about him.

Kraft's crime was solicitation of a prostitute (something that's legal in many first world countries). Nothing more, nothing less. The rest is on the massage parlor. And that's nowhere close to the level of Watson's repeated
behaviors.


As an aside - I'm not sure it'd be wise of Watson to go scorched earth on NFL owners given I think he has very little chance of winning in court. That's not something the fraternity of owners is going to look kindly on.

 

[93LEAFS]

Robinson's finding that Watson's "pattern of conduct is more egregious than any before reviewed by the NFL" cannot be disputed, and it allows plenty of cover for the NFL to say that previous precedent shouldn't apply since they were all, by Robinson's own words, not as bad in sum than Watson's behavior in sum.


Kraft's crime was solicitation of a prostitute (something that's legal in many first world countries). Nothing more, nothing less. The rest is on the massage parlor. And that's nowhere close to the level of Watson's repeated behaviors.

A women can't consent if she is being sexually trafficked.

 

[misterchainsaw]

A women can't consent if she is being sexually trafficked.

First, do you have a source for the idea that the women were sexually trafficked? All I can find is that the employees were fined and put on probation for prostitution, and the owner was charged with "soliciting another to commit prostitution"

In fact, the article I found said there was no evidence uncovered of the women being sexually trafficked, although that's what they were first investigating. Here's the quote: "Aronberg would tell a judge in Kraft’s case that investigators had found no evidence of human trafficking." Washington Post (Aronberg being the state DA for Florida)

Regardless, if Kraft didn't have knowledge of that, it's still one case vs. 4 (or realistically, 30, but we'll go with what the NFL presented to Robinson), creating the difference of a pattern of behavoir vs one incident.

 

[BB88]

Robinson's finding that Watson's "pattern of conduct is more egregious than any before reviewed by the NFL" cannot be disputed, and it allows plenty of cover for the NFL to say that previous precedent shouldn't apply since they were all, by Robinson's own words, not as bad in sum than Watson's behavior in sum.


Kraft's crime was solicitation of a prostitute (something that's legal in many first world countries). Nothing more, nothing less. The rest is on the massage parlor. And that's nowhere close to the level of Watson's repeated
behaviors.


As an aside - I'm not sure it'd be wise of Watson to go scorched earth on NFL owners given I think he has very little chance of winning in court. That's not something the fraternity of owners is going to look kindly on.

I mean I hope he gets more than he got.

This was a joke but with their past behavior there’s a chance this doesn’t end up well for NFL due to their past behaviour/rules.

I watched lot of interviews about this but doN really know how to write it in english

 

[GKJ]

I found the answer. There are caps for how much players can be fined for things happening related to games (big hits, uniform violations, etc.), but there is no limit for fines falling under the personal conduct policy. So the league could try to slap Watson with a huge fine.

Which would get maximized out of his contract if he’s not suspended until next year.

A short answer on the rest of this.



I don’t want to ‘gotta hand it’ to the NFL, but it says something that they’re willing to put their own owners out in the open for this. No player is richer than any one owner, but this has greater potential to get extremely ugly than we thought. Kraft was brought up, Jerry Jones has recent stuff out there in him too. They’re kind of putting it all on the line here to basically force themselves to clean up their business and crush the union at the same time.

 

[93LEAFS]

First, do you have a source for the idea that the women were sexually trafficked? All I can find is that the employees were fined and put on probation for prostitution, and the owner was charged with "soliciting another to commit prostitution"

In fact, the article I found said there was no evidence uncovered of the women being sexually trafficked, although that's what they were first investigating. Here's the quote: "Aronberg would tell a judge in Kraft’s case that investigators had found no evidence of human trafficking." Washington Post (Aronberg being the state DA for Florida)

Regardless, if Kraft didn't have knowledge of that, it's still one case vs. 4 (or realistically, 30, but we'll go with what the NFL presented to Robinson), creating the difference of a pattern of behavoir vs one incident.

I guess I confused the original story, with what later came out. But, either way. It's suspect as hell for a "message parlor" to have a bunch of women on temporary work visas, and if we are going off what the law determined, Watson was cleared (although he def deserves punishment).

 

[misterchainsaw]

I guess I confused the original story, with what later came out. But, either way. It's suspect as hell for a "message parlor" to have a bunch of women on temporary work visas, and if we are going off what the law determined, Watson was cleared (although he def deserves punishment).

Don't confuse "criminally cleared" with "no evidence of" - especially with the news coming out after the fact about the Houston DA's illicit communication with the Texans and Watson's lawyer. DA's control how grand jury cases go to a large extent and it was obviously in the Texans best interest not to have him indicted.

Especially since he civilly settled with 26 girls.

 

[StreetHawk]

I found the answer. There are caps for how much players can be fined for things happening related to games (big hits, uniform violations, etc.), but there is no limit for fines falling under the personal conduct policy. So the league could try to slap Watson with a huge fine.

Given his base salary is only $1 mill the nfl is probably going to fine him a few million. If he was making a base of even $15 mill he’d have lost out on almost $6 mill for his 6 games. This a fine probably would not be super heavy. But with the structure of the contract protecting Watson’s money for this season the nfl is going to issue him a large fine.

Would expect goddell to appoint someone as the face of this decision but we all expect that he’s the one pulling the strings here.

 

[red devil]

 

[93LEAFS]

Don't confuse "criminally cleared" with "no evidence of" - especially with the news coming out after the fact about the Houston DA's illicit communication with the Texans and Watson's lawyer. DA's control how grand jury cases go to a large extent and it was obviously in the Texans best interest not to have him indicted.

Especially since he civilly settled with 26 girls.

Police certainly believed there was evidence of trafficking in that case though and its stated in the original charging documents, if we are going to undermine DA's.

Either way, this is going to get ugly even if Watson loses out in federal court. Will be interesting to see who the arbitrator is if Goodell is actually choosing someone else, and what the final punishment ends up being.

 

[No Fun Shogun]

Goodell to Watson:

Good.

 

[GKJ]

Police certainly believed there was evidence of trafficking in that case though and its stated in the original charging documents, if we are going to undermine DA's.

Either way, this is going to get ugly even if Watson loses out in federal court. Will be interesting to see who the arbitrator is if Goodell is actually choosing someone else, and what the final punishment ends up being.

I think the last time he picked someone, it was Tagliabue during the Saints bounty stuff and it still wasn’t a favorable ruling.

 

[John Price]

Schefter's blatant "collusion" with Watson is very wrong -- and unethical! Media members should not have bias!

 

[Blitzkrug]

This is going to turn into an absolute bloodbath.

The first mistake was assuming Rog would just listen to the ruling from the arbitrator. He's suspended guys for more himself for shit way less heinous than this.

The ruling of a light 6 games has now given the league some ammunition on several fronts;

- The first being since they're clearly trying to save some semblance of the shield's image. They can easily spin cycle the "wow 6 games is BS" into "look at the NFL being the moral paragon and suspending him for more!" And the way short term memory works, everyone will just forget about the other 42 cases of domestic violence/sex crimes they let slide.

- The second being this brings them right into a face to face confrontation with the union. The union will most definitely fight the league on any ruling and Rog gets to flex his muscles to the owners and put those degenerates in their place. Bonus: with no negotiator/arbitrator in the picture now, Goodell could propose damn near any punishment he sees fit. Indefinite suspension? Thrown in a volcano? Forced to a attend a Ray Lewis motivational speaker appearance? the possibilities are endless.

- The third is i'm sure at some point, the league got sick of the near endless stream of bad PR and are looking to make an example out of Watson. Which might actually not be bad for the state of sports as a whole.

This is going to get bowling shoe ugly. Goodell will drop the hammer, which will force the union and watson to retaliate potentially leading to nuclear level fallout in court.

For once, throw the f***ing book at him, Rog. Watson is a scumbag and settling civil suits doesn't just magically erase the fact he's a serial predator. He should be punished and i'd argue the Browns should be as well for being so f***ing no shits given about bringing a guy with that big of a scandal surrounding him.

 

[Dubi Doo]

Wow, Goodell actually doing the right thing. Colored me surprised, although I did vote in another forum that I thought he would appeal. At the very least it would make him look good in a majority of the public's eyes, especially after that center that deals with sexual assault in Houston released a statement.

 

[Voight]

I guess I confused the original story, with what later came out. But, either way. It's suspect as hell for a "message parlor" to have a bunch of women on temporary work visas, and if we are going off what the law determined, Watson was cleared (although he def deserves punishment).

Regardless, how would Kraft know if they were trafficked?

Police certainly believed there was evidence of trafficking in that case though and its stated in the original charging documents, if we are going to undermine DA's.

Either way, this is going to get ugly even if Watson loses out in federal court. Will be interesting to see who the arbitrator is if Goodell is actually choosing someone else, and what the final punishment ends up being.

Would be best to choose a neutral person but there is 0 chance Goodell is going to do that.

 

[Blitzkrug]

Excuse me what?

 

[GKJ]

 

[Voight]

Excuse me what?

Schefter spins whatever narrative the agents and GMs tell him too.

 

[Troy McClure]

Schefter spins whatever narrative the agents and GMs tell him too.

And this isn't even spin. He's reporting what Watson is thinking.

 

[Spring in Fialta]

Schefter spins whatever narrative the agents and GMs tell him too.

How is this spin? He's not giving his take or his opinion. He's just reporting what Watson is directly saying and/or thinking.

 

[TheAngryHank]

In TX anyone have an idea IF for example Watson was criminally convicted of non violent sexual offense what a likely penalty would be? Would someone have to be registered ect.. I'm curious what 1 offense would be then I'll decide what 24+ is and if I'm laying punishment as commissioner what my verdict is.

 

[TheAngryHank]

OK I did some research, it's a 2nd degree felony , can be a 10k fine and between 2-20 years..