As the Deshaun Watson hearing continues on Thursday, the discussion around him continues to heat up as well. The Cleveland Browns quarterback could be facing a significant suspension for a potential violation of the league's personal conduct policy.
92.3 The Fan's Browns beat reporter Daryl Ruiter and Andy Baskin pulled the curtain back a bit on the case on the latest episode of It’s Always Gameday in Cleveland.
The NFL “made it known that their position is that they feel that Deshaun Watson in fact did violate the league conduct policy. They wanted an indefinite suspension with at least one year minimum of ban for him,” Ruiter said (2:17 in player above).
“Meanwhile, Watson’s camp in conjunction with the NFLPA is trying to make the case to the independent arbiter that Deshaun Watson did not violate the conduct policy and that the suspension the league is seeking is unprecedented, uncalled for, heavy-handed, however you want to describe that. And again, making their case as to why Deshaun Watson should be allowed to play football in 2022.”
“There’s posturing, on both sides, going on,” Ruiter said.
He thinks the NFL “really wanted it known what they were looking for as far as discipline against Deshaun Watson and to really show how serious they took these allegations. Clearly, they have found something that has bothered them to the point that they would seek this type of discipline against the player.
“And on the flip side, Watson’s camp clearly wants it out there, 'Hey, he hasn’t been charged with a crime. These are allegations first and foremost. They’ve not even been adjudicated in civil court.' Watson did settle 20 of those cases. So if the league wants to argue bad press, Watson’s camp can say, ‘Hey, well we did what we could to settle this thing down by settling some of these suits and getting these things out of the headlines.’”
However, despite what Watson’s camp may be trying to argue, the headlines aren’t going away anytime soon. And the “consistent and constant slow drip" of fresh allegations or lawsuits is something that Ruiter thinks is a “chief concern” for the league.
“I think there’s some concern from the NFL that although Deshaun Watson has settled 20 of these 24 cases, more stuff potentially could come out,” Ruiter continued. “Had they settled with him on, for the sake of the discussion here, on six to 10 games, in that range, and more lawsuits were filed or more allegations became public. Then the league all of a sudden looks soft in their eyes.”
“It’s a fine line that the NFL is trying to toe here. They clearly want to show that they take the allegations seriously, they are not happy with what they found within their investigation, and they are ready – they would like to drop the hammer accordingly on Deshaun Watson.”
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