The twists and turns of the Deshaun Watson situation continued after his punishment was announced on Thursday. The Cleveland Browns quarterback maintained his innocence despite statements made to the contrary by Judge Sue L. Robinson and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.
Watson’s apology last week already looked suspect, and his comments on Thursday only made it worse.
John McClain and Sean Pendergast of Audacy's "Houtopia Football Podcast" didn’t hold back in their thoughts about Watson’s punishment and comments.
“Basically, I guess Deshaun Watson apologized late last week for being innocent of all these accusations,” Pendergast said (5:15 in player above). “What is going on?”
“I’m stunned that the Browns let him talk about this, but they do, and he keeps putting his foot in his mouth. Sue Robinson called him predatory. Goodell called him predatory, egregious. She said that he violated the personal conduct policy on all three accounts that the NFL had accused him of. And (Thursday) he said ‘I’ve always stood on my innocence and always said I’ve never assaulted anyone or disrespected anyone. I’m going to continue to stand on my innocence,’” McClain said.
“And then asked why he settled, he said because when you settle it doesn’t mean you’re guilty. So he’s still claiming he’s innocent and everything Sue Robinson found and everything Goodell found he says is not true and I would imagine we will hear from Tony Buzbee and probably Ashley Solis about this. But boy, that shows you how fake that apology was to Aditi Kinkhabwala last week.”
Prior to the Browns' preseason game in Jacksonville, the Browns released a video of Watson apologizing to "all of the women that I have impaced in this situation." Now he’s singing a different tune, but that’s what Watson has been doing this whole time.
“This is Deshaun Watson’s MO this whole time. He doesn’t do things that everybody says he should do until he’s absolutely painted into a corner and faced with some degree of football mortality,” Pendergast said. “Everybody said a year and a half ago he should be settling these lawsuits so he can move on, and he tries to maintain his innocence and reclaim his good name – which he’s never ever ever gonna do ever again, that’s a futile effort. He finally ends up settling over a year later.
“The league tries to engage him in settlement talks and those break off, and until it looks like he’s going to get suspended for a year he’s like ‘Oh no I want to settle.’ Lucky for him the league probably just didn’t want to go to court over this whole thing so they settle on 11 games. Even the apology, and the counseling, all the things he said, ‘I don’t have a problem. I don’t need counseling. I have no regrets. I have no remorse.’ And then when he’s faced with a punishment that he doesn’t like, he apologies and goes to counseling. He’s among the most insincere, lacking in self-aware athletes that I can remember in recent history that I’ve covered.”
“And the Haslams look like idiots for saying he’s remorseful when obviously the only thing he’s remorseful about is it became public and they filed several suits and he had to spend a lot of money to settle them,” McClain replied.
Provided that Watson fulfills the requirements of the punishment, he is slated to make his Browns debut in Week 13 on December 4th in Houston against his former team.
Related
Related
LISTEN on the Audacy App
Sign Up and Follow Audacy Sports
Facebook | Twitter | Instagram