The NFL Finally Does Something Meaningful
Whelp, there it is. Watson gets 11 games off. He also gets a measly 5 million dollar fine, which is roughly 2% of his huge guaranteed contract. That’s it. What a joke. The one time we could have actually used Goodell’s overreach and punishment hardon, we get this result.
Yes, 11 games is more than 6, so that’s a mild improvement. It’s not even double the original suspension. Some have theorized that he got 11 games due to avoid tolling his contract, meaning he gets his 43mil next year instead of pushing it back, but others have pointed out that particular hiccup only affects rookie contracts and does not matter for Watson’s. I find it hard to believe his contract language wasn’t at play here somehow though. 11 games is a very weird number, as much as we like to joke that Goodell hands down arbitrary punishments, there had to be some logic at work to end up here.
Was it specifically to make it so that he comes back against the Texans? If the NFL actually did that purposefully, knowing the shitstorm that is going to cause, then holy mother of god fuck the NFL with a large stone gargoyle right in the uethra. The NFL is stupid but I can’t believe they’d actually do that. I think the 11 games is based around some contract bullshit, but we can’t put it past these losers.
Watson effectively gets away with it. The man was a sexual predator and has effectively parlayed that into a tremendous amount of money from people who don’t care about morality, and lots of Browns fans will happily shove Deshaun the person off to the side to cheer for Deshaun the touchdown thrower. Watson’s already paraded around the press gauntlet proclaiming his innocence and saying people got triggered. The Browns are happily trying to gaslight the issue out of the way. There we have it. If you can play football, you can be a sexual predator, and it won’t matter. A few games off means jack shit. We couldn’t even get a full season off for the man. Disgusting.
I’ve seen a lot of people rooting for injuries or jokingly saying we need Gregg Williams back. I can’t bring myself to actually root for injury, it doesn’t feel right to me. Not even here. My hope, my sincerest hope, is that Watson just shits the fucking bed all on his own. That would be the most justice I could think of, for him and the Browns. Get locked in that huge contract and the guy just fucking sucks ass. That would be some level of justice. The Browns deserve to stay in quarterback hell for this one.
A comment from jon bois’s youtube “The Browns Live in Hell” put it perfectly
“They’ve lived in hell for years
And now they’ve committed sin”
So the story of Colin Kaepernick seems more vicious
I know a few of us women Texan fans are trying to start up a boycott of week 13. Hoping other fans join in. If enough fans are willing to stand by women and not watch one weekend, maybe the NFL might take this seriously… realistically they’ll just shoot another “No More” commercial and pat themselves on the back.
11 Games is effectively 2/3 of the season and that makes it feel like a compromise between the league and NFLPA for sure. As disgusting as the verdict is, I think the NFL did the right thing business wise in making sure to negotiate and come up with a settlement all (NFL related) parties could agree on. Ignoring the arbitration after it’s 1st time in use would have pissed off the NLFPA and made likely made the removal of the ‘commissioner’s choice’ style of punishment a sticking point in the next contract between the league and union.
And the Union would get (rightfully) raked over the coals if they didn’t go along with the suspension of a serial sexual abuser.
The NFLPA was in a no-win situation here. They can’t not defend Watson, no matter how much of a scummy toerag he is, that would harm their ability to protect another player who isn’t a total bag of human excrement
It disgusts me that Kaepernick was considered poison and was effectively blackballed from the league. He couldn’t even get a backup spot because he would be a “distraction”.
And then this chucklehead gets paid a fortune after doing things exponentially worse. To be *maybe* the 5th best QB in the conference. The man racked up numbers playing the AFC south twice a year when they were even worse than they are now.
Even as soneone who disagreed with Kaep’s protest, what he did is nowhere near as bad as what Watson did. Rae Caruth is a better human than Watson, because at least Rae only ruined 2 peoples lovrs. Watson ruined 60+ and counting (not even Cosby is as bad as Watson).
Look… you can be hyperbolic all you want, but Cosby intentionally and actively DRUGGED and RAPED people. Watson is a world-class scumbag, no doubt, but Cosby is on a whole different level.
And this comes from someone who grew up on Fat Albert, Picture Pages, the Cosby Show, and listening to his comedy routines.
https://people.com/crime/rae-carruth-wants-custody-son-chancellor/#:~:text=Carruth%20is%20currently%20serving%20an%2018%20to%2024-year,Carruth%20will%20never%20have%20custody%20of%20his%20son.
Carruth impacted more than two people’s lives with what he did. You’re not thinking of the friends and family it impacted. Also he tried to get custody of the kids he murdered that woman over
HOW ABOUT FUUUUCK THE ENNN EEFFF ELLL? don’t give them another dime or another slice of time. not just one game. ever again. they don’t fucking care about you. all they want is your money, directly (dime) or indirectly (time, clicks, attention).
I’M DONE. FUCK THESE PEOPLE. I’ve never given them a dime, but now I’m done even passively paying attention. it’s too infuriating.
this week, i neglected to renew my defector subscription; in part because of a general realignment of my life and habits (quit drinking, finally did a total social media purge) but also because i resent giving any brain share to these living sharts.
i’ll probably continue to read TDP, but that will be the limit of my voluntary exposure to pro sports of any kind.
at a certain point, you gotta stop suckin the cloaca.
peace.
Convenient, for you to say, seeing as how you’ve watched your team win enough championships that I’m sure it got boring at one point. Some of us are still waiting…
the name is semi-ironic, since i never really gave that much of a shit about the pats per se. the sport itself, its chess-like intricacies, and its importance to the culture at large is what drew me. like i said, i never attended a game, or bought a jersey, or participated in fandom per se. but i feel i’ve dipped my toe in that cesspool sufficiently.
It’s definitely short enough to reach the Texans game, and that’s immature as fuck. This isn’t the WWE, wtf are these clowns thinking?
For the first time since Steve Smith, I think I have a reason to root for Carolina.
It’s just sadly believable that this entire new suspension was for the narrative of “Oh my God Watson is coming back for his first game as a Brown against his old team in the Texans!”
I hope every stadium Watson plays in erupts into deafening “you sick fuck” chants so the NFL has to mute the on-field mics and families stop taking their children to games and they lose money
Remember when the browns were the plucky up and coming underdogs that you wanted to see succeed? Man they took a heel turn. Tbh I’m ashamed of my own franchise (carolina) for even making a play for him.
Dolphins fan here, totally get you and totally agree
I’m so glad we got the other Cleveland QB instead. Would be poetic to see the Browns flounder with Watson while Baker revitalizes his career with us.
I want to see the Browns go 11-6 this season.
I would prefer to see them go 6-11. No playoffs, nothing but sadness.
What about 11-6 and miss the playoffs anyway
What?! Why would you want them to win that many — oh . . . right! I’m with you, my man.
4-13 for me, with Watson winning only one. No success.
I’m kinda confused. I know the suspension had to be agreed upon, but can’t the commissioner’s office fine him whatever the heck they want? Conduct detrimental and all that drivel? Or did that get changed in the the last CBA.
On the brighter side, the lack of rollover on the contract does mean the Browns have hamstrung their cap situation with all the guaranteed money.
My deepest wish is that whoever plays those 11 games, goes 11-0 and they cant stomach pulling him from the field. They then take the Browns to the championship, win it, and Deshaun has no shot of making QB1 ever again, with Brisset or Dobbs taking the Browns to 5 more championships, and Deshaun never seeing the field in CLE, ever.
Ah, the Vic Mackey fate.
Nah the Haslams don’t deserve success for what they did
You’re a better man than me, Dave, because I’m hoping Watson gets Theismanned on his first play.
Everyone’s heard of/seen the “Terrible Towels.” Time to pack the stadium with Tiny Towels everytime Deshaun steps on the field.
DING DING DING we have a winner!
LOLOLOL
See name.
Here’s what really happened:
Goodell allowed that 6-8 week leak to happen. The adjudicator issues a 6-game ban due to previous punishment history for similar actions (Ray Rice, etc). Behind the scenes, you can bet Goodell has been burning the phones between him/NFL Marketing/Advertisers like GM, Proctor and Gamble, Walmart and figuring out where they are going to stand when it comes to splurging on advertisement dollars. Then the NFLPA probably pre-filed a grievance to the punishment and ultimately were likely involved with Goodell. This was engineered. 11 games without a #1 QB probably takes the Browns out of the postseason chase by Week 12 when their bye is. Watson comes back during the bye and lo and behold the schedule has happened to engineer a ratings bonanza. Cleveland plays Houston week 13 out of that bye. What would that be for the league with a Houston (arrow trending up with Lovie) team that could potentially stomp out the last hopes for this year’s Browns with that whom hath sinned. It’s so bad, it could have come straight from the desk of Vincent Kennedy McMahon.
Don’t pay any attention to my corkboard covered in red yarn…
Hear me out on this one: Brisset or whoever the Browns play at QB balls out till Week 11. Waston comes back and royally sucks, so much that the fans call for his head. The Browns, realizing their mistake, bench Waston for the other guy (but still die in the first round because they don’t deserve nice things). Waston gets mad and demands a trade, everyone is up in arms about it until the Browns send him to *drumroll* The Commies! Dan Snyder, being the football genius that he is, thinks it’s a good idea to bring in Watson after Wentz inevitable dies. The media circus surrounding those two rises to a crescendo, we heard about even worse things those two have already done (but not that they do then, they’ve caused enough harm already) and somehow, it’s finally enough to send Snyder over the edge while Waston keeps being terrible at football.
Never gonna happen in a million years… But it’s nice to think about
14 teams inquired about Watson, 4 were in the final round. So can we not pretend that the ability to look away is exclusive to the browns. They are the ones that win the shut show lottery but they weren’t the only ones trying to win it.
The main thing about this, while true, is that we don’t know what the other teams in the running were offering. I assume the final 4 also had sickening offers but all we really know is what the Browns put forth, which was a deal that Watson would be stupid to turn down.
We dont know which teams that inquired were honestly just curious and immediately balked. Im not surprised he got attention, it was the extent of what the Browns gave him that was so gross
Everything I heard everything was already agreed to before the teams were allowed to even speak with him so the offers had to the same or very similar
And the original reportings were he turned down the browns at first but decided to sign with them because of they had the better roster out of the final four
Two owners came forward and said they were furious that Watson didn’t let them match the Browns’ offer. This isn’t a Browns sin.
Yes it is?
Two other teams also being morally bankrupt doesn’t make the Browns less gross for this
This may not be over yet. Part of the settlement is that Watson see a therapist and take responsibility for his actions. Immediately after signing the settlement, he went public with “I’m innocent” and people are “triggered”. That may very well violate the terms, and open the door for the NFL to increase the punishment. If not, the therapist can say that he isn’t showing contrition, and not approve his reinstatement. Could it be that the NFL is playing 4D chess, knowing that Watson couldn’t resist insisting that he’s innocent or that he wouldn’t show contrition to the therapist so they could jack the punishment even more?
I feel like the fact that he was accused of the same number of sexual assaults as Roethlisberger was of rapes really gets lost in the narrative. “26 women” really buries the facts – two accused him of SA, the rest were civil cases of misconduct. Of course that’s bad, but there’s no way he deserves more vitriol and a worse punishment than Roethlisberger deserved.
That’s not even taking into consideration that unlicensed masseuses are the most likely workers to be prostitutes in a country where sex work is banned. It’s in neither the masseuses’ nor Watson’s interests to make that claim, though, so we will never know – but I’d wager a nonzero percent of those masseuses were offering happy endings as part of their massages.
jesus fucking christ man I’ve seen plenty of Browns fans do their due diligence in downplaying his actions as much as possible so they can rationalize away rooting for him, but you are the first I’ve seen literally victim blame and try and pin down the masseuses as part of the problem simply based on conjecture around the industry having some shady elements.
Jesus
Am I crazy or was there talk of Watson being willing to settle for a 12 game ban plus fine? Then the NFL comes out with a final 11 game ban.. well short of Goodells tough talk and gets him back juuuuust in time for Browns vs Texans
The NFL is using a sexual predator to sell a storyline and make bank on the narrative of the game.
As a Redskins/WFT/Commanders (ugh) fan, PLEASE kick Dan Snyder out.
I think they may be also considering as “time served” the full year Watson didn’t play, last year. If they consider it a year + 11 games that’s harsher?
He should be out completely IMO, I’m not making excuses here. Just trying to read the tea leaves.
Last year was Watson sitting out on purpose and getting paid the entire time, so it really doesn’t count and I don’t think the NFL considered it either since it was his choice
Original punishment: 6 games, no fine
NFL proposed: 17 games, $10 mil fine
Final punishment: 11 games, $5 mil fine
They pretty much exactly split the difference.
He obviously knew something was coming so cleverly arranged his contract so that money lost from a suspension would be almost nothing. 11 game checks next year would have cost him almost $30mil, instead of only $600K. If they really wanted to punish him financially the league could have dragged the appeal out until next season and really hurt him in the pocketbook.
Brady did the same thing post-deflategate so that in case he did wind up getting suspended, the money lost was minimal.