Emergency Reaction to Deshaun Watson Ruling

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Speaker 1: Just minutes ago, Judge Sue L. Robinson has informed the parties that DeShawn Watsons should be suspended six games. This comes after the three day disciplinary hearing in June, the long awaited ruling for the Browns quarterback. The NFL p A and DeShawn Watson put out a statement late yesterday saying that they would not appeal the ruling, so six games will stand. From the standpoint of DeShawn Watson and from the nfl PA, welcome to around the NFL, Dan Hansas, Mark Cecli, Greg Rosenthal. Listen, we thought about holding our reaction until our scheduled show this week on Tuesday, but in the end, you know what. We talked about it and we recognize that this has been the story, capital t capitalest of the two offseason. Unfortunately, and let's be real, the potential outcome currently in place right now has a major ripple effect in the a f C and the NFL. The Browns, with DeShawn Watson behind center for the majority of the season, are a Super Bowl contender, whether or not the vast majority of the public eye are into that idea. And you heard in at the top. We've all been reading about it all morning. We all kind of were bracing for something along these lines. But the story is not over yet. Greg Rosenthal, Yeah, I think that's my key takeaway, and it leads like this podcast, for instance, in a strange place because I feel like we don't have the final answer. And it's one of the reasons I wanted to do the podcast was just to make sure our listeners and people understood that, because frankly, I didn't understand that as of a couple of days ago. I don't think a lot of people really understood the disciplinary process. First of all, it's never happened before. It's part of this new collective bargaining agreement. When Ian made that report, the key word in his report to me was recommend and that's really what all all. Sue Robinson is doing here. She's recommending a six game suspension. And the next question to me is just like, how important is this to Roger Goodell, Because ultimately Roger Goodell has the final say. The appeals process, which they collectively bargained for, goes to either Roger Goodell or a designate someone that he chooses to hear that appeal. If there was no suspension, then there could be no appeal. It's over. But now that she has decided and we can get into it like that there was wrongdoing. It is absolutely up to the NFL and Roger Goodell whether they want to raise the six games suspension to something more and for context, they recommended during this hearing that he's to be suspended for at least one year. So to me, this is an incomplete story as of now, and the NFL, just as we're starting to take release the statement. UM that didn't say much, but it did point out that they now have three days in which to file an appeal and they will decide to do that or not, but they will you take that time. It is a story that's just far from over. I I really would expect the NFL to appeal. They're in a They're in a tough spot though, because you know, technically from the construct of the collective bargaining Agreement, this is what was pushed for. That that goes out of the hands of Roger Goodell having the initial say an investigation to this independent arbitrre. That's what's happened. And now you know there either they say the process that we've fought for UM or at least agreed on um is faulty still or we ignore the way this looks to so many different fans because I just think about, um, you know, you're on Twitter all morning, the reaction of our female colleagues, both that NFL media and beyond UM and many of many of our male colleagues too, but just um, it's so it is. I don't think the six games is a shocking result. I mean a lot of people were sort of putting it in that zone as a real possibility. But it's a disappointment because I think of the fact that you know, you've got DeAndre Hopkins, um, six games for p E d S. You've got someone like Josh Gordon who missed I think twenty five games for smoking weed. Um, it just looks disproportionate to all of that. There really isn't a precedent for this case, I don't think. But I would be surprised if the NFL is done with this. I think that they they if they want to really look at this whole case and say, this is how we feel about this kind of behavior from a player. Um, They're not done. There's gonna be there's and then this could drag on now into the regular season if that happens, because the NFL p A could reverse and say we're fighting this in court. I mean, this is not going to end in a couple of weeks. Yeah, this is um. I was just about to bring it up with Tom pel Sero's reporting here that the NFL can go down this road. The NFL, with Roger Goodell prominently involved after the league had um, believes this should be a longer suspension. It feels like this is the next step. They have three days to announce whether they're gonna appeal. Let's assume for a moment that there is an appeal, UM, and let's assume for a moment that the suspension UH goes from six games to something higher. Here's Tom Peliser on Good Morning Football breaking down how this thing could go deeper and deeper and drag longer and longer into the season. If the NFL does in fact appeal, and if the discipline for de Shaun Watson increases, I would fully expect the NFL p A at that point, after firing the warning shots saying they won't appeal last night, would take this to federal court. Would create as much chaos as they can into the regular season. There you go. So this chaos is the word the Pallisero used Greg. So I think the NFL from their perspective, you know, this is also obviously an image issue for the NFL. It's an ugly story. I think they're probably gonna be weighing all these things like, Okay, is six games enough in our mind? No? But do we want to keep fighting this and make this a major story of the NFL season after it just essentially marred their offseason. That's part of this, right, That's why this NFL p A statement that was released Sunday night at I'm just referred to was kind of a red herring because they said, yeah, they we're not going to appeal the ruling um that the NFL goes down, because you know they're gonna win anything anyways, you know, because it's Roger Goodell hearing it. But the fact that they're putting it out there and and Tom isn't just reporting this in a vacuum that they could take it to federal court and string this out. If you remember Ezekiel Elliott, a very similar situation happened, and and that actually isn't It's not a one to one comparison. But it is an interesting recent case um where Ezekiel Elliott, who the NFL decided um credibly you know, did commit some domestic violence and they suspended him for six games. And that was one incident. And I thought it was interesting that that to uh Robinson, the former U. S. District Court judge said in this result that even even though there were all of these victims, and to be clear, Watson just settled with four more victims. So that's twenty three that he is settled with in his paying money to and the Texans settled with thirty of them. They they she pointed out that there was no physical violence, and she made a difference between that the that there wasn't violent acts. The only thing with that federal case and we're not lawyers, and this is not our strength, is not what we want to be like diving deep into is like there's no rule that the federal judge would want to hear the case, that they would believe that it was okay. They could slap it down immediately. There is if the NFL wants, If the NFL's goal was to get Watson suspended one year, like their perfect outcome would be they do the appeal um Goodell or whoever he decides the sides it's a year. The nfl p A tries to take it to court and immediately they they could say no, we we don't think that's a credible thing to hear and slap it down and it's over right there, So that that's a potential outcome there. Mark. The one thing I would push back just slightly about is about like the process, you know, whether it would make their process look silly, because ultimately it's like Roger Goodell uh is now giving the final answer, even though they were trying to make it look like he didn't. And and that's true. I think in a perfect world they would have loved Sue Robinson to just give the year and then he doesn't have to get involved. But they negotiated this process, like the appeal with Goodell having the final hammer is the process, and I'm sure that the nfl p A when they were going back and forth, we're trying to prevent that from happening, and they gave up on it that ultimately it's sort of for show, and yes, they like having the arbiter to start, but in the end, it's kind of like that GM coach who has the final say, who has the final power discussion we always have with teams. Roger Goodell has the final power in all of these cases because as long as there's some suspension, he gets to decide on the appeal. And to me, like they bargained in the NFL p A agreed to that that he has the final say. Oh that's fair. I mean I I first of all, I think that if you're Roger Goodell and you're the NFL, what needs to come out of this? This is my opinion that you need to tell fans and people and supporters of the sport and those who cover the sport that justice be served in a in a way that most can agree with. And I think in general, you look at the six game suspension and it feels really light in comparison to other suspensions for much less She called it egregious behavior, for much less egregious human behavior than what we know about the Deshaun Watson case. So, if you're Goodell, like I think, this is a case where oh, yes, we did agree to this new process, but you do have that power to step in and change the result. I mean, the one thing I'd say though, is that her fact finding. They're not going to reopen the case and go through it all again. That's all sealed up and done, so this could go to court. And that's what That's what I read over and over, and that's what we don't see that report. And they they established the precedent, which was new in the Washington Commanders UH investigation into Dan Snyder a couple of years ago. But that was new usually, you know, you remember the flake Gate. We got like, uh, we got two Russian novels out of the flake Gate. And it's weird to me that there's a fifteen page document where she explained her findings that were not going to see and maybe maybe there could be pressure to get that out there too. A couple other things that I don't believe that we've touched on here. That so, yes, six games, Sue Robinson recommends there's no fine. And as we know when the story first broke and we learned about the nature of the contract, the guaranteed contract of the Browns had cooked up to Lauer, Deshaun Watson to Cleveland Um, the first year of salary was very it's a very backloaded contract. So it turns out to be about three forty grand I'm reading I saw three thirty three in one place, three forty three in another. So the money, uh, in terms of what this is gonna cost de Shaun Watson if this holds, is obviously for him a drop in the bucket. Also, part of the ruling from Robinson states that he's not able to get massages from any any place that's not essentially team mandated, which is just I mean, when you take a step back, how absurd that this is even something that's a major part of this. But yes, Deshaun Watson can't do that on his own anymore because of everything that's happened. It has to be from the team and from like a from a Cleveland Brown standpoint. Again, you imagine there are you know, some high fives going on in Barria because this is playing out so far exactly how they hoped it would play out, which is, we got this guy in the building, We finally have solved our quarterback conundrum of the last forty years. Uh, and the suspension. They probably made the deal initially thinking there's a decent chance, given everything that's going on, that we're gonna have to punt on year one of the contract, uh and everything that goes along with it. Well, that's no longer the case. If this again stands as it does, Uh, the Browns just have to tread water for six weeks. And if Watson is as good as he has been in his career, and this is for now a little bit because he hasn't played in so long, he didn't play last season of course with the Texans. He's a damn good quarterback. And in that NFC, A f C and North, I think the Browns are a major player with Watson if he hits the ground running there. So this is this has a major ripple effect. And you know, you can you could be very down about the Browns and what they were willing to give up to get this player in their building. But from their perspective, they won. This is this is a big deal for them. If this is how it holds, uh, just the way it is. You know, I was listening to like local Cleveland radio this morning just to kind of get that take, and you know, listening to fans and some players they had on and like, I think their perspective is so many from many of them, so different than um. How what we've talked about in our angle on it and how we generally, the three of us seemed to feel it's just I think they do view a large chunk of the fans are just like, we're over this situation. We're tired of the story. He's gonna be back playing And I can't reconcile that personally, um, but that that's just out there, that's going to be out there with every fan base. And you know at this point he's scheduled to come back um October against the Ravens, and you know people are saying on six games is a big chunk of the season. We know that that's just not true in the NFL, I mean, there's so much time for them to make up ground depending what happened from a football perspective. But I just cannot believe that we come out of this in the end with the six games suspension. I just I don't think part of this is this started with Ray Rice. I mean it didn't start there, but that was a major flash point with how fans and and people in general view the NFL's process on things like this. That was egregious. This is egregious. If this ends up at six games, I'll be stunned. I just I can't believe this is the final move by the league. I agree, which is why, um, I'm struggling to say that much definitive because I want to find out the final answer first, Like I was, like, before we move on to what it's going to be for the Browns, I want to know what the answer is of how many games Jacoby Brisset and and and I just think for all the fans celebrating and and for all the people understandably frustrated with this result, my my take would just be, wait, like, let's let's see, because the NFL went pretty hard recommending minimum year during the hearing that that was pretty hard, Like they went to the map trying to get him suspended that far, saying that they wanted to and and if they really like believe that in their souls that that was the right thing to do, they can do it. That's it, Like they can chew like if if the the same people who are pushing for the year suspension are going to get to decide if he still is suspended for a year, and maybe that'll get mixed up in federal uh court cases, maybe not, And that would might be a long shot for the NFL p a to overturn anyway, So it all just feels incomplete. And everyone, look, if you missed most of Watson episodes in the offseason, god bless you. Uh you know, it's not like we enjoy this topic. But I think we've been pretty clear about where we stand on it, and and we've talked a lot about you mentioned ray Rice. Just one last quick thing is just there wasn't video of this, and no one cared about ray Rice that much until there was video. And it does make you think, like, look, if there was a video of of this, not that anyone who will want to see any of it, um like that that would have an impact the the the amount of women that um he's ended up settling with out of court is just hard to to uh wrap your mind around. And and that's why I think the NFL knows that like any talking point from the agent, which is clearly coming from the agents, like, well, the NFL has to decide whether they make their process look bad. It's like no one gives, no one cares about their process. This is a brand new process we just learned about yesterday. Second of all the appeals is the process the process. The whole hime that the nfl p A agreed to was Roger Goodell gets the final say in the end, unless there's no suspension in which he can't just like create one whole cloth. Ultimately, the nflp A kind of decided, hey, in the end, you're the commission. You can do whatever you want, and so we'll see like if Roger Goodell basically wants to use that power. But they don't believe that. That's not where they stand on this. That's why you were saying they got ahead of at the union. I think they do know it, and that's why they're publicly positioning themselves at the point is that they said, we're not going to we are not going to appeal this because we both agreed, the NFL agreed, We agreed that Sue Robinson was going to basically figure this out and then they're going to Then if the NFL does say, we're going to now decree that this needs to be way more harsh than what's robin, it's gonna be war you are. That's that's that's why that was just a pr thing, because ultimately they are appealing it, and ultimately they know Goodell would have never changed their appeal to the NFL, and ultimately they signed all the c b A remons because they got the money that they wanted. And this was an important thing that the NFL wanted, was they Yeah, they they changed up the disciplinary process to make it look better and to change it up a little bit. Ultimately, NFL was really important that Goodell kept that hammer, and the NFL p A essentially traded a percentage of the revenue to let Goodell keep the hammer. And here's here's this chance to do what he wants. And I guess my point, my overarching point is this, I agree with everything you're saying. But if Roger Goodell in the NFL come comes in and ups the suspension, obviously the union then is going to come in and fight that tooth and nail, whether or not they what they agreed to for the c b A, and then the federal courts get involved. So if if you're saying right now and not you, but collectively, don't put too much into six games right now, it could change if it goes up to a year or indefinite, I guess don't put too much into that either, because there's a whole next step to the legal process that we're all going through. We're all it's a crash course for all of us. And again, none of this is pleasant. This is we're gonna have tecks, We're gonna have training camps that we're gonna and slogans. You know. Yeah, so we knew, we knew we needed to hit the story here. It comes to you the people. Um and tomorrow we're gonna have a full show, a lot of fun. Like Greg said, we're gonna hit all the updates to training camp. We're gonna have Connor Or with team Slogans two, and we're going to rams camp at the end of the week. But Mark, we had to hit it. And that's the way former brown former Browns fan, we we uh, you know, there are times when you need an emergency pod. This was one of those times. We've been tracking this story NonStop and we are not going to be done tracking this. I sent you. I think we'll be talking about it again tomorrow, depending on what happens. Uh, you're probably right, Geez, You're probably right, Sessa. All right, until Tuesday, do what you gotta do. And you know what that is. He to call Ti