“They didn’t want him suspended”: Roger Goodell was COMPELLED by multiple owners to reduce Deshaun Watson’s suspension
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Roger Goodell and Deshaun Watson
Deshaun Watson‘s offseason has been nothing short of a roller-coaster ride, the quarterback had to spend the first couple of months since being traded to the Cleveland Browns in uncertainty over his playing status, when the NFL appointed a federal judge to look into the findings of the investigation conducted by the league and award the QB an appropriate punishment, he got a six-game suspension which was a huge sigh of relief for him. The NFL on the other hand was not happy with this.
Commissioner Roger Goodell has a habit of wanting things to go his way, as per reports that had emerged prior to the arbitrator announcing Watson’s initial punishment, it was reported that Goodell wanted nothing short of a season-long suspension for the Cleveland Browns quarterback but the reason that both sides agreed to appoint an independant arbitrator to look into this matter was so that Watson could avoid missing an entire season.
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Roger Goodell wanted to suspend Deshaun Watson for an entire season:
As soon as the initial six-game suspension was awarded, the public reaction was outrageous and the NFL felt it, Roger Goodell wasted no time in announcing that he will be taking matters into his own hands under Article 46 of the league’s rules that gives him the power to appoint an arbitrator of his choice to challenge the inital punishment. Enter Peter C. Harvey, a former District Attorney General who in all likelihood would have suspended Deshaun for a whole season.
However, before he could announce his punishment, the NFLPA and the league settled the case amicably, Deshaun Watson is suspended for 11 games in total and pays a fine of $5 million. This was surprising as many questioned, what led a determined Roger Goodell to agree to a suspension lesser than a year? We finally have the answer. A ‘prominent team executive’ recently told Peter King that the owners across the NFL stepped in and convinced Roger Goodell to not suspend Watson for an entire season.
“There were multiple owners who didn’t want Deshaun Watson suspended for the season, and told Roger Goodell that,” the source stated. This leads to another question, why on earth would other team owners want to intervene in this mess when it had nothing to do with their players? If anything, they would have benefitted in pushing for a season-long suspension as without Deshaun Watson, the Cleveland Browns would definitely have had a losing season. Owners in the league never do anything out of just good heart, the only reason that comes to my mind is all of them would have thought, ‘What if one of my star players ends up in a situation similar to this in the future?’ in that case, the Watson case would serve as a precedent and a season-long suspension would be imminent.
But in this case, by convincing Goodell to ease up and fine the quarterback a high amount but not suspend him for the whole year, they are ensuring that no such precedent comes back to haunt them later on. Many of these owners are also attempting to get back at Cleveland as the team has ruined the quarterback market by offering $230 million, all guaranteed to Watson. This has led to other stars in the league such as Lamar Jackson who are in the process of negotiating an extension to value themselves in that ballpark. If Watson were to be suspended for a whole year, it would have taken Cleveland off the hook for paying a year worth of his salary but since that will not be the case, the team has to pay him what they have promised him.
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Sumedh Joshi
(2245 Articles Published)