There will be an important step in the ongoing NFL investigation into Deshaun Watson in the coming days. CBS Sports’ Josina Anderson reports (on Twitter) that league officials will meet with him in Texas this week. 
The news comes not long after the civil suits the quarterback is still facing were amended to include counts of negligence and gross negligence. While it remains to be seen what effect doing so will have on the overall outcome of Watson’s upcoming legal proceedings, it was seen as a victory for the plaintiffs with respect to discovery and a wider range of potential punishments.
The NFL investigation remains, of course, separate from the case, which has on two occasions resulted in no criminal charges being filed. The question of whether or not the 26-year-old violated the league’s Personal Conduct Policy remains unanswered, and this sit-down represents the next step in the investigation. A suspension is still a possibility at this point, though it is widely believed Watson will not land on the Commissioner’s Exempt List.
A league spokesperson said, “We will decline comment as the review is active and ongoing” (Twitter link via NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport). While this is a significant step towards a final disciplinary decision being made, the league still has months between now and the beginning of the season to arrive at that decision. Any trial proceedings resulting from the civil cases, meanwhile, will not take place between August 1 of this year and March 1 of 2023, to avoid overlap with the NFL season.
He’ll play again. Say sorry, and set up some foundation too ‘help’ women. Same old story for all pro athletes that get into trouble.
Or they could Trevor Bauer him and write a new story.
If that happens, then Cleveland will un doubtfully be rank as the worse team in all of sports! I guess that would void his contract?
Then Baker proceeds to demand a trade or sit out “for the season if necessary”
ahh karma how I love thee
I don’t know if it would void his contract since it’s not like they could claim they were unaware when giving him the bank.
Either way those draft picks are gone though.
Good point.
His contract was written with a low first year commitment in case there was a suspension. Therefore, voiding the contract won’t happen.
With an injured Baker Mayfield at quarterback last season the Browns still finished 8-9. How do you figure they’ll descend in one season to become “the worse (sic) team in all of sports?????” Have you paid any attention to teams like the Jacksonville Jaguars, the New York Giants, the Chicago Bears, the Montreal Canadiens, the Orlando Magic, the Houston Rockets, the Detroit Pistons, the Cincinnati Reds, or the Baltimore Orioles, just to name a few????? Relax, take a deep breath. The Browns are a decent team with Watson, and probably an average-to-slightly-below average team without him, but far from the worst, even in the NFL.
The Pittsburgh Pirates just said hold my beer
In my best will smith impersonation keep the ny giants name out your damn mouth. Seen my team raise a Lambardi trophy 4 times. Only the pats have had success in my lifetime
True, considering his status. If he were a third string player probably would have been cut and out of the league by now.
1 game suspension per complaint?????
I’d suspect he will play again but the league is in an odd spot here yet again. They’ve spent an exhausting amount of time and energy for equality, peoples choices related to sexuality and womens broader participation in football to name a few. To allow this person to play will clearly demonstrate that the league values money over morals or the cause. Naturally most know the answer to that but this will be yet another point.
The NFL makes some effort to convince the public the owners have a social conscience but it’s just for show. They know football fans are basically the same as junkies who really don’t care about the morals of the person pushing the product as long as they get their weekly fix.
They should “investigate” until February 2023 and then suspend him for the 2023 season and outwit the Browns and Watsons financial shenanigans LOL. They should also fine the Browns big time for those devious moves. Goodell makes the rules. Remember when he fined the Cowboys $10 million for violating the salary cap in 2010 when there was NO salary cap?
The Cowboys were devious and it cost them!
What “devious” moves did the Browns make??? They’ll suffer from overpaying the Texans for a quarterback that they have also agreed to overpay, but the Browns made a completely above-board, perfectly legal move by acquiring Watson. If you’re questioning the judgment or morality of the Browns making the trade, fine, I’m with you there, but there was nothing “devious” about the trade and the Browns should have no obligation to pay a “big time” fine. Their punishment will be trying to explain to women in general, female football fans in particular, and their own female employees that they respect them and their concerns.
I believe jorge was referring to the contract keeping his salary low for the 2022 season so that any suspension would result in Watson losing minimal money.
That’s been done before, and I also believe it was done this time because the league and team were in communication with each other and the Brownies may already be aware of the discipline.
That’s done on a lot of contracts. Which is why teams suddenly have to eat dead cap space later in the contract to move on from a non-performer. They gamble that they’ll get the SB win and kick the payment down the road. But the Browns are still a miserable lot.
It’s done on a lot of contracts, but this is different since the entire thing is guaranteed and his rate is flat across the span of it. He’s making $46M base every year EXCEPT year 1. Generally the base will escalate throughout the course of the contract in order to pull cap savings forward without jumping dramatically. But that’s not what is happening here.
Go to Overthecap and check Aaron Rodgers, Matthew Stafford and Patrick Mahomes contract structures. I’m not saying Cleveland operated in a vacuum on this without some concern over suspension, but this isn’t that unique. Sometimes its done to help with keeping near term cap space like having a $19M QB you insulted to the world and wonder why no one wants to trade for him. Or, a team may not have enough cash on hand to payout a big salary in Yr 1 after paying out a big signing bonus in Yr 1 as well, or a team could be sitting on a giant amount of dead cap space ($15M for Cleveland by the way) and can’t afford a big Yr 1 payout.
I understand how the contracts normally work. What makes this one different from those, as I pointed out previously, is that every year after this one, the contract has the same hit, which is what screams shenanigans. The cap hit will generally escalate as the team will expect the cap to go up.
The Browns currently have $27M in cap space and that’s with Watson on a $10M cap hit. While they couldn’t add another full $36M, pushing $9M/year for 4 future years was not necessary. Having money on hand isn’t really an argument either, as the payout on the signing bonus is immediate. If the bonus was less and the base was more, they’d be paying that money over the course of the season instead of all at once.
If you actually view Watsons’ contract against those other guys you mentioned, it’s even easier to see how different they are. And taking into account that the entire contract is guaranteed, the only reason to structure it like this is to protect the hit Watson would take from losing game checks to suspension this year.
It is possible and likely that the Browns are inept.
This I can agree with.
So not a Browns fan? Also not a happy person.
Years suspension about to hit Watson for his massage fetish.
“Any trial proceedings resulting from the civil cases, meanwhile, will not take place between August 1 of this year and March 1 of 2023, to avoid overlap with the NFL season.”
Are you kidding me? The CJ system is put on pause during the NFL season? The wealthy/celebrities really are above the law, aren’t they?
Taking the time to do things right the first time reduces the probability of costly appeals which only bog down the system even more.
Doesn’t matter what the legal system decides. This is a guy who hired hundreds of massage women over the internet in order to have sex outside the scope of his relationship with his “girlfriend”. The dude is a major league scum-bag.
You know when Tiger was making his way through every Triple D at least they were all on board.
Did they check IDs vs DMs for all these girls? Any sub-18 and this dude should be wearing a different orange jersey.
Did he invite them to join his poorly thought out team bonding trip to the Bahamas?
He found out the masseuses down there are easier to hire.