What you’re about to read is not quite a stirring round of applause for NFL commissioner Roger Goodell or another 800-word picking-apart of Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson following the news that Goodell will appeal Watson’s six-game suspension and almost certainly win.
In life, there’s merit in recognizing the moments we fall short of ideal and correcting the behavior (though the real secret sauce seems to be realizing that we fall short more often than we reach whatever ideal would seem to be at the moment and keep chugging anyway). Judge Sue L. Robinson, the NFL and NFLPA’s hand-picked independent arbitrator in these disciplinary cases, pointed out that the NFL’s past precedents in disciplinary cases made it difficult for her to reach the kind of yearlong suspension of Watson the league would have wanted. Very little in the CBA was properly defined. While we don’t need anyone to tell us that dozens of alleged instances of sexual harassment and assault are not good, Robinson believed there was no avenue for her to travel beyond the harshest penalty the NFL handed out for a first-time offender whom she deemed “nonviolent.” Between the lines, one could feel her saying: If you want this so badly, you’re going to have to go ahead and do it on your own.
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