Editors’ note: This story contains accounts of sexual assault. If you or someone you know is a survivor of sexual assault, contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673 or at https://www.rainn.org
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell called Deshaun Watson’s behavior “egregious” and “predatory” Tuesday in response to a question about the league appealing a disciplinary officer’s recommendation to suspend the Browns quarterback for the first six games of the 2022 season.
“Because we’ve seen the evidence. She [disciplinary officer Sue L. Robinson] was very clear about the evidence,” Goodell said, according to The Washington Post‘s Mark Maske. “She reinforced the evidence that there [were] multiple violations here and they were egregious and it was predatory behavior.”
The league is currently seeking a longer punishment for Watson, who has been the subject of an investigation lasting more than a year regarding allegations of sexual harassment and sexual assault in massage therapy sessions. The NFL’s reported position throughout Robinson’s proceedings was that it wanted an “indefinite suspension” that is no less than one year, according to the Wall Street Journal. Per ESPN’s Adam Schefter, the league will continue to seek that punishment in its appeal, and ESPN’s Jeff Darlington said the NFL is also looking at a possible monetary fine.
Goodell has designated former New Jersey attorney general Peter C. Harvey to hear the NFL’s appeal. Harvey is a member of the NFL’s diversity advisory committee, and served on the committee that suspended Ezekiel Elliott for six games in 2017. The NFLPA has responded to the league’s appeal, it said Friday.
“As you know, it’s part of the CBA,” Goodell said on why the NFL filed its appeal, per Maske. “Two parties had that right. … And that was something that we felt was our right to do, as well as the NFLPA’s, and we decided it was the right thing to do.”
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There is no reported timetable for a decision from Harvey, though the NFL said the appeal will be processed on an “expedited” basis. Browns owner Jimmy Haslam said Tuesday that “we’ll respect and honor the process,” of Harvey’s final ruling, per Maske.
Robinson said in her ruling that Watson engaged in conduct that created “a genuine danger to the safety and well-being of another person.” However, she said Watson’s behavior “does not fall into the category of violent conduct that would require the minimum six-game suspension” that the NFL had established as “by far the most commonly imposed discipline for domestic or gendered violence and sexual acts.”
More than two dozen women have detailed graphic accounts of sexual harassment and sexual assault that occurred during massage therapy sessions with Watson in the Houston area. The accounts range from Watson allegedly refusing to cover his genitals to the quarterback “touching [a plaintiff] with his penis and trying to force her to perform oral sex on him.”
Twenty-five women filed civil lawsuits against Watson starting in March 2021, and only one dropped her case due to privacy concerns, in April ’21. He has now reportedly settled all but one of the civil lawsuits.
The quarterback has denied all allegations against him, and two Texas grand juries declined to indict him on criminal charges earlier this spring. A clause built into Watson’s five-year, $230 million guaranteed contract mandates he will lose only $55,556 for every game he’s suspended this season, amounting to approximately $330,000 if the ruling stands.
