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.
After the NFL and its players association agreed to a settlement for Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson’s disciplinary process that included an 11-game suspension and a $5 million fine that would be donated to charity, there are now additional details regarding how the quarterback’s contract is impacted.
Watson’s fully guaranteed five-year, $230 million contract included a 2022 salary of just $1.035 million, per ESPN,. The $1.035 million is the minimum ’22 salary for a player who has between four and six years of league service time.
So what will the suspension cost Watson?
Contractually, it will cost Watson a mere $690,000 for the 11 games that he is suspended. Because it was such a small amount, the NFL felt more inclined to include an additional fine as part of the discipline. As such, Watson will now be docked $5.69 million in total between his lost salary per his contract and the league’s $5 million punishment.
More than two dozen women provided detailed graphic accounts of sexual misconduct by Watson during massage therapy sessions when he still played in Houston. The accounts range from Watson 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.”
Watson has reportedly agreed to settle three of the remaining four lawsuits after 20 were settled in late June, per the Harris County District Clerk’s website. Those four remaining suits haven’t been officially settled, and Lauren Baxley is the only plaintiff who hasn’t agreed to settle with Watson.
Watson has denied wrongdoing, and two Texas grand juries declined to indict him on criminal charges this spring. He publicly apologized “to all the women that [he] impacted”—without admitting to any specific offenses—for the first time ahead of Cleveland’s preseason game against Jacksonville.
In a statement released Thursday, Watson delivered a broad apology “for any pain this situation has caused” and took “accountability for the decisions I made.”
