NFL Unsure of How (If at All) it will Punish Deshaun Watson

Another sticky situation in player discipline is facing the NFL. 

Deshaun Wilson, the struggling quarterback signed with the Cleveland Browns a 5-year contract worth $230 Million. It is fully guaranteed and the most fully-guaranteed NFL contract. While it should be a cut-and-dry signing of a talented player, there’s more to this than meets the eye.

Watson has been accused of sexual assualt by 22 women whose civil lawsuits are still active, many of whom were massage therapists. While he has been acquitted of any criminal charges, the NFL has yet to determine whether or not they’ll punish him for violating the league’s personal conduct policy.

“We’ve been very clear with every club, whether the criminal matter gets resolved or not, that the personal conduct policy is very important to us,” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said. “They understand that’s something we’re going to pursue.” 

It’s funny that the league seems so concerned about making sure that their personal conduct policy is followed and that they claim they will dish out stern punishments to their employees that harm women. Watson is likely to receive nothing more than a hand-waving, given their record of domestic abuse and assault cases. 

Related: Kaepernick Publicity Stunt Draws Interest From 5 NFL Teams 

Below are several cases of high importance that the NFL was faced with and their outcomes.

• Ray Rice, who beat his fiancée in an elevator lift in 2014, was banned for two games and given a $58,000 fine
• Greg Hardy, who had assaulted his girlfriend in 2014, was initially banned for 10 games. But, after appeal, his suspension was reduced to only four games.
• Adrian Peterson was charged with felony child abuse. However, he only missed four games as well as a fine of $4.1 million in 2014.
• Richard Sherman was charged with two misdemeanors in the summer of 2017. He only paid a few dollars and will have to go to one meeting to make amends. He was not disciplined further by the NFL.

Doesn’t really look like there’s a whole lot of accountability in any of these cases, nor was there any for Watson. Even though he was under investigation, Watson just signed a huge contract, almost two years after he had not played for the team.

We’ll see what happens, but it once again appears that the league that claims to care so much about women won’t be changing their ways.