The NFL’s Monday six-game suspension of alleged serial sexual harasser Deshaun Watson demonstrates a “staggering weakness” by slap-on-the-wrist Commissioner Roger Goodell, says Sports IllustratedConnor Orr is a writer.
The suspension was announced by NFL discipline officer Sue Robinson, a former judge who ruled the Cleveland Browns quarterback will be suspended six games for violating the NFL’s Personal Conduct Policy. NFL Players Association, the NFL, and other organizations can appeal the mild punishment or seek greater social benefit. Sports Illustrated reported.
Six games sounds a bit light to me. Calvin Ridley, an Atlanta receiver was banned for betting $1500 on NFL games via a platform that is heavily promoted by NFL hypocrites. Seattle linebacker Mychal Kendricks was suspended indefinitely for insider trading.
Watson was accused of sexual assault by more than two dozen massage therapists, who claim he practically treated them like his own personal sex toys. He was also allowed to collect his mega-pay all of last season while confined to Houston’s sideline, before the Texans traded him to the Brown in the offseason.
Orr blasted Goodell and his woke league for its abysmal history of disciplining wayward players. Orr has not stood up for the women who have been victims to sexual abuse from NFL miscreants. “Whatever flicker of a moral compass existed in this league before his (Goodell’s) takeover has long been extinguished,” Orr said, adding:
The neutral field of football was once a common place. But under Goodell, however, the game has turned into a culture of privilege and manipulation that’s all too common among those who have the means to afford the services of an excellent media-spinner or super-advocate. Be tough on those who are caught cheating with gambling or drugs. However, the man who has allegedly sexually harassed and assaulted multiple women while supporting black-owned businesses is being punished. He threatened their jobs if they didn’t speak up. There’s nothing we can do about that? That sounds horribly familiar.
Robinson called Watson’s atrocious behavior “nonviolent sexual conduct.” That prompted Orr to say this indicates, “We are so far behind the eight ball as a society in recognizing the mental torture that survivors of any kind of sexual harassment or assault are put through. Who are we to define violence, when someone’s life may be totally upended as a result?”
Goodell had many opportunities to speak out against his players’ treatment of women as sex objects. If he doesn’t appeal the flimsy six-game wrist slap, he’ll reinforce the stigma that he’s soft on sexual abuse.
The website Browns Nation isn’t any better than Goodell. It states that people actually “feared he (Watson) will be given a lengthy suspension, possibly for the entire year, or even longer.” Great athletes and football teams rule, their victims drool.
Orr says that no matter what the outcome of Watson’s saga is, the NFL will most likely win. People will keep watching the games, no matter the league’s steady flow of player arrests, suspensions and fines. Broadcasters will gloss over his misdeeds, ask him about his arm strength, rustiness and other trite questions that won’t embarrass the league. The NFL beat continues, with glaring conflicts and all.
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