The NFL has announced it will appeal the Deshaun Watson ruling by independent arbiter Sue Robinson, who recommended a 6-game suspension as punishment for a series of sexual assaults by the current Cleveland Browns QB. The sexual assaults were alleged to occur – in staggering numbers – while Watson was a QB for the Houston Texans. Since then the embattled QB has signed a record breaking quarter billion dollar contract with the Browns, which the team, agent, and player successfully structured in order to avoid foreseeable fines in consequence of the alleged assaults.

The ruling by Robinson remains a recommendation under the terms of the bargaining agreement between the NFL and the NFLPA. Under this agreement NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has the final say on disciplinary matters, so the appeal looks like a long PR windup to the NFL landing the case where it wants it to land. But PR matters to a league that regularly alienates about half its potential fan base by soft pedaling disciplinary action in response to crimes against women while some players have lost their entire careers to testing positive for pot.

The NFL looks to want more than a 6-game suspension. If that’s what Goodell wants, acting at the behest of league ownership, that’s what he’ll get. The NFL holds all the cards under the current collective bargaining agreement. In the meantime Deshaun Watson is sitting on a huge pile of money, the Browns fan base doesn’t know what to think, and thirty women have reached a settlement with Watson’s former team for “enabling conduct” with respect to its troubled superstar.

"We only stand behind an independent arbitrator if we agree with her decision"

-The NFL probably. #Browns
— Nick Karns (@karnsies817) August 3, 2022

#Browns haven’t played a single game this season and I’m already exhausted and ready for next year.
— Jack 🌹🍔 (@leekinthyme) August 3, 2022

Feels like this #Browns offseason has aged me about 30 years.
— Artist Formerly Known As Whoopty-Hell (@FanoftheLand13) August 4, 2022

If it feels like we’ve fallen into the legal multiverse, we have. The NFL is playing judge, jury, executioner, prosecutor, and defense, all at the same time. There is no relevant authority in this matter at present other than the commissioner — he could end this yesterday. There is no deadline for resolving the matter mandated by the CBA, so the timetable will be determined by PR considerations.

The NFL commentariat needs to stop telling the story as if the NFL appeal process has the league and the Watson camp locking horns in a fight over the safety of women. They’re not. They’re on the same side: the money side. They only disagree on which cashola to protect first. The NFL wants to protect the goose, while Watson wants to protect his golden egg.

The league has an abiding financial interest in keeping superstar QBs in their prime on the field. While Watson’s egregious conduct (confirmed by the independent arbiter Robinson, no matter how paltry the punishment recommended) could impact Goodell’s cost-benefit analysis, the NFL has demonstrated before that it can wait out bad publicity until the media and fans go back to talking about football.

With so much money already committed to Watson, the Cleveland Browns will back their guy to the end (of the contract). Watson will not have any “come to Jesus” moment. Unless new facts emerge, Goodell will inch his way toward issuing the punishment that league ownership indicated it wanted in the first place: something like an indefinite suspension, with a return contingent on jumping through the right PR hoops to make everyone involved look less like monsters.

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