No apologies necessary Doug. If anyone deserves to rant, it's Browns fans... Great night for a beer on the deck. Cheers.
Why stop there? Both the Texans and Watson are members of the NFL. The NFL should have known! Roger Goodell should have known! Sue the NFL too!
I agree with, Doug. But, I doubt the NFL gets it right. If Watson is punished, in my opinion, the Texans ought to be also... there really is no difference. One can claim they didnt know what was happening, but still that shouldnt matter, but one thing certain is the NFL has precedence for double-standards. Speaking of Goodell - He really needs to step up and lay the law down in open obvious terms to all teams and players what exactly is expected of them on and off the field. No more wishy-washy politics, just spell it out. A firm penalty for violations is a start in deterring some of this shit shinanigans by players and teams. Hit violators hard in there wallets or just clean them out of the game... do something. PS - I personally believe that settling is still a cute way of sweeping things under the rug. To me its an obvious admission to something fishy, but here... take this money, which we have a ton of and lets be quiet and move along. That aint right in my book.
If they don’t give Watson a suspension, or possibly a hefty fine to the Texans… this may very well happen. Not that they should have known, but rather they have a policy for punishment in place and if they fail to utilize it, they could be held liable for negligence and or enablement.
To be honest would not be surprised if this were to happen. For one you can also point to the sexual harassment charges with in the Washington Commanders. As far as I know there has still been no punishment for them. So the person suing the NFL would be arguing that the NFL has fostered/allowed an environmemt that allowes women to be mistreated. No tellings what would come out if the emails in raiders investigation were to ever find the light of day.
I know everyone keeps reporting that there has been no punishment to the Commanders, but they were given a $10M fine, which was of historical significance. The heaviest fine prior to that was $1.9M. So, everyone that keeps saying "no punishment", I guess they could have given him a suspension instead of a fine, but would it really have been as significant?
I seem to recall that Snyder did get a suspension in addition to the fine. His wife "ran the team" in his absence. (Maybe I had a senior moment.)
No, you are semi-correct. He voluntarily removed himself from day to day operations for a year, so it wasn’t technically a suspension.
I think it's interesting how all the vibe leading up to the hearings held by Judge Robinson were leaning toward a year long suspension for DW, but since the hearings it has been pretty much the opposite. I don't know if it means anything, but it is interesting. I'm sure it could change quickly, but now it seems unlikely that he'll get a year... It would be nice if the league and NFLPA could just come to an agreement so we could take the next step toward moving past this....I've always felt that the punishment would ultimately be somewhere around 8 games. Hopefully we hear something soon. If we gotta make a last minute move for Jimmy G., it would be nice to know. Just waiting in limbo really sucks for the fans.
Reports this morning on TRBS are that review of the briefs submitted last week is complete and the ruling could come soon. They also said that sources are telling them that both sides are now expecting something between 2-8 games as Robinson's decision. Either side could then appeal, unless it comes back as 0 games, which seems unlikely.
Like it or not, a new era in Cleveland Browns football is about to begin. The trade for Deshaun Watson has splintered the Browns fanbase. Some railed against the trade due to the alleged sexual improprieties levied against Watson by a multitude of female masseuses. Others bemoaned the fact that Baker Mayfield was being replaced. And then there were some that touched on both of the prior reasons but justified their rath because of the size and structure of Watson's contract. It's time to unpack all three of these issues. The Contract: I've read or listened to a lot of Browns' fans putting Eric Berry and/or Jimmy Haslam on blast for offering Watson this contract. What I have yet to see is any of these armchair General Managers even mention the Browns' Chief Strategy Officer, Paul DePodesta. Once the strategy to go after Deshaun Watson was developed, I would be shocked if Jimmy Haslam's first response wasn't to get DePodesta's take on it. It's Eric Berry's job to procure talent. It's part of Kevin Stefanski's job to tell Eric Berry what kind of talent he needs to run his system. But it's DePodesta's job to ensure that any potential contract fits into the long term strategy of the Browns. Once they decided to upgrade the QB position and identified Watson as the target, they mutually agreed to offer him a contract that (a) he would accept and (b) fits into the long term strategy of the franchise. Baker Mayfield: There's no question that Baker Mayfield was the best QB to play for the Browns since their return to the NFL in 1999. When you consider that we've been subjected to the likes of Brady Quinn, Brandon Weeden, Johnny Manziel, Cody Kessler and Deshone Kizer (among others) over the years, the bar really wasn't that high. Yes, he did take us from a 1-31 record to the playoffs (with a new Head Coach) in his 3rd year. Let me remind you that Tim Couch took an expansion team to the playoffs (with a new Head Coach) in 4 years. [Kelly Holcomb started that playoff game because Tim Couch broke his leg the week before and Holcomb would have won that game if not for Foge Fazio's "prevent defense"]. Only a fool would argue that Baker Mayfield is a better QB than Deshaun Watson. Watson is more athletic, more accurate, has a better arm and provides mobility that defenses have to account for. If the Browns goal was to improve the QB position, they succeeded. The Accusations: Everyone has the right to follow their own moral compass. But, I urge all of you to calibrate your compass on facts, not 2nd or 3rd party conjecture. The truth of the matter is that none of us are privy to the actual facts. The shear number of accusers suggests that "where there's smoke, there's fire". Anyone who has tried to light a charcoal grill knows that's not necessarily true. Quite often someone has to fan the flames or add lighter fluid. In this case, (IMHO) that someone has been Tony Buzbee. He has done a masterful job of keeping this front and center by adding new plaintiffs on a timeline that coincides with the news cycle. Here are the few facts we do (or don't) know; Watson committed no crimes. Any Prosecutor, worth his/her salt, can indict a ham sandwich. The only lawyer standing in front of a Grand Jury is the Prosecutor. Two separate Grand Juries in two separate Texas counties refused to indict watson on any criminal charge. They also told the Prosecutors they had no interest in hearing 24 (?) counts and instructed the Prosecutors to bring a limited number of cases before them. It's logical to assume the Prosecutors brought their strongest cases to the Grand Juries and still did not get an indictment. Watson did, in fact, settle out of court on 20 of the 24 open civil suits. It's logical to assume that all 24 were offered the same exact settlement. Four of those 24 did not accept the dollar amount of the settlement and decided to go to trial. It's my opinion that Watson's decision to offer these settlements was an economic decision in that the legal costs of going to trial was a lot more than the cost of settling. It's been reported that the NFL submitted evidence to the 3rd party disciplinary officer regarding four of the accusers claims. It is not known if these four are the same four women that turned down the settlement offer.
Personally I think Browns fans have been through way worse, and though I don't actually know anyone that ever even considered abandoning the team over this, I'm positive that the bandwagon will be full when the Browns win. There's no way other fans can even comprehend what the Browns fans have been through since that day back in 1995 when the Governer of Maryland was on the stage with Art Modell.. Three years of not having a team at all, followed by the collossal joke that we were given from 1999 through Hue....smh. You couldn't even make up an uglier 25 years for a fan base of any team. And yet here we are... Like a championship caliber race car just waiting to find out when we will get our driver.
