MONDAY MORNING QUARTERBACK

Jimmy Garoppolo will be cleared to throw soon



The 49ers were poised to trade quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo until he surprised them with a decision to have surgery on his throwing shoulder. Soon, he’ll be cleared to throw again, following the March procedure.

That’s the report from Jeremy Fowler of ESPN.com. Garoppolo will be cleared within the next few weeks, and he’ll commence throwing.


It’s an important, albeit expected, development in the awkward dance between the 49ers and the quarterback they don’t want to keep on the team. Once he’s cleared, he can be traded to a new team.

That said, there’s no guarantee a new team will trade for him, especially with a $25 million non-guaranteed compensation package. Whoever wants him will want to pay less. Unless the 49ers will be paying some of the salary, Garoppolo will be expected to cut his salary.

Why should he? All he has to do is refuse to do anything with his contract, and he gets to go wherever he wants as a free agent.

The key factor becomes time. The 49ers can squat on him throughout training camp and the preseason, cutting him just before Week One and wiping out his salary. (He has a $7.5 million injury guarantee that will evaporate for 2022 once he’s cleared.) He’d then be forced to try to find a new team at a time when the various depth charts are set.

In the interim, things could get even more awkward. The 49ers won’t want their injury-prone quarterback to end up on IR and, in turn, on the books for his full salary. But they can’t lock him out of training camp. If push comes to shove, they can’t keep him from getting practice reps and, in turn, risking a season-ending injury.

For Garoppolo, the sooner he’s traded or released, the better. For the 49ers, time could create an opportunity to get a significant return, if a starting quarterback elsewhere suffers a season-ending injury before Week One, like Teddy Bridgewater did in 2016.

The team’s talking points heap praise on Jimmy’s willingness to submit to the team’s plans. Jimmy’s a nice guy. Jimmy will go along. Jimmy won’t cause any trouble.

Well, the time is coming for Jimmy to get upset. To force the issue. To make sure he brings the situation to a head ASAFP, in order to have the best chance to make a team elsewhere — and possibly to compete for the starting job in 2022.

PFT

 

Horseshit

 

That’s what it love about you brother, intelligent responses.

 

Report: Deshaun Watson’s disciplinary hearing due to start Tuesday



Why bother dumping bad news into a Friday afternoon in late June when it can instead be buried close to five o’clock on a Saturday?

At a time then many were waiting for the NFL to initiate the process of disciplining Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson under the Personal Conduct Policy by proposing a significant suspension that would then be followed by a hearing before an independent (sort of) disciplinary officer, the league has mashed Step One and Step Two together.


According to Adam Schefter of ESPN.com, who hasn’t had much to report about Watson since fueling the false narrative that a grand jury’s decision not to indict Watson on nine criminal complaints somehow amounts to exoneration, the disciplinary hearing of Watson is due to begin on Tuesday.

It’s unclear when Watson and the NFL Players Association became aware of this timetable. If they knew about it before 4:49 p.m. ET on Saturday, they didn’t say anything about it. It creates the impression, right or wrong, that the whole thing is being hastily slapped together.

Retired federal judge Sue L. Robinson will preside over the hearing and issue a decision on discipline, if any, to be imposed on Watson. The league will propose a punishment, at some point. PFT reported nine days ago that the NFLPA expects the league’s proposal to be “unprecedented.”

Also unprecedented is the looming procedure. Adopted in 2020, it has not yet been applied. Apparently, the league doesn’t intend to announce the proposed suspension of Watson before initiating the formal review process before Judge Robinson. It remains to be seen whether someone leaks the proposed suspension to the media.

Per Schefter, a decision could come within a week, or it could be issued when training camp opens. As long as Judge Robinson imposes any discipline on Watson, either side can appeal to Commissioner Roger Goodell, whose ruling would be final. Watson escapes Goodell’s jurisdiction only if Judge Robinson concludes that Watson should not be punished at all.

Attorney Rusty Hardin has tried to argue that there should indeed be no punishment at all, given that no grand jury indicted Watson on criminal charges. That position, as previously explained, is flawed, self-serving, and illogical. Recently, the Harris County District Attorney said in plain terms that the lack of an indictment does not constitute exoneration.

As PFT also reported nine days ago, the NFLPA intends to point to the punishment or lack thereof imposed on owners who may have violated the Personal Conduct Policy, including Commanders owner Daniel Snyder, Patriots owner Robert Kraft, and Cowboys owner Jerry Jones. That defense could cause the hearing to bog down, but the NFLPA and Watson have every right to advance it. With the policy clearly stating that owners are held to a higher standard than players, the punishment or lack thereof imposed on owners who may have broken the rules becomes directly relevant to the propriety of the proposed punishment for Watson.

Whatever happens, it’s going to begin to occur during what usually is the slowest week of the annual NFL news cycle. This year, that definitely won’t be the case.

PFT

 

To be fair, that's about all the time and energy that post deserved.

 

How do you keep coming up with dumb shit like this? Is it in the water, there?

The NFLPA isn't going to give up something like an 18th game as part of a discussion to get Watson's suspension reduced. I think that's what you said, but you move your own goalposts so often, I'm sure you'll tell me I've got it wrong and you actually said something different but equally stupid.

Watson stands to lose $1 million in salary this year. The NFLPA isn't exactly going to die on that hill.

 

I’m not saying that will be specifically what they give up, just that Goodell will want something in return.

 

The NFLPA is not part of the appeal process Irish. They can argue in Watson's defense prior to the ruling by the discipline officer but that's where their role ends.

Assuming there is an appeal Goodell will rule independent of any outside interference. And this is the very first time the new disciplinary officer will hand down a suspension.

Not only would there be an absence of motivation on Goodell's part, the optics of trying to extract a concession from the players union to reduce a suspension for a serial offender who was disciplined by the 3rd party you just put in place would be off the charts.

When Watson is suspended he will do at least the length of the suspension, if not more.

 

I hope your right. I’m on record stating I think he needs the book thrown at him. Goodell has reduced his own punishments in the past, why would he do that if the NFLPA didn’t have any day in it?

 

Report: NFL seeks indefinite suspension of Deshaun Watson, lasting at least one year

A slow Saturday on the NFL calendar has picked up considerably.

With the NFL knowing that coverage of all things Deshaun Watson is unavoidable, the league steered the emergence of reports into a window where they could be less noticed.

And here we are. At 6:05 p.m. ET, the Wall Street Journal posted an item from Andrew Beaton that contains this extremely noteworthy nugget. The league “is pushing for an indefinite suspension that would last no shorter than one year for Watson.”


Watson and the NFL Players Association, which has a duty under federal law to defend Watson and all members of the union, will fight it. As PFT has reported, one of the tacks they will take is to argue that the proposed punishment does not mesh with discipline or lack thereof for multiple owners who allegedly have run afoul of the Personal Conduct Policy. Beaton’s article confirms this specific report.

By pushing for an indefinite suspension, the league would be protected against the possibility that more women will sue Watson between now and the middle of March 2023, when all relevant two-year statutes of limitations will expire — assuming that Watson ceased the practice of securing private massages through social-media after the first lawsuit was filed in March 2021.

The league’s case, per Beaton, will focus on five of the women who have sued Watson. Those cases have corroboration from text messages and other evidence. “League officials believe those allegations in particular are objectively provable and establish a clear and disturbing pattern of behavior from Watson,” Beaton writes.

Multiple reports have pegged the commencement of the hearing before Judge Sue L. Robinson for Tuesday, June 28. It’s unclear how long the process will take. An effort by the NFLPA to defend Watson based on the actions, and consequences, of owners like Daniel Snyder, Robert Kraft, and Jerry Jones will necessarily delay the process. Nevertheless, Watson has an absolute right to argue that his punishment should be commensurate with other cases.

Along the way, the NFLPA could uncover some evidence that would be of particular interest to the U.S. House Committee on Oversight & Reform, which is trying to get full access to the investigation conducted by attorney Beth Wilkinson regarding the Commanders and owner Daniel Snyder. It’s impossible to know whether Snyder’s punishment properly fit the misconduct without knowing the full scope of the misconduct.

PFT

 

This is interesting…

 

The NFLPA has said all along that they will fight any suspension.

 

Daniel Jones: Waste of time to worry about things I can’t control



Giants co-owner John Mara said in January that his organization has done everything possible to screw up quarterback Daniel Jones and former Giants quarterback Eli Manning recently chimed in with a similar sentiment, but Jones is unwilling to spend much time looking outside of himself for reasons why he hasn’t developed as the team hoped he would over the last three seasons.

In an interview with Paul Schwartz of the New York Post, Jones conceded that dealing with coaching changes and personnel mistakes “doesn’t make it easier” while also saying that it would be a “mistake” to do anything other than take responsibility for how he’s played. He called comparing his circumstances with others “a recipe for disaster” that he can’t afford to follow heading into next season.


“Everyone is going to have a different path, everyone’s going to have a different situation,” Jones said. “It’s your job to make it work and figure out your own situation. Things I can’t control, you waste energy and effort and time worrying about those. I think there’s a lot of benefits to my situation and having learned a lot of football and seeing it through different eyes and heard different coaches, their different philosophies, I think it can be, it depends on how you look at it, but it can be a positive and it can help you grow.”

Among the other things Jones doesn’t control is how the Giants will approach contract talks after the season. Playing well would open the door for a longer stay with the team and Jones said he’d love to experience success with the Giants, but said he tries not to think about his contract because he doesn’t “think that helps you play better.”

Finding whatever it is that will create that improvement will be vital for Jones this year for him to have a clear future as a starting quarterback with the Giants or anyone else.

PFT

 

You're missing the part where there is a brand new disciplinary system now. It's not 1. League suspension 2. Appeal.

It's 1. Both NFL and NFLPA put recommendations in front of a third party. In this case it is U.S. District Court Judge Sue Robinson. 2. After Robinson rules, any appeal goes directly to Goodell and Goodell alone. He has the power to do whatever he wants at that point. He can leave it alone, reduce it or increase it. And he doesn't have to negotiate with anyone in the process. The only thing he can't do is take a ruling of no suspension and create one. If the independent party rules no suspension it's final.

p.s. Not going to research it but fairly certain Goodell didn't handle the appeals on his own suspensions. It was a third party within the NFL offices.

 

Deshaun Watson CFL?

 

This makes no sense.. Goodell IS the NFL, so if he makes his recommendation, why would it matter if someone made a different determination? He could simply overturn it.

I don’t think anyone actually understands how this process works.

 

I posted that because I had said they would fight it and beach called me out for not knowing how the process is done.

 

Wrong. I said, "Why would Goodell reduce a suspension handed down by a 3rd party?"

You answered that the NFLPA would argue for it and offer up a concession to get it reduced. And then you gave an insane example like forcing 1500 other players to endure an 18th game so one guy could get a few games shaved off his suspension.

The post you are citing now is what the NFLPA will do BEFORE there is a suspension handed down. They will lobby on behalf of Watson to the disciplinary officer PRIOR to her ruling.

Once she rules, it then goes to Goodell so I will ask you again...

What motivation would Goodell have to reduce a suspension handed down by a 3rd party? Especially, in a case involving sexual assault?

 

You apparently don't understand it. That doesn't mean others do not.

Step 1: NFL and NFLPA make recommendations to a 3rd party.

Step 2: The 3rd party assigns discipline (or does not).

Step 3: Watson appeals (or does not).

Step 4: Goodell hears the appeal unilaterally or assigns someone of his choosing to hear the appeal. At this point he may uphold it, reduce it, increase it or throw it out.

p.s. If the 3rd party decides no discipline is warranted it is over. Goodell can do nothing in that situation.

 

You are right, I was absolutely the one not understanding. I had some time last night to research and read about this more.

I now see what you are saying..

The process really didn't change much.

There are two things that the new process does:
1) It gives the NFLPA a better platform to gather evidence to contradict any need for punishment at all.. As @beachbum already stated, if the designated person, in this case former federal judge Sue Robinson, finds that there is no reason for punishment it ends right then and there. Where it doesn't change in ANY WAY SHAPE OR FORM IS when they find punishment is warranted. This is where it is actually ridiculous that they even hand down punishment. The NFL (Goodell or his appointee) and NFLPA make a case for what they think they each believe is fair. If they come to an agreement, it is handed down and it stops there. If they can't come to an agreement, then former federal judge Sue Robinson hands down the punishment and it moves on to the appeal process, which either side can implement... As beach has also stated, the commissioner or their designee have total control over the appeal process. This renders the punishment handed down by the presiding impartial designee moot. If they don't hand down the punishment the league wanted in the first place, Goodell can simply "appeal" and hand down the punishment the league asked for.
2) It grants Goodell autonomy once it is decided if punishment of any kind is deserved. Once it does, it exonerates him from showing bias towards someone that the players association, or public for that matter, believe shouldn't be punished at all.

All this does is gives a member of the NFL a fighting chance to have a 3rd party decide whether there is ANY evidence that punishment is justified.

Sorry beach, I wasn't understanding before.



So at the end of the day.. I'm pretty sure I will get my wish that he is suspended for at least a year for his actions. As much as it pains me to have to take on a wasted year as a Browns fan, my personal beliefs are that it is justified and quite frankly, I will have an easier time continuing to follow the Browns once he does play for them on Sundays. It also gives me a reason to root for them in 2022. It would have been almost impossible for me to do so if he were the QB and he still had pending cases. I also think this leads to an indefinite suspension, not a year, since Goodell won't easily reopen the can of worms should any new information or cases come out over the next year. It is easier to end a suspension, than hand one down and then amend it longer for the same reason 12 months down the road.

It would be very smart for Watson's defense team to try to settle or move on with the court cases as soon as his suspension is announced, rather than wait until next spring.