Yea I understand what you mean. We all love football, especially the Lions but this type of stuff does make me question supporting the league. It reminds me of how they pretend to care about player safety and then show replays of players being knocked out on the field over and over and over again on the highlight reels for ratings purposes.
And the whole Washington fiasco from last year, good lord. I don’t really think the average fan really wants to know what many of these owners and some players are up to off the field.
This particular situation is so tough imo. Let’s say they hand down a 2 year suspension. And like deadstroke said, it’s a he said she said case. You are setting up players to be blackmailed for money even if there is no wrong doing. The penalty is so severe that players would pay anything to keep it quiet.
If Watson received a 2 year ban, I could see this being a yearly occurrence for players. And if you aren’t on Watson’s level, pay up or your career is over.
Watson was not suspended last year. It was a mutual decision by the Texans and he for him to be away from the team, while still earning his entire salary, to deal with the lawsuits.
As to the Grand Jury, as it seems with the NFL portion, the case is only as good as the evidence and what’s actually presented to those making the determination.
There were were articles in PFT speculating that the prosecutor did not present the strongest case to the grand jury. Didn’t call the most damming witnesses. Same things printed about the NFL presenting their case to the magistrate.
True or not, I don’t know. But you definitely can get the desired outcome by how vigorously you present evidence.
I didn’t say he was suspended. I said he missed an entire season due to this situation.
If the team/Watson decided they wanted him to play, so you think the league wouldn’t of stepped in? Because I do. And I believe if he was allowed to play, his eventual suspension would be more than 6 games. I think last years lost season played a factor in the length of this years suspension.
I like you deadstroke. Among the best posters on the board for sure. But if this is such an injustice, if you are so disgusting with the leagues handling of its justice system, how can you continue to support it?
-Brady was found guilty
-Ridley did bet on the sports (I do feel his case could’ve easily been overlooked and never brought to light).
-Watson was accused and not convicted. They were civil lawsuits not criminal. What is a league supposed to do?
No one was convicted in criminal court or in civil court. Criminal conviction has never been a determining factor in any NFL suspension.
We’ll see how they handle it. Baseball used to be my favorite sport, I quit watching in for 12 years when they went on strike. At one point, I refused to watch any football games other than the Lions (I know hypocritical). Regardless, my lack of viewing the Lions won’t accomplish anything.
It wasn’t that tho. They say him but wasn’t a punishment it was limbo
But I don’t think you can count that as part of punishment when … it wasn’t used as part of reasoning for punishment length.
As for what the league is supposed to do
Hard to tell when teams handing out NDAs but still seems like the team knew what was happening and allowed it to go on.
Deflate gate was bullshit. We all know it was bullshit. It’s science that air pressure drops as the ball gets colder. A 5 yr old, a balloon, and a freezer can easily demonstrate that for anyone who doesn’t want to believe it.
Why do you think the league hid their own study?
Edit to clarify, the NFL’s own study of measuring actual footballs at halftime of games.
Well, depends what guilty means. The league had a paid for ridiculous ‘study’ that relied on a poor understanding of physics. And was later shown to be nonsense
A judge reviewed the evidence and agreed it was nonsense and overturned the league suspension. But the NFL won the suspension back on appeal, but not on the merits of the case. The appeals judge looked at the NFL players agreement and simply said Goodell was within his rights to suspend someone for even a perceived violation and the truth of the matter was was more or less irrelevant
I agree completely with everyone’s stance on DeShaun Watson. He is a POS who deserves to be suspended.
I see the punishment as fair tho. I feel the NFL did ok with this one considering all that I have stated above. It just would’ve set a really bad precedent about cases without evidence with a harsher penalty.
His career is over if he ever gets accused again. It’s probably just a matter of time. I mean how do these accusations not arise again in his life? Outrage alone could cause another handful of accusations. But Watson is such a POS and an idiot he might just be dumb enough to try this again.
Wasn’t there an article about how the nfl only donated like 10% of the money they raised for breast cancer? I’m pretty sure they caught a lot of flack for that a few years back. The nfl is just a bunch of hypocrites trying to be the richest person in the room.
“Cases without evidence “ you mean like how they suspended people for an entire season for bounty gate without any real evidence? Or Tom Brady for 4 games because of under inflated footballs? The nfl has a long history of suspending players for far less than Watson’s case. It’s hypocrisy at its finest.
If you feel that way then don’t support it. There are plenty, maybe even majority, who feel the way you do on the subject. If those who felt strongly no longer supported the NFL, they would definitely notice.
But 95% who do feel strongly about it won’t change a thing.