With Judge Sue Robinson making her decision on the disciplinary hearing for QB Deshaun Watson, closure seems to be don’t the horizon. The Cleveland Browns started training camp last week with Watson practicing and creating some highlights. Before their next training camp practice Monday afternoon, Robinson’s decision is expected to be made.
With the NFLPA announcing, in conjunction with Watson, that they will not appeal Robinson’s decision, it will be interesting whether the NFL decides to.
One of the speculated reasons for Robinson’s delay in announcing a decision was that she was encouraging the two sides to come to some sort of settlement agreement. Late Sunday night, a report of settlement talks in recent days came out:
Interesting that the league was no longer insisting on an indefinite suspension with right to apply for reinstatement after a certain number of games. But the heavy fine was the tradeoff and Watson/NFLPA balked at it.
— Dan Graziano (@DanGrazianoESPN) August 1, 2022
As Graziano notes, it is interesting that the NFL no longer was requiring a full-year suspension. A 12-game suspension would have kept Watson’s contract from tolling and created a lot of cap space for Cleveland, as discussed here.
That Watson and the NFLPA balked at the heavy fine is meaningless to the team on the field but an important note.
While the negotiations noted would seem to indicate a range of a possible suspension, Judge Robinson is not beholden to those figures.
Monday morning we should know the initial ruling and, soon after, whether an appeal will be placed. The unknown becomes known very soon.
