Deshaun Watson Gets Six-Game Suspension After 25 Women Say He Harassed and Assaulted Them

After two grand juries in Texas declined to pursue criminal charges against Watson earlier this year, the quarterback’s case was decided by retired federal judge and disciplinary officer Sue L. Robinson—a joint hire by the NFL and the NFL Players’ Association—who was nominated by George Bush to serve on the U. S. District Court in Delaware in 1991. The NFL’s Tom Pelissero says Judge Robinson’s written decision ruled that Watson’s “pattern of behavior was egregious,” but that his “nonviolent sexual conduct” did not warrant an indefinite suspension.

Both sides have three days to submit a written appeal, though the NFLPA already issued a joint statement with Watson stating they accept the ruling and have chosen to honor the grand juries’ previous rulings. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell is expected to appeal the decision, and, according to Article 46 of the NFLPA’s CBA, “will issue a written decision that will constitute full, final and complete disposition of the dispute.”

In June, Robinson received oral arguments from the league, the NFLPA, and Watson’s attorney over the course of a three-day hearing in Delaware. The NFL had reportedly been pushing for a suspension of at least a year or 12 games with a fine in the range of $8 million. And while public opinion could drive the commissioner to hand down a more restrictive final suspension, the assumption that this decision might be out of respect for the women or sheer good will is naive. Signing off on a longer suspension could protect the league if any further lawsuits come to fruition and would go a long way in currying public favor for a beleaguered institution known for handing down a two-month suspension for former Ravens player Ray Rice’s domestic abuse case.

As some NFL fans come to terms with their indirect endorsement of sexual abuse through the attendance of games, it’s likely (and sadly) financially beneficial for Goodell to further suspend Watson. If his six-game suspension is upheld, however, Watson will engage in preseason practice as if nothing happened, tossing around a pigskin as if he never forced his penis onto dozens of women in a display of uncontrolled entitlement. The CBA states he’d also be allowed to return to Browns’ practices as early as Week 4.

As if the United States’ sense of justice isn’t already butchered to all hell, it appears the only place Black men are guaranteed vindication is in the court of football, where serious crimes disintegrate into simple “misconduct,” and “Get Out of Jail Free” cards are doled out like Halloween candy. While Goodell and the league’s corporate office may side with the women this time in the form of harsher sentencing, we cannot forget the culpability of the institution of football at large: the institution that enabled the Browns to spend $230 million on a quarterback accused of heinous behavior towards women, that allowed the Texans to provide Watson “a place” at The Houstonian where he set up private massages, and the sort of cloaked judicial system that suspended Minnesota Vikings player Adrian Peterson just three months for injuring his own child.

When Watson testified during his hearing that he’s “still trying to figure out why we in the situation we are in right now, why I’m talking to you guys, why you guys are interviewing me. I don’t know. Do not know,” he spoke on behalf of a century-old league that has historically brushed off sexual assault and domestic violence. To that end, it makes perfect sense why Watson might be confused as to his circumstances: In the NFL, men have not only gotten away with much worse, but have been ushered into a pastel-glazed sunset of retirement, riding away on a white horse with the status of NFL “great” or “hero” or “role model.” Why shouldn’t a serial sexual abuser expect the same treatment?

Of all the many suits against Watson, just one remains. One of the 25 lawsuits was dropped following a judge’s ruling that the plaintiff needed to disclose her name. Later this year, ESPN reported, Watson settled 20 of the 24 lawsuits, and on Monday, he agreed to settle three of the remaining four, according to the women’s attorney Tony Buzbee. One woman left to weather the storm that is Deshaun Watson, whose presence in the NFL will linger as a trigger to all the women he abused—a weekly Sunday reminder, like a fucked up family ritual, to remember the ways in which they were, despite Robinson’s opinion, violently violated at his hands.