Deshaun Watson’s warm welcome in Cleveland marks a return to the NFL’s pre-Ray Rice, look-the-other-way era. williamfleitch writes
Quarterback Deshaun Watson being introduced by Cleveland Browns general manager Andrew Berry and head coach Kevin Stefanski during a press conference on March 25. Photo: Nick Cammett/Getty Images Eight years ago, the NFL did something almost without precedent in its history: It suspended a player for off-field misconduct even though that player had not been indicted or convicted of a crime.
This was all such a PR nightmare that the NFL quickly changed its policy. The Ravens cut Rice, and Goodell admitted that he “didn’t get it right” with the two-game suspension. Since then, when dealing with such scandals , the NFL has been much speedier in doling out punishment.
On my podcast “The Long Game With LZ and Leitch,” The Athletic’s senior NFL writer Lindsay Jones, who wrote powerful piece about Watson signing for The Athletic, explained a fundamental fact that the NFL seems to have now accepted and internalized: If there’s no video, we won’t care that much: The Watson situation is the logical conclusion of this modus operandi. There’s no video. All charges have been dropped. Watson is insistent of his innocence, pointing toward his single mother as proof of his respect for women. The Browns, a signature NFL franchise with a massive fanbase, desperately need a quarterback, and they’re hardly unique: Nearly half the teams in the league went after him.
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