This isn’t too surprising, but it is disappointing. Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson will miss his team’s first six games this year, but not their late-season matchup with the New Orleans Saints. An independent arbitrator, Judge Sue Robinson, recommended Watson be suspended the first six games of the 2022 season — barring an appeal from the NFL, in which case league commissioner Roger Goodell (or his designee) could issue a longer suspension. Watson’s representatives and the NFL Players Association have both previously said they will not challenge Judge Robinson’s ruling, so Goodell has three days to decide the next step. For now, we’ll assume Watson serves the six-game suspension.
So this has several impacts for the Saints. The most pressing matter is that Watson, a player the Saints put a ton of effort into recruiting for themselves, will be suiting up against them when they visit the Browns at FirstEnergy Stadium in Week 16; that’s going to be a chilly and possibly snowy game on Dec. 24, Christmas Eve.
Dennis Allen wouldn’t have steered the Saints towards pursuing Watson so strongly if he didn’t appreciate the challenge in stopping such a talented quarterback. Unless Goodell overrules the initial suspension in favor of a yearlong punishment, Watson will be leading Cleveland’s offense against Allen’s defense. He’s only faced the Saints once before, taking six sacks in a too-close 30-28 loss won with a late Wil Lutz field goal from 58 yards out. It’ll be tough.
As for the other way this Watson suspension matters to Saints fans: it’s probably not going to set much precedence for Alvin Kamara’s situation, awful as the optics may be. Judge Robinson decided that while Watson’s “pattern of behavior was egregious,” per NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero, it also constituted “nonviolent sexual conduct.”
That first descriptor is the key here. Watson’s behavior is seen as a violation of the NFL’s personal conduct policy, but it’s seen as “nonviolent” (personally, I disagree; all sexual abuse is inherently violent). Kamara’s behavior is different. He’s identified himself and his friends on video beating and stomping out a man. That’s going to be viewed as a “violent” policy violation and be punished accordingly. So a six-game suspension for Kamara is very much still on the table, even if Watson has faced dozens of accusations against Kamara’s one. There’s the tone-deaf NFL for you.
However, what isn’t clear is when (or if) Kamara will be suspended at all. The league is notoriously inconsistent when it comes to these suspensions, but they do have a precedent of waiting for the legal process to play out before handing down discipline. Kamara’s attorneys requested a 60-day status check in court on Monday, per 8 News Now’s David Charns, which would push the next court date past the start of the regular season. And there’s no guarantee a legal decision will come down at that time. This could very well drag on past the 2022 season and into next offseason, as has happened with Marcus Maye’s Feb. 2021 DUI charge in Florida (which has its own still-pending legal resolution).
To recap: Watson is likely to suit up against the Saints in Week 16, and his suspension is unlikely to impact any discipline for Kamara despite how bad it looks. It isn’t fair or just, but don’t go looking to the NFL for justice here. They’re content to let the legal system take the heat before quietly brushing over things on their own end to get back to selling tickets and cutting promos. With most of Watson’s cases settled out of court and little left to be litigated in front of judges or juries, they’ll be ready to move on and refocus on their bottom line. The same is true for the Saints and Kamara.
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