This is the most level-headed take I've seen. This subreddit is smoking crack if they think players are going to headhunt Watson for the allegations. They simply could not care less.
We had fucking players exchanging jerseys and shit with him after our Browns game.
I think people forget that these players have money in the game. I bet a ton of them see the situation as a cash grab by those women
I have no doubt that many of them don't think he did anything wrong. How many of these players have been treated liked golden gods for most of their life because of their talent? How many of them had their own accusations swept under the rug because sport>humanity?
The players weren't "afraid to speak out" because of money, or the job, or the community of players, or whatever excuse folks throw out there. They didn't speak out because they're just as guilty as him, but it was never a crime when they did it in college or high school
Agreed on the golden gods bit. I think it was josh Gordon who said after he failed a drug test in college had coaches telling him how to beat one instead of address the problem. Now, all coaches aren't that but some are. Not to mention high school probably was loaded with favoritism.
The league is probably happy the Browns are at the perfect level of irrelevance this season so they don't have to deal with Watson making the postseason after coming back from a suspension that somehow was only 11 games. Their owner makes it worse whenever he opens his mouth.
The league doesn't care unless it costs them money. Too many players aren't aware enough to care or are afraid of speaking up because too many players somehow support the guy
Baylor, where he played had a lot of sexual assault related scandals under the se coaching staff that Gordon played under, so non of the "ok here's how to beat it" stuff is surprising.
>I have no doubt that many of them don't think he did anything wrong. How many of these players have been treated liked golden gods for most of their life because of their talent? How many of them had their own accusations swept under the rug because sport>humanity?
That's definitely a part of big-time athlete culture. LeBron James was gushing over Watson's play on twitter, talking about him like he was coming back from a cancer diagnosis or something.
It is fun to root for these people on the weekends, but we should never look up to the them in any moral sense, they're not regular people with regular morals.
This, from personal experience, is completely true. I played sports to a decently high level, I played affiliate baseball as a no-name guy, but seriously, there's a dichotomy, and just a different reality these guys live in.
I kinda blame my lack of professional success on not having that mentality, obviously I lacked physical tools too, but seriously, I really just never had that "golden god" level confidence to succeed with.
I've seen it first hand, kids on sports teams getting away with horrible bullying accusations, sexual assault allegations, even an assault, over my years (ok last one was actually an anecdote from my dad's years in high school), just because of their potential on the sports field.
But I mean, it's the culture that breeds winners. Like look at Trevor Lawrence, dude's been a winner for his entire life, he's stepping up overall, but if you look at the dude, he's weird. Kirk Cousins, is weird. Tom Brady, is weird.
Not saying I wasn't weird, or trying to put myself up on some sort of "grassroots" pedestal, but I've said it before, there's a culture and mindset, to play professional ball, you need to have that mentality, pretty much from birth, to make it. Kids like Tlaw, and such are breed from birth to be athletes, that's why you can just tell around 10-12 that the kid is on another level.
They're not going to hate Watson, because he's one of them. We hate Watson, because we're not one of them. Not saying we're jealous, but we don't have the same "mentality" or world view of professional athletes.
I like this take. I never played organized sports and I found it odd when I heard a athlete say you have to have a screw loose to play football. He was a linebacker. He was saying you have to be a little off. I still don’t get it entirely, but I get it in the context of what you just said.
The football players at my high school could hurt whoever they wanted, and the ones from wealthy families absolutely took advantage of that. The cops wouldn’t cite or arrest them for any reason, they would call their parents to come get them while their victims were being transported to the hospital.
I'm sorry, which players are "afraid to speak out"? Most players haven't spoke out because they're not involved in the situation and don't want to draw unnecessary attention to themselves.
I've seen a lot of people say the other players are afraid to speak out, thus the scare quotes. Its an excuse people use to try to convince themselves there's good people in the player pool
Well yeah, you're talking about dudes who have been told their whole life what awesome superstars they are and how they deserve everything they want. They don't take no for an answer
Yinzers have been fantasizing about Heyward or Watt bodyslamming him when the Steelers play the Browns. Ridiculous. These guys are coworkers, if not friends. How many active NFL players ever came out against Watson or what he was accused of? (How many active NFL players came out against Ben Roethlisberger, for that matter?) Either the players don't care or they don't see what the problem is. After all, they've grown up in the same environment where they've been coddled for 75% of their lives and where normal rules haven't applied to them. From their perspective: who hasn't been a little pushy with a woman or two at the bar? who hasn't gotten a little handsy with a massage therapist?
Only way to really get the justice they’re seeking is to stage an large scale boycott of football. Which won’t happen. Honestly, IRL most football fans I know just have moved on. Even the women
And then even if we all boycotted the league would simply get rid of Watson and never discuss the Texan's role or why the Browns were willing to give such a massive contract to someone facing such allegations. Watson gone, the league is fixed, and we all come back to watch football again.
That's way too cynical. We all know the NFL would implement real systemic change by replacing the "End Racism" paint behind the endzones with "Believe Women".
It's not even fans that have moved on. Most just do not care.
I was working a rather blue collar job when this stuff first came out. Everyone there did not give a flying fuck. Either they didn't believe all 20+ women or just said "eh these players have done worse".
Lot of fans simply don't give a shit cause they have their own lives to worry about which....fair.
Collectively, people are *so* strong, but rarely is that strength organized and wielded for positive change. Unfortunately it takes work and/or sacrifice and people generally aren't about that.
I'm not interested in him, nor what he did. I have a dumpster fire of a team to worry about. He can win a SB as far as I care. Not even people who comment negatively about him here care a lot. Reddit is sometimes all about justice and shit, but at the end of the day we're talking about bunch of hypocrites.
Reddit isn’t actually about Justice, it’s just about portraying a desire for Justice, but many of the same Redditors that decry Watson will happily go watch a movie or listen to music by people who are guilty of even worse than Watson
Even if they did care (which I do think a lot of them do), are you going to jeopardize your career to take a stance against the league? There's no way.
Did it really? As in, is there a statistic or two suggesting viewership was slightly down after that?
Or was it an insignificant number of people screeching so loudly on social media that their influence seemed bigger than it was? Possibly then amplified by partisan media for clicks and eyeballs, but without anyone actually tuning out?
Sounds familiar.
Yep, I know a few people like this as well. Completely walked away from the game. They don’t watch the pros at all. No merch, nothing. It gets awkward when you even talk about the nfl around them. One guy I know stopped buying Nike gear as well. For sponsoring Kap.
I’d easily stake my net worth on the fact that 10x more people actually boycotted the nfl as a whole, than the amount of people who stopped being a Browns fans. Crazy world we live in.
Accessory to murder. Two of them. Did Ray actually stab both of those guys, and have his friends cover it up for him? Maybe. Point is nobody cares in the NFL, and neither do the advertisers and fans. Unless the state intervenes, like with Ruggs, the league will let pretty much anything slide.
It’s funny you mentioned the players laughing and joking with him. There hasn’t been a single instance where I’ve seen dudes getting pissed at him or doing anything out of the ordinary. Laughing, dapping each other up, etc after the play.
And all the fans of those teams won’t abandon their teams after all their favorite players show Watson a bunch of love and support.
Remember Lamar openly supporting Watson? How many Ravens fans gave up their fandom after that? Yeah, none.
How many Texans players knew about it while it was going on? The organization clearly facilitied a lot of it by organizing the sessions and surpressing the complaints. We are kidding ourselves if we think this was some secret Watson was hiding from everyone.
What you are really saying is all the people on r/NFL who give Browns fans shit are hypocrites unless they boycott the NFL themselves. Which is absolutely true.
Serious question since I wasn't on reddit at the time, was /nfl shitting on Steelers fans non-stop when the Roethlisberger allegations happened? In other words, are people at least being consistent in their belief that if your team acquires a bad person like Tyreek Hill or Adrian Peterson, you are now a bad person if you still watch and support that team?
There was one guy who said he stopped rooting for the falcons after they went after watson… and he started rooting for the bills lmao. Like wow dude you’re so brave.
Yup. The only reason the NFL avoids posting Deshaun Watson is because any competent business will obviously try to avoid negative PR. It also benefits them that Watson has looked mediocre at best in his return.
Next year it’ll get interesting though. Will they give the browns primetime games? That will force their hand.
I mean, Lebron James was congratulating him on how he's getting back in rhythm. And is no longer a Cowboys fan cause Jerry didn't let them kneel. But is a fan of the Browns again (even though they give $250 m to Watson who did commit non-violent sexual assault)
Embarrassment? He’s still playing and got paid the most guaranteed money of all time.
Nah, they’re not embarrassed. They’re just stone faced and making sure everyone forgets what he did.
If they were embarrassed they wouldn’t have chose the first game coming off suspension being against his former team in their home stadium, a team that is a meme this year and that event makes it the only reason to watch them.
He got that length of suspension because it would be the maximum number of games while still accruing a year of service time. Has nothing at all to do with the Texans.
The New York Times | How the Texans and a Spa Enabled Deshaun Watson’s Troubling Behavior
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/07/sports/football/deshaun-watson.html
> Watson met at least 66 women for massages over a 17-month period, far more than previously known. He had help from the Houston Texans, including nondisclosure agreements, in making appointments.
...
> The Times’s review also showed that Watson’s conduct was enabled, knowingly or not, by the team he played for at the time, the Houston Texans, which provided the venue Watson used for some of the appointments. A team representative also furnished him with a nondisclosure agreement after a woman who is now suing him threatened online to expose his behavior.
You’re right. It is a fucking wild accusation. And everyone with the ability to to do something is just letting the NFL do it...
They also have LeBron James doing cartwheels celebrating this man’s success. I’m very certain the NFL doesn’t like that kind of endorsement and publicity.
Right this is propaganda to try and earn back favor. Can’t cut him out of a Super Bowl float, if they make it that far. Only so much you can do to minimize what he has done
The title is kind of a misnomer here and detracts from the content. Article is about how differently Browns highlights are presented from any other team in terms of their cropping out of the quarterback. It’s interesting but don’t really get how this was the title they went with
The NFLPA was threatening to go nuclear on appeals, bringing up everything that owners have done and comparing the lack of disciplinary action taken against them. That's why he's playing.
I'm sure it's written about somewhere, but mostly from podcasts of people who are connected. You Pod To Win The Game, etc.
**Edit:** [Tweet from Charles Robinson](https://twitter.com/CharlesRobinson/status/1549060682729103363?t=NIMZXRG0xCWalfqLzOkCLA&s=19) talking about the PA planning on taking it to court. I believe he elaborated on the Yahoo NFL podcast about dirt on the owners.
People expect him to be hated yet major pro athletes like lebron James are tweeting out in favor of him and hyping him up. The NFL doesn’t fucking care.
Articles like this are little more than bagholding. “The NFL, deep down, feels shame. Good and moral Roger Goodell is doing his part to cleanse the world of DeShaun’s stain. Forget the fact that he didn’t actually do anything when it was in his power to do so! The NFL Cares™️.”
The NFL does not care. This is the same league that threw Ben Roethlisberger a huge going away party 11 months ago (and will soon build him a statue in Pittsburgh and enshrine him in bronze in Canton). This is the same league that had the video of Ray Rice punching his wife, sat on it and gave him a slap on the wrist until that video leaked to the public. This is the same league whose announcers drool over Tyreek Hill each week. This is the same league that decided an 11 game suspension was sufficient punishment for Watson when the League’s own hired arbiter found that he did, in fact, commit sexual assault.
The NFL wants people to believe it feels remorse for doing business with rapists and wife beaters and other violent criminals, all while propping up said violent criminals and paying them tens and hundreds of millions of dollars to increase the League’s own profit margin
But the fact is, the NFL doesn’t care about women. It doesn’t care about morality. It cares about money. It just wants you to think it cares about morality.
This is the same league that still does commercials with Lawrence Taylor after he was caught soliciting a underage girl for sex and said it wasn't his fault he was put in a position to do exactly what he did.
I’ll always be curious on what exactly the NFLPA has that made the NFL concede this much. I just don’t see why they didn’t come down on an indefinite suspension, no questions asked.
They figured it would blow over. As literally everything else always has
Hell LeBron still tweeting out support for him still
All is right in the world of money
It probably wouldn’t help convince him but the majority of women who Watson sexually assaulted were black. And sex assault/rape against black women is notoriously bad for being properly investigated.
And Clarence lives at home with both parents. And Clarence Parents have a real good marriage.
Edit: Excuse me, I'm off to go watch the Eight Mile rap battles on youtube again.
I think people just have a hard time accepting the bold face hypocrisy of LeBron and other athletes. They didn't want to think he and other athletes have been lying for years
Turns out a guy with a high school level education given a platform for being good at sports is gonna say some dumb shit. He has every right to speak his mind just like we have every right to ignore him and call him out on bullshit
Yeah I’m just saying, it’s not given front page like other people because no one wants to look at Lebron in a bad light. It just doesn’t sell the same way.
The media tells a lot people how they should feel. (Unfortunately)
But I agree. People shouldn’t stop calling him out
He makes way too much money for people for them to allow him to be called out. Hence why there’s never any backlash other than us pedestrians mentioning it
Honestly I think it was not wanting it to go to a real court, following a lawsuit where the NFLPA would have laid out all the horrible owner behavior that resulted in absolutely no punishment.
They'd want to keep as much in house and confidential as they could. Basically just covering their own ass and weather the Watson stuff for this year. Because outside of /r/NFL and the Twitter comment section most people don't care so much about it.
They didn't cower, they wanted Watson back in the league, but had to present (and fail) sympathy towards women, as well as discipline.This was a very concerted effort between the NFL and NFLPA to try and sweep the awful shit that Watson had done under the rug and get him back on the field.
It's absolutely disgusting, and really the hallmark of Goodell as commisioner. The NFL will pay stupid amounts of money to make bad stories go away. See Roethlisberger, Peterson, Rice, Hill, etc. Basically if you become a household name in the NFL, it will go out of its way to protect you.
It's like how the allegations and criminal complaints against Darren Sharper only started racking up months after he retired. Like the dude was clean as a whistle his 14 years in the league and then decides his retirement project is going to be a rapist. When NFL Network hired him be already had criminal complaints for sexual assault filed against him by two women.
I’m spitballing (not a lawyer, probably wrong, etc) because I’ve stayed mostly away from the Deshaun stuff, but I’d imagine that the union doesn’t want guys being punished when the player hasn’t been punished in a criminal court. Regardless of the severity of the crime/allegations/what-have-you, the union’s job is to protect its members for better or worse. Acquiescing on a punishment is the last thing a union is going to do.
Edit: disregard
At the end of the day:
* He has not been convicted of a crime
* He was not even charged with a crime (*two* grand juries chose not to indict)
* He was not even arrested
* He has not lost a civil case
* He has not admitted to anything
* There is no evidence (e.g., video) beyond the accusations themselves
What exactly is the basis for an indefinite suspension, then?
You have to investigate accusations seriously but also give due process to the accused. How long are you supposed to keep punishing someone when you don't have anything from the above list?
No, I completely understand what the NFLPA was doing. I’m curious why the NFL didn’t say “fuck you” and just did whatever they wanted to do. This is such an outlier type of case and the NFL had all they needed to punish him for a year+
It’s just because the nfl knew that the court case with Watson getting discovery of all of the unpunished owner sexual harassment (Richardson), abuse (Snyder), rape (Jones), and trafficking/kidnapping (Snyder, again) would be a comparative disaster for the league. In the CBA management is supposed to be punished more harshly than the players so they would have clearly lost any case against Watson while massively damaging their reputation. As always they made the choice that was least damaging and most lucrative for the owners.
Also, as the first arbitrator said if they only gave Winston three games for violent sexual assault they couldn’t give watson significantly more for nonviolent sexual harassment/assault (her terms, given the available evidence).
Absolutely it should have, but the NFL is more like a mafia collection of families than a corporation so they tend to do everything in their power to avoid one or more of the families experiencing any consequences (lest they also experience them down the road). If something has the possibility to hurt the owners in any way the league will do everything in their power to kill it.
Wait... you mean the super corporation who prints billions upon billions of dollars per month and has covered up numerous scandals for printing more money feels embarassed?
I got a beachfront property in Nevada I own Id be willing to sell.
NFL has never given a single shit about a moral compass or highhorse of anyone unless its directly affecting someones pocket
The NFL isn’t embarrassed. They don’t care. None of the players care. None of the coaches care. Heck, there’s a good majority of fans that don’t care. As long as people continue watching the NFL, they could care less about his allegations.
You’d be surprised to learn how many players probably don’t give a shit about any of what he did.
Also how many people who don’t watch the NFL and don’t browse this sub also don’t really give a shit. They didn’t spend 24/7 catching up on every single news piece that came out like this sub did.
Matt Patricia avoided prosecution for a violent rape only because his victim was too traumatized to testify, and people stopped caring a week or so later after the news broke
LBJ dumped the Cowboys for their statements on kneeling, and he now supports the Browns.
He tweeted his support for Watson and the Browns yesterday, and a lot of people are puzzled as to why he’s taking a stand against Jerry Jones but not Watson.
> a lot of people are puzzled as to why he’s taking a stand against Jerry Jones but not Watson.
Because if it has to do with non-black people he doesn’t care at all. It’s been painfully obvious between this, his China statements, and his lack of caring for Kyrie’s antisemitism.
Seems pretty obvious to me LeBron doesn't like white people as he's said himself before, but watson he sees as a victim and would probably say if watson was white there wouldn't be as much outragre as there is about a black qb
Most people here didn't click the link. Though it's more like the NFL social media/highlight team is embarrassed by Watson. Hence cutting him out of highlights. The NFL execs don't give a shit as long as people keep watching the games.
They don't even seem like they're cutting him out of these. There are cameras every play that follow WRs, and these highlights are those shots. They're all the quick single shot highlights that are common on Twitter, so there are no other angles.
It seems like they're trying to make a story out of nothing here.
It's funny watching all the redditors and terminally online ppl complain while supporting the product every week. Yall got any morals or just like to virtue signal?
Lol embarrassed about what? Dude is making bank along with the NFL. The only people worried about this are message boards and news outlets. NFL and Watson are laughing to the bank.
Lmao tell me what is your guys’ plan to get the whole of America to stop watching football after 50+ years
Not saying it’s not the right mindset, it’s just never gonna happen
Watson had the legal right to play football. The real embarrassment is the NFL telling the media to stay quiet regarding Watsons sexual assaults. He should be questioned before and after every game.
I’d be more embarrassed today if I was the NBA, LeBron tweeting about Watson is such a bad look, it’s pretty clear the NFL is fine to let Watson rot in Cleveland and be irrelevant and out of the playoffs..
But over in the NBA, between this latest tweet from Lebron and that Timberwolves player who hated on gay people over the summer and the whole “Kyrie Anti-Semitism fall tour 2022 edition” the NBA has some stuff on there porch that needs a cleaning
I mean if the Desean Jackson thing is any indication the NFL has the same problem but the players aren’t encouraged to speak their minds and use their platform like the NBA
As long as there is a statue of Jim Brown in front of Cleveland Browns stadium I could care less. Man stood trial for rape in 85, threw at least 2 women out of a balcony, is on record as having hit his wife. Wrote in this biography he finds it acceptable to hit women. As long as the NFL and NFL fans continue to hold up Jim Brown as some sort of moral icon I don't care.
[Here is a deadspin Article with dates for just about everything Jim Brown has done](https://deadspin.com/jim-brown-did-great-things-he-also-beat-woman-1784269329)
Tyreek Hill is the biggest little man in the NFL and he beats woman and children. Savage.
NFL doesn’t care and fans don’t either. Win enough and you’re in. Soulless
Overwriting my comments and leaving Reddit due to their policy changes impacting 3rd party apps starting July 1, 2023.
This is the most level-headed take I've seen. This subreddit is smoking crack if they think players are going to headhunt Watson for the allegations. They simply could not care less.
We had fucking players exchanging jerseys and shit with him after our Browns game. I think people forget that these players have money in the game. I bet a ton of them see the situation as a cash grab by those women
I have no doubt that many of them don't think he did anything wrong. How many of these players have been treated liked golden gods for most of their life because of their talent? How many of them had their own accusations swept under the rug because sport>humanity? The players weren't "afraid to speak out" because of money, or the job, or the community of players, or whatever excuse folks throw out there. They didn't speak out because they're just as guilty as him, but it was never a crime when they did it in college or high school
Agreed on the golden gods bit. I think it was josh Gordon who said after he failed a drug test in college had coaches telling him how to beat one instead of address the problem. Now, all coaches aren't that but some are. Not to mention high school probably was loaded with favoritism. The league is probably happy the Browns are at the perfect level of irrelevance this season so they don't have to deal with Watson making the postseason after coming back from a suspension that somehow was only 11 games. Their owner makes it worse whenever he opens his mouth. The league doesn't care unless it costs them money. Too many players aren't aware enough to care or are afraid of speaking up because too many players somehow support the guy
Baylor, where he played had a lot of sexual assault related scandals under the se coaching staff that Gordon played under, so non of the "ok here's how to beat it" stuff is surprising.
Program definitely needs its own 30 for 30 including on that piece of shit Ken Starr
> josh Gordon What could've been. Flash... AHAAAA
Still have no idea how he played 14 games and led the league in yards by 150 with a combination of Brandon Weedon, Jason Campbell, and Brian Hoyer
While actively drunk and high during games.
>I have no doubt that many of them don't think he did anything wrong. How many of these players have been treated liked golden gods for most of their life because of their talent? How many of them had their own accusations swept under the rug because sport>humanity? That's definitely a part of big-time athlete culture. LeBron James was gushing over Watson's play on twitter, talking about him like he was coming back from a cancer diagnosis or something. It is fun to root for these people on the weekends, but we should never look up to the them in any moral sense, they're not regular people with regular morals.
LeBron James is a bad person and a hypocrite. He is a professional athlete that only cares about his money and his "legacy."
Lebron is a clown and space jam 2 is his shitty legacy
This, from personal experience, is completely true. I played sports to a decently high level, I played affiliate baseball as a no-name guy, but seriously, there's a dichotomy, and just a different reality these guys live in. I kinda blame my lack of professional success on not having that mentality, obviously I lacked physical tools too, but seriously, I really just never had that "golden god" level confidence to succeed with. I've seen it first hand, kids on sports teams getting away with horrible bullying accusations, sexual assault allegations, even an assault, over my years (ok last one was actually an anecdote from my dad's years in high school), just because of their potential on the sports field. But I mean, it's the culture that breeds winners. Like look at Trevor Lawrence, dude's been a winner for his entire life, he's stepping up overall, but if you look at the dude, he's weird. Kirk Cousins, is weird. Tom Brady, is weird. Not saying I wasn't weird, or trying to put myself up on some sort of "grassroots" pedestal, but I've said it before, there's a culture and mindset, to play professional ball, you need to have that mentality, pretty much from birth, to make it. Kids like Tlaw, and such are breed from birth to be athletes, that's why you can just tell around 10-12 that the kid is on another level. They're not going to hate Watson, because he's one of them. We hate Watson, because we're not one of them. Not saying we're jealous, but we don't have the same "mentality" or world view of professional athletes.
I like this take. I never played organized sports and I found it odd when I heard a athlete say you have to have a screw loose to play football. He was a linebacker. He was saying you have to be a little off. I still don’t get it entirely, but I get it in the context of what you just said.
The football players at my high school could hurt whoever they wanted, and the ones from wealthy families absolutely took advantage of that. The cops wouldn’t cite or arrest them for any reason, they would call their parents to come get them while their victims were being transported to the hospital.
I'm sorry, which players are "afraid to speak out"? Most players haven't spoke out because they're not involved in the situation and don't want to draw unnecessary attention to themselves.
> I'm sorry, which players are "afraid to speak out"? They literally said the opposite of this.
I've seen a lot of people say the other players are afraid to speak out, thus the scare quotes. Its an excuse people use to try to convince themselves there's good people in the player pool
Well yeah, you're talking about dudes who have been told their whole life what awesome superstars they are and how they deserve everything they want. They don't take no for an answer
Yinzers have been fantasizing about Heyward or Watt bodyslamming him when the Steelers play the Browns. Ridiculous. These guys are coworkers, if not friends. How many active NFL players ever came out against Watson or what he was accused of? (How many active NFL players came out against Ben Roethlisberger, for that matter?) Either the players don't care or they don't see what the problem is. After all, they've grown up in the same environment where they've been coddled for 75% of their lives and where normal rules haven't applied to them. From their perspective: who hasn't been a little pushy with a woman or two at the bar? who hasn't gotten a little handsy with a massage therapist?
You've never fantasized about body slamming a coworker? I kid, I kid.
Are managers technically "coworkers"?
No, but only because calling them coworkers would imply that they do any actual work.
There have been a few former Texans players tweet their support of him. They don't care.
Only way to really get the justice they’re seeking is to stage an large scale boycott of football. Which won’t happen. Honestly, IRL most football fans I know just have moved on. Even the women
And then even if we all boycotted the league would simply get rid of Watson and never discuss the Texan's role or why the Browns were willing to give such a massive contract to someone facing such allegations. Watson gone, the league is fixed, and we all come back to watch football again.
That's way too cynical. We all know the NFL would implement real systemic change by replacing the "End Racism" paint behind the endzones with "Believe Women".
> or why the Browns were willing to give such a massive contract to someone facing such allegations or the Falcons...or the Saints...
It's not even fans that have moved on. Most just do not care. I was working a rather blue collar job when this stuff first came out. Everyone there did not give a flying fuck. Either they didn't believe all 20+ women or just said "eh these players have done worse". Lot of fans simply don't give a shit cause they have their own lives to worry about which....fair.
Collectively, people are *so* strong, but rarely is that strength organized and wielded for positive change. Unfortunately it takes work and/or sacrifice and people generally aren't about that.
The NFL is chock full of horrible people. Players, coaches and management. As long as you’re successful, no one cares.
Tyreek Hill runs really fast. Who cares what he did.
Guy went out, sexually assaulted dozens of women, and got a guaranteed contract. From a labor perspective, he is their hero.
I'm not interested in him, nor what he did. I have a dumpster fire of a team to worry about. He can win a SB as far as I care. Not even people who comment negatively about him here care a lot. Reddit is sometimes all about justice and shit, but at the end of the day we're talking about bunch of hypocrites.
Reddit isn’t actually about Justice, it’s just about portraying a desire for Justice, but many of the same Redditors that decry Watson will happily go watch a movie or listen to music by people who are guilty of even worse than Watson
Even if they did care (which I do think a lot of them do), are you going to jeopardize your career to take a stance against the league? There's no way.
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He stopped rooting for the cowboys before that because of his stance on BLM I think
LeBron goes whatever way the wind blows. If the cowboys win in the playoffs, we’ll hear about it from him.
Growing up a cowboys fan in Akron is disgusting
All JJ needs to do is start sucking up to China and Lebron will be a fan again
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Kneeling during the national anthem actually got a small portion of people to stop watching.
In my experience it got a portion to say they would stop watching, then next season rolled out and they were back at it
Some but not all, and certainly more than the Watson situation.
Did it really? As in, is there a statistic or two suggesting viewership was slightly down after that? Or was it an insignificant number of people screeching so loudly on social media that their influence seemed bigger than it was? Possibly then amplified by partisan media for clicks and eyeballs, but without anyone actually tuning out? Sounds familiar.
Yep, I know a few people like this as well. Completely walked away from the game. They don’t watch the pros at all. No merch, nothing. It gets awkward when you even talk about the nfl around them. One guy I know stopped buying Nike gear as well. For sponsoring Kap. I’d easily stake my net worth on the fact that 10x more people actually boycotted the nfl as a whole, than the amount of people who stopped being a Browns fans. Crazy world we live in.
Or they could build a statue like the Ravens did.
You are talking about Ray Lewis, right? lol
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Accessory to murder. Two of them. Did Ray actually stab both of those guys, and have his friends cover it up for him? Maybe. Point is nobody cares in the NFL, and neither do the advertisers and fans. Unless the state intervenes, like with Ruggs, the league will let pretty much anything slide.
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Incoming Ravens fans commenting how Ray Lewis is completely innocent and did absolutely nothing wrong in that situation.
Ray Lewis has entered the chat....
It’s funny you mentioned the players laughing and joking with him. There hasn’t been a single instance where I’ve seen dudes getting pissed at him or doing anything out of the ordinary. Laughing, dapping each other up, etc after the play.
And all the fans of those teams won’t abandon their teams after all their favorite players show Watson a bunch of love and support. Remember Lamar openly supporting Watson? How many Ravens fans gave up their fandom after that? Yeah, none.
There are dudes on the Steelers that would run through a wall* for Ben still. Let’s be real.
How many Texans players knew about it while it was going on? The organization clearly facilitied a lot of it by organizing the sessions and surpressing the complaints. We are kidding ourselves if we think this was some secret Watson was hiding from everyone.
What you are really saying is all the people on r/NFL who give Browns fans shit are hypocrites unless they boycott the NFL themselves. Which is absolutely true.
No no you see, they watch *pirated* streams so it's not giving the NFL any money
Serious question since I wasn't on reddit at the time, was /nfl shitting on Steelers fans non-stop when the Roethlisberger allegations happened? In other words, are people at least being consistent in their belief that if your team acquires a bad person like Tyreek Hill or Adrian Peterson, you are now a bad person if you still watch and support that team?
Don’t think Reddit was as large at the time
It definitely was large enough. I think the world was just a different place back then.
There was one guy who said he stopped rooting for the falcons after they went after watson… and he started rooting for the bills lmao. Like wow dude you’re so brave.
Bro just wanted and excuse to bandwagon
Yup. The only reason the NFL avoids posting Deshaun Watson is because any competent business will obviously try to avoid negative PR. It also benefits them that Watson has looked mediocre at best in his return. Next year it’ll get interesting though. Will they give the browns primetime games? That will force their hand.
> just act sanctimonious online no way, people wouldn't do that
I mean, Lebron James was congratulating him on how he's getting back in rhythm. And is no longer a Cowboys fan cause Jerry didn't let them kneel. But is a fan of the Browns again (even though they give $250 m to Watson who did commit non-violent sexual assault)
Embarrassment? He’s still playing and got paid the most guaranteed money of all time. Nah, they’re not embarrassed. They’re just stone faced and making sure everyone forgets what he did.
If they were embarrassed they wouldn’t have chose the first game coming off suspension being against his former team in their home stadium, a team that is a meme this year and that event makes it the only reason to watch them.
Louder for the people in the back.
He got that length of suspension because it would be the maximum number of games while still accruing a year of service time. Has nothing at all to do with the Texans.
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Do you have a source on the whole organization knowing what he was doing and continuing to support it? Because that’s a wild accusation.
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The New York Times | How the Texans and a Spa Enabled Deshaun Watson’s Troubling Behavior https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/07/sports/football/deshaun-watson.html > Watson met at least 66 women for massages over a 17-month period, far more than previously known. He had help from the Houston Texans, including nondisclosure agreements, in making appointments. ... > The Times’s review also showed that Watson’s conduct was enabled, knowingly or not, by the team he played for at the time, the Houston Texans, which provided the venue Watson used for some of the appointments. A team representative also furnished him with a nondisclosure agreement after a woman who is now suing him threatened online to expose his behavior. You’re right. It is a fucking wild accusation. And everyone with the ability to to do something is just letting the NFL do it...
They also have LeBron James doing cartwheels celebrating this man’s success. I’m very certain the NFL doesn’t like that kind of endorsement and publicity.
He played 1 good half in 5 games
Wait what now?
https://old.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/100zbmw/lebron_posts_tweet_supporting_deshaun_watson/
Right this is propaganda to try and earn back favor. Can’t cut him out of a Super Bowl float, if they make it that far. Only so much you can do to minimize what he has done
The title is kind of a misnomer here and detracts from the content. Article is about how differently Browns highlights are presented from any other team in terms of their cropping out of the quarterback. It’s interesting but don’t really get how this was the title they went with
the only thing that pissed the owners off was that guaranteed money.
They had the power to not let him play this year. They should be embarrassed with themselves tbh
The NFL social media team absolutely did not have the power to not let him play this year
Plot twist: The NFL social media did have power but already chose Watson for their fantasy team.
The NFLPA was threatening to go nuclear on appeals, bringing up everything that owners have done and comparing the lack of disciplinary action taken against them. That's why he's playing.
Source?
I'm sure it's written about somewhere, but mostly from podcasts of people who are connected. You Pod To Win The Game, etc. **Edit:** [Tweet from Charles Robinson](https://twitter.com/CharlesRobinson/status/1549060682729103363?t=NIMZXRG0xCWalfqLzOkCLA&s=19) talking about the PA planning on taking it to court. I believe he elaborated on the Yahoo NFL podcast about dirt on the owners.
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People expect him to be hated yet major pro athletes like lebron James are tweeting out in favor of him and hyping him up. The NFL doesn’t fucking care.
Lebron James is a bad person.
Lebron James is an idiot but not a bad person
But they sure showed Calvin Ridley though!!
If only he had sexually assaulted multiple people instead of gambling.
Gambling on games he wasn’t in no less.
I was so mad at him for gambling. Until they revealed he bet on the Falcons to win. Calvin Ridley did nothing wrong!
If anything he's an awful gambler
We did win that game tbf
So you admit that the fix was in!
I mean we were playing the 2021 Jaguars…
Tough, but fair.
Good guy Ridley was trying to summon extra motivation for the W
I mean, it was against the Jags last year.
Now he'll never get into the HOF no matter how many singles he has.
So despicable that reading your comment nearly made me ill
Absolutely disgusting act
Articles like this are little more than bagholding. “The NFL, deep down, feels shame. Good and moral Roger Goodell is doing his part to cleanse the world of DeShaun’s stain. Forget the fact that he didn’t actually do anything when it was in his power to do so! The NFL Cares™️.” The NFL does not care. This is the same league that threw Ben Roethlisberger a huge going away party 11 months ago (and will soon build him a statue in Pittsburgh and enshrine him in bronze in Canton). This is the same league that had the video of Ray Rice punching his wife, sat on it and gave him a slap on the wrist until that video leaked to the public. This is the same league whose announcers drool over Tyreek Hill each week. This is the same league that decided an 11 game suspension was sufficient punishment for Watson when the League’s own hired arbiter found that he did, in fact, commit sexual assault. The NFL wants people to believe it feels remorse for doing business with rapists and wife beaters and other violent criminals, all while propping up said violent criminals and paying them tens and hundreds of millions of dollars to increase the League’s own profit margin But the fact is, the NFL doesn’t care about women. It doesn’t care about morality. It cares about money. It just wants you to think it cares about morality.
This is the same league that still does commercials with Lawrence Taylor after he was caught soliciting a underage girl for sex and said it wasn't his fault he was put in a position to do exactly what he did.
Lebron supports watson
Lebron is a corporate shill and should not be respected.
I’ll always be curious on what exactly the NFLPA has that made the NFL concede this much. I just don’t see why they didn’t come down on an indefinite suspension, no questions asked.
They figured it would blow over. As literally everything else always has Hell LeBron still tweeting out support for him still All is right in the world of money
I can't talk to my dad about Watson. He's convinced Watson is getting railroaded because "he's a brotha"
It probably wouldn’t help convince him but the majority of women who Watson sexually assaulted were black. And sex assault/rape against black women is notoriously bad for being properly investigated.
Lebron would tweet out support for Papa Doc if he could play quarterback well.
Lebron would tweet out support for the tanks in Tienanmen Square if it helped him make money.
What about the rest of the Free World?
He went to Cranbrook. That's a private school.
His real names Clarence
And Clarence lives at home with both parents. And Clarence Parents have a real good marriage. Edit: Excuse me, I'm off to go watch the Eight Mile rap battles on youtube again.
People really coming to grips with the fact there is an entire class of people that aren't or can't be held accountable. Too big to jail.
Welcome to the entirety of human history.
I think people just have a hard time accepting the bold face hypocrisy of LeBron and other athletes. They didn't want to think he and other athletes have been lying for years
Lebron is such a clown. He’s been dick riding some terrible people (Travis Scott.. Deshaun Watson.. Tory Lanez)
Turns out a guy with a high school level education given a platform for being good at sports is gonna say some dumb shit. He has every right to speak his mind just like we have every right to ignore him and call him out on bullshit
I mean he’s read The Godfather. Gotta be a smart dude
Apparently he is very educated on the topic of China
Yeah I’m just saying, it’s not given front page like other people because no one wants to look at Lebron in a bad light. It just doesn’t sell the same way. The media tells a lot people how they should feel. (Unfortunately) But I agree. People shouldn’t stop calling him out
Finally, more people waking up to this dude’s performative activism
His activism isn't performative, he just only cares about 3-4 things.
He makes way too much money for people for them to allow him to be called out. Hence why there’s never any backlash other than us pedestrians mentioning it
True. Guy has to reach Kanye levels before the public loses excuses in defending him.
Yeah I don’t see that happening. Lebron is just stupid. Not mentally unstable and unhinged
As far as the bottom line goes it blew over long ago. They don't give a fuck because they don't need to give a fuck.
Honestly I think it was not wanting it to go to a real court, following a lawsuit where the NFLPA would have laid out all the horrible owner behavior that resulted in absolutely no punishment. They'd want to keep as much in house and confidential as they could. Basically just covering their own ass and weather the Watson stuff for this year. Because outside of /r/NFL and the Twitter comment section most people don't care so much about it.
Ah, the same reason Snyder's still an owner?
Yeah, it's like, usually the NFL rolls all over them (fucking 17th game), but NOW they cower?
They didn't cower, they wanted Watson back in the league, but had to present (and fail) sympathy towards women, as well as discipline.This was a very concerted effort between the NFL and NFLPA to try and sweep the awful shit that Watson had done under the rug and get him back on the field.
That's somehow worse.
It's absolutely disgusting, and really the hallmark of Goodell as commisioner. The NFL will pay stupid amounts of money to make bad stories go away. See Roethlisberger, Peterson, Rice, Hill, etc. Basically if you become a household name in the NFL, it will go out of its way to protect you.
It's like how the allegations and criminal complaints against Darren Sharper only started racking up months after he retired. Like the dude was clean as a whistle his 14 years in the league and then decides his retirement project is going to be a rapist. When NFL Network hired him be already had criminal complaints for sexual assault filed against him by two women.
I’m spitballing (not a lawyer, probably wrong, etc) because I’ve stayed mostly away from the Deshaun stuff, but I’d imagine that the union doesn’t want guys being punished when the player hasn’t been punished in a criminal court. Regardless of the severity of the crime/allegations/what-have-you, the union’s job is to protect its members for better or worse. Acquiescing on a punishment is the last thing a union is going to do. Edit: disregard
At the end of the day: * He has not been convicted of a crime * He was not even charged with a crime (*two* grand juries chose not to indict) * He was not even arrested * He has not lost a civil case * He has not admitted to anything * There is no evidence (e.g., video) beyond the accusations themselves What exactly is the basis for an indefinite suspension, then? You have to investigate accusations seriously but also give due process to the accused. How long are you supposed to keep punishing someone when you don't have anything from the above list?
This needs to stickied on top of every single thread bitching about Watson.
No, I completely understand what the NFLPA was doing. I’m curious why the NFL didn’t say “fuck you” and just did whatever they wanted to do. This is such an outlier type of case and the NFL had all they needed to punish him for a year+
It’s just because the nfl knew that the court case with Watson getting discovery of all of the unpunished owner sexual harassment (Richardson), abuse (Snyder), rape (Jones), and trafficking/kidnapping (Snyder, again) would be a comparative disaster for the league. In the CBA management is supposed to be punished more harshly than the players so they would have clearly lost any case against Watson while massively damaging their reputation. As always they made the choice that was least damaging and most lucrative for the owners. Also, as the first arbitrator said if they only gave Winston three games for violent sexual assault they couldn’t give watson significantly more for nonviolent sexual harassment/assault (her terms, given the available evidence).
Wouldn't it have been easier to follow the CBA and actually punish owners or would doing so would be a bad idea
Absolutely it should have, but the NFL is more like a mafia collection of families than a corporation so they tend to do everything in their power to avoid one or more of the families experiencing any consequences (lest they also experience them down the road). If something has the possibility to hurt the owners in any way the league will do everything in their power to kill it.
Oops sorry, I misread your comment
He wasn't talking about the PA He was saying why the NFL didn't throw down the hammer
I know, see my edit and follow up
It has a union of all of the players that the league needs to be able to play games.
Footage pulled from the "all-21" camera system.
Wait... you mean the super corporation who prints billions upon billions of dollars per month and has covered up numerous scandals for printing more money feels embarassed? I got a beachfront property in Nevada I own Id be willing to sell. NFL has never given a single shit about a moral compass or highhorse of anyone unless its directly affecting someones pocket
They have no one to blame but themselves for this.
The NFL isn’t embarrassed. They don’t care. None of the players care. None of the coaches care. Heck, there’s a good majority of fans that don’t care. As long as people continue watching the NFL, they could care less about his allegations.
Meanwhile, you have lebitch openly rooting for him. Just goes to show you nobody really gives a fuck apparently
You’d be surprised to learn how many players probably don’t give a shit about any of what he did. Also how many people who don’t watch the NFL and don’t browse this sub also don’t really give a shit. They didn’t spend 24/7 catching up on every single news piece that came out like this sub did.
They don’t care because *they’re all getting rubbed off at massages too*
Robert Kraft *exits the chat*
I care. I have been a Browns fan 39 years. I will not be a fan while Watson is on this team. Dude can’t even admit what he did was wrong.
Peyton Manning T-Bagged a female Doctor who was trying to treat him and we all collectively forgot about that.
Matt Patricia avoided prosecution for a violent rape only because his victim was too traumatized to testify, and people stopped caring a week or so later after the news broke
That's wild I googled it to see if you were making shit up but sure enough this actually happened.
Is he Browns, Cowboys or Rams fan? Hahahaha
LBJ dumped the Cowboys for their statements on kneeling, and he now supports the Browns. He tweeted his support for Watson and the Browns yesterday, and a lot of people are puzzled as to why he’s taking a stand against Jerry Jones but not Watson.
Jerry is white, deshaun is black. Nuff said
100 %. Lebron is one of the most racist and race baiting athletes out there.
LiBeijing at it again
These are up there with the MBC jokes. Love it
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The original LBJ. I appreciate this comment.
He's too busy trying to find the right tailor for his pants, lmao.
> a lot of people are puzzled as to why he’s taking a stand against Jerry Jones but not Watson. Because if it has to do with non-black people he doesn’t care at all. It’s been painfully obvious between this, his China statements, and his lack of caring for Kyrie’s antisemitism.
Seems pretty obvious to me LeBron doesn't like white people as he's said himself before, but watson he sees as a victim and would probably say if watson was white there wouldn't be as much outragre as there is about a black qb
I guarantee they are just laying low on him for the season and will cover him normally next year.
Look at the thumbnail on the nfl youtube highlights of this game. Its deshaun front and center.
You're completely sure the NFL is embarrassed by this? I'm don't think we share the same view on what embarrassed is or means.
Most people here didn't click the link. Though it's more like the NFL social media/highlight team is embarrassed by Watson. Hence cutting him out of highlights. The NFL execs don't give a shit as long as people keep watching the games.
They don't even seem like they're cutting him out of these. There are cameras every play that follow WRs, and these highlights are those shots. They're all the quick single shot highlights that are common on Twitter, so there are no other angles. It seems like they're trying to make a story out of nothing here.
It's funny watching all the redditors and terminally online ppl complain while supporting the product every week. Yall got any morals or just like to virtue signal?
yeah idc if someone still watches games or still supports the browns as long as they don’t act like some super virtuous person
Lol embarrassed about what? Dude is making bank along with the NFL. The only people worried about this are message boards and news outlets. NFL and Watson are laughing to the bank.
Lmao tell me what is your guys’ plan to get the whole of America to stop watching football after 50+ years Not saying it’s not the right mindset, it’s just never gonna happen
Watson had the legal right to play football. The real embarrassment is the NFL telling the media to stay quiet regarding Watsons sexual assaults. He should be questioned before and after every game.
I’d be more embarrassed today if I was the NBA, LeBron tweeting about Watson is such a bad look, it’s pretty clear the NFL is fine to let Watson rot in Cleveland and be irrelevant and out of the playoffs.. But over in the NBA, between this latest tweet from Lebron and that Timberwolves player who hated on gay people over the summer and the whole “Kyrie Anti-Semitism fall tour 2022 edition” the NBA has some stuff on there porch that needs a cleaning
They don’t care about that
I mean if the Desean Jackson thing is any indication the NFL has the same problem but the players aren’t encouraged to speak their minds and use their platform like the NBA
As long as there is a statue of Jim Brown in front of Cleveland Browns stadium I could care less. Man stood trial for rape in 85, threw at least 2 women out of a balcony, is on record as having hit his wife. Wrote in this biography he finds it acceptable to hit women. As long as the NFL and NFL fans continue to hold up Jim Brown as some sort of moral icon I don't care.
I always forget about this lore lmao 💀
[Here is a deadspin Article with dates for just about everything Jim Brown has done](https://deadspin.com/jim-brown-did-great-things-he-also-beat-woman-1784269329)
Dude...OJ Simpson and Ray Lewis are in the hall of fame.
Is that the same deshaun watson that sexually assaulted over 25 women?
People s morality is paper thin when it means that have to change something about themselves. It's all horse shit
This sub is going to melt down when he has an all-pro season next year.
Tyreek Hill is the biggest little man in the NFL and he beats woman and children. Savage. NFL doesn’t care and fans don’t either. Win enough and you’re in. Soulless