Yahoo Sports · Aug 20, 2022
Why did NFL settle with Deshaun Watson? Look at the team owners
As terms of the Deshaun Watson disciplinary settlement became public Thursday, an NFL executive familiar with the Cleveland Browns quarterback posed a question that is bound to linger in the ensuing months. It encapsulated the lengthy path the league carved on its way to the negotiated outcome, a route that went from the NFL’s 19-month pursuit and 215-page investigative report, to an overturned arbitration ruling, to commissioner Roger Goodell embracing words like “egregious” and “predatory” to describe Watson.
“After all that,” the executive asked, “why didn’t [the NFL] drop the hammer?”