We can go back and forth all day long – for that matter, all week long, all month long, all year long and beyond – on the justice or legitimacy of the six-game suspension handed down to Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson by former federal judge Sue L. Robinson on Monday morning.
BREAKING: The NFL suspends Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson six games for violating its personal conduct policy following accusations of sexual misconduct made against him by two dozen women in Texas. https://t.co/oOB1Mby2xX
— The Associated Press (@AP) August 1, 2022
Needless to say, it has set off a firestorm of red-hot rhetoric, the likes of which has not been seen in sports in some time.
Instead of jumping into that controversy, the facts of the case of the case or the lack thereof, which would just be more of what, as mentioned, everybody else is doing, let’s look at a nebulous point. And it is that in the court of public opinion – an all-important, and in fact the most important, court, whose jurisdiction extends everywhere and beyond and encompasses everyone – the decision stinks. Indeed, what Watson allegedly did with all those women will forever be looked upon as wrong, wrong, wrong and as such he will forever be looked upon as being guilty, guilty, guilty, most specifically in terms of being morally bankrupt, an incredibly negative stigma for him to carry.
Like it or not for Watson, the Browns, the NFL or anybody else who is giddy with delight over the decision of “just” six games, that’s the perception. That’s what the majority of people are thinking and feeling now, tomorrow, the day after that and for all the time to follow.
That is the biggest takeaway of this decision. And what that means going forward for everybody involved remains to be seen, but at first blush, it doesn’t look good at all.
Steve King
