NFL's rumored eight-game suspension for Deshaun Watson a slap in the face to all women

Deshaun Watson is quietly expecting the NFL to soon make an announcement on his immediate future. The Cleveland Browns quarterback expects to receive an eight-game suspension after he was accused of sexual misconduct by over 20 different women.

Settling the cases as a civil matter has allowed him to realistically move forward with his career. This means that it is likely that he'll only have to serve a shortened suspension, rather than the entire 2022 season, as many predicted.

Watson, the Browns and the Houston Texans have all been roundly criticized for how they have handled the situation. That said, it does now appear to be coming to a close… for Watson, at least.

The women who have been victims of his behavior don’t just get to walk away from their situation. Some of them have been unable to continue their careers as masseurs. Others, sadly, will forever feel as though the justice system has failed them. This is because none of the criminal cases brought against Watson led to him being found guilty.

Possible Deshaun Watson verdict has seen the NFL send a careless message

The NFL has often been criticized for how it has handled behavioral problems exhibited by the most talented players. Therefore, if they give Watson just an eight-game suspension, they will be sending a careless message.

The NFL has tried to market itself to families in recent years. This has been especially true as parents have turned kids away from the sport because of its concussion risks.

How can the league, in good conscience, allow Deshaun Watson to play on with such a paltry punishment? What message does this send to young girls and women who follow the sport and want to, somehow, break into the business?

There has been a tremendous effort made by the NFL to increase inclusivity for women in recent years. We’ve seen the tremendous arrivals of Katie Sowers, Jennifer King, Sandra Douglass Morgan and Lori Locust as coaches in the NFL.

Having such a message of inclusivity doesn’t marry well with allowing Watson to get off so lightly. In fact, his contract was structured in a way that will see him lose almost virtually no money during his suspension.

Are Watson’s performances so strong that the league is willing to risk allowing a large part of its future demographic to become disenchanted with the sport? The answer should be no.

Women in the NFL aren’t the only people to suffer a setback

There is a wider point to be made about this issue, and one which must be made rather carefully.

In the NFL, there is a list of crimes that are considered so heinous that rehabilitation in an athletic sense is almost impossible. Murder, rape and serious domestic assault all come under that category.

The problem we have with regard to the Browns' star is that his actions, while disgusting and incredibly damaging to his victims, didn’t reach the level of severity needed to send a strong message.

It would have been very easy for people to argue in Watson’s favor, had he been given a life-ban from the NFL. While making multiple women uncomfortable and fearful, he could argue that he never actually put them in danger or laid a hand on them.

This would be a flimsy defense, but as soon as the courts ruled this wasn’t a criminal matter, the NFL had a certain ceiling they could go to.

As a result, this is a problem, not only for women who want to break into the NFL, but also for women as human beings on a wider scale.

It’s 2022, and we’ve only just got to a point where allegations made by women are taken seriously. Only recently are the men immediately considered to have possibly committed the crimes they are accused of.

This was tremendous, if slow, progress, but there has already been damage done by the fact Amber Heard was found to have lied and defamed Johnny Depp over domestic abuse accusations in court.

Women will now look at Deshaun Watson's suspension and wonder, What do we have to gain by reporting abusers?

Watson's case shows that the only possible positive is that these women end up with a reasonably sized financial package. But this happens only after being made to feel sexually uncomfortable at their work place. We’re heading into a dangerous zone where women won’t speak out because they worry nobody wants to listen.

While people make mistakes, the quarterback hasn’t shown any real remorse or acknowledgement of his behavior. This is another concerning pattern. Being handed such a small suspension may even reinforce the view that he didn’t do much wrong. It may send the message that it was only a minor issue.

The NFL needs to be stronger

If this rumored short suspension does come about, it will be a slap in the face to all victims of sexual harassment, regardless of gender.

The NFL had the chance to send a strong message. It has a chance to say that the league wouldn’t tolerate this sort of behavior. It should have been a two-year suspension. Perhaps the league could have levied themselves out of a totally difficult spot by stating Watson had already served one of the years in 2021.

Putting down a marker that any kind of sexual misconduct would result in a player missing two years of their career without pay would have sent a strong message to players. Perhaps it would have made them think twice before engaging in such lewd acts.

While having to tempt people with the loss of money and football to get them to behave is a sorry state of affairs, any possible way we can stop there being this many victims in the future would have to be a positive. If this rumor turns out to be true, the NFL has missed an opportunity here, and it’s one they should regret.