"Sometimes the best PR is no PR" - Mike Florio dumbfounded by Browns' response to Deshaun Watson suspension

Cleveland QB Deshaun Watson was suspended for an additional five games after his initial six-game suspension was appealed by the league. After that, the Browns made a PR decision that is being widely panned by pundits.

Watson got up to the podium to address his 11-game suspension but did not apologize directly to the victims and showed little remorse. He essentially apologized for the legal process and not for his transgressions.

In particular, NBC Sports' Pro Football Talk host Mike Florio believes the decision of the organization to say anything on the day the verdict came was a putrid PR faux-pas:

"They rushed him to a microphone yesterday. Why did they do anything? Just give it a day. Just rest on the written statements for a day and let's see how the world reacts to it. And then maybe on Friday, if we need to, we make people available. If we don't. Don't say a thing. Sometimes the best PR is no PR. Just let it go. Let it marinate."

Florio further emphasized his point:

"Let it ruminate. Let it just be. I don't get it. And I suspect there are some folks in Cleveland today, within the Browns facility, wondering why they did what they did, including giving Deshaun Watson a chance to stand up there, claiming innocence. Did they not know that's what he was going to do? Did they not realize from his private communications that he still proclaimed his innocence?"

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One Deshaun Watson accuser is holding out on a settlement

Lauren Baxley, a former massage therapist who quit the only career she knew in May, is the lone woman in the Watson lawsuit not to accept a settlement with the accused.

Baxley explained in a Daily Beast piece titled 'Why I’m Refusing to Settle With NFL Star Deshaun Watson' her reasons for not following suit with the 23 other accusers:

"I have rejected all settlement offers, in part because they have not included any sincere acknowledgment of remorse and wrongdoings, nor have they included any promises of rehabilitative treatment.

"Watson still refuses to admit that he harassed and committed indecent assault against me. Any settlement offer he has made has been a dismissal of his evil actions, and I know that unless there is an authoritative intervention, he will continue his destructive behavior."

The seemingly never-ending Watson saga may just survive another day, if not more than half the 2022 NFL season.

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If you use any of the above quotes, please credit Pro Football Talk, Daily Beast, and H/T Sportskeeda