The NFL appealed the six-game suspension of Cleveland Browns linebacker Deshaun Watson on Wednesday, according to a league spokesman.
The league challenged the punishment imposed Monday by a third-party disciplinary official as a result of a hearing into allegations that Watson engaged in sexually coercive and lewd conduct toward two dozen women he hired for massages. The NFL is pushing for an indefinite suspension with an option to reinstate after a year, according to a person familiar with the league’s appeal who was not authorized to speak publicly.
The league also recommended a fine and treatment for Watson and cited concerns about a lack of remorse in the brief it filed Wednesday, the person said.
The union, which declined to comment, has until the end of the business day on Friday to respond.
Following a process agreed upon in the collective bargaining agreement between the league and the NFL Players Association, the appeal will be heard by Commissioner Roger Goodell or a person of his choice. The league did not immediately say who would oversee the appeal, which will be heard on an “expedited” basis.
There is no set timetable for a decision in a CBA.
Sue L. Robinson, the retired federal judge appointed jointly by the NFL and the players’ union to oversee the disciplinary hearing, found that Watson violated the league’s personal conduct policy by engaging in unwanted sexual contact with another person, endangering safety and to another person and undermines the integrity of the NFL. She suggested in her 16-page report that Watson’s behavior, which she called “predatory” and “exciting,” may have merited a harsher punishment, but that she was constrained by league policies and past disciplinary records.
Watson denied the charges against him, and two grand juries in Texas declined to indict him. He settled all but one of the 24 lawsuits filed against him by women he hired for massages. Browns owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam said they will “continue to support” the quarterback, who they signed to a five-year, $230 million fully guaranteed contract in March.
Robinson said in his report that Watson’s rebuttals did not appear credible and that he showed no remorse.
The players’ union said before Robinson’s decision it would not appeal, but after the suspension was announced Monday, the NFL said it would review its findings and “make a decision on next steps” within the three business days the CBA allows for challenges.
The six-game ban was criticized by Tony Busby, the lawyer representing most of Watson’s accusers, as well as sports law experts and advocates for victims of sexual assault. The league had argued to Robinson that Watson deserved at least a full year’s suspension, while the union fought for a lesser punishment.
Robinson said her decision to suspend Watson for six games was based on punishments the league has handed down in other cases involving gender-based violence.
The league began its investigation into Watson in March 2021, when Ashley Solis, a licensed massage therapist in Houston, filed the first lawsuit against him. The women said he assaulted or harassed them during massage dates in 2020 and 2021 when Watson played for the Houston Texans. In a brief filed with Robinson, the league said Watson “used his status as an NFL player as a pretext to engage in a premeditated pattern of predatory behavior toward multiple women.”
Watson’s case was the first to be heard under a new process established in the 2020 CBA. By appointing an arbitrator to oversee the review of the facts and decide the original penalty, the review was intended to stem criticism of the excessive and sometimes capricious power of Goodell in the disciplinary process.
If Robinson had determined that Watson had not violated the personal conduct policy, there would have been no discipline and no party could have appealed. But she concluded there was enough evidence, including the accounts of four women that she said were “substantially corroborated,” to support multiple policy violations by Watson.
According to the CBA, the decisions of Goodell or his designee are “full, final and complete” and binding on all parties, including the player.
The union could challenge the league’s complaint in federal court, as it has done with player conduct decisions in the past. One notable case came in 2015 when quarterback Tom Brady challenged his four-game suspension in the so-called Deflategate scandal. A district court judge sided with Brady, saying Goodell exceeded his authority by suspending the quarterback for his role in an alleged scheme to remove air from game balls to improve their traction. However, Goodell’s decision was upheld in 2016 by a federal appeals court panel that upheld his broad authority to discipline players.
Michael LeRoy, an arbitrator who teaches labor law at the University of Illinois, said the CBA’s language makes a “definite point” about the finality of the process agreed to by both parties.
“I think it’s almost airtight from judicial reversal,” Leroy said. “Courts are extremely deferential to findings of fact as well as to conclusions as to whether or not there was a breach of contract. So I think Watson will just be tilting at windmills if he challenges this in federal court.
Watson can continue to work out with the Browns during training camp while the appeal is pending.
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