Watson now suspended 11 games/$5 million fine-update

[Stewy]

(08-11-2022, 01:17 PM)SunsetBengal Wrote: I have an idea that the NFL wants for Cleveland to have to pay Watson that big money to not play this season, for their role in enabling him to pay off those civil suits.

His salary is only 1 mil this year.  As you know Cleveland built the contract to avoid paying suspension money.

Thus if the NFL wants to extract money from Watson they will need to fine him.  Most fines are in the ballpark of 10's of thousands of dollars not millions.  

It has been reported that when the NFL, the NFLPA and Watson were at the negotiation table before and after presenting to the judge, but before her decision, the NFL wanted a minimum 12 game suspension and a 10 million dollar fine.  Watson rejected this deal.  The unprecedented fine is the NFL's reaction to Watson's contract which was designed to avoid paying money.

Now that the ball is completely in the NFL's court, and Watson continues to proclaim his innocence, while showing no remorse, even after the judge found him guilty, expect the penalty to be even worse than the NFL's previous minimum negotiating position.