The independent arbitrator finally handed down the much-anticipated suspension for Cleveland Browns QB Deshaun Watson and now the second-guessing can begin. Dan believes the NFL secretly wants to just accept it and move on but is basically forced into appealing as a show of strength. They are still reeling from the backlash from being too lenient on Ray Rice for his domestic abuse suspension and need to dispel any hint that they are weak when it comes to this type of discipline.
Dan Patrick: “I was told that the NFL did not want to appear weak here. Now, they may accept this, although I think that the optics of that are bad too. They got three days to appeal this. I get the feeling the NFL wants to show strength here, that hey, we don’t agree with this, six games. Now privately they’re probably saying it’d be great to just move on with this because we’re heading into the season, camps have opened up, but Roger Goodell and the NFL have to look and this and say perception-wise: how do we look?”