Catching up: Part 3

There is no question the National Football League caved when it agreed to suspend Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson for just 11 games a couple of weeks ago for violating the league's personal conduct policy.

It was clearly a compromise, falling roughly between the league's desire for a one-year suspension and subsequent reinstatement and the original six-game suspension handed down by new league adjudicator Sue L. Robinson after 24 massage therapists filed civil suits against Watson for sexual misconduct.

The league generously labeled the settlement "significant, definitive, immediate and final." Taking a stab at reading between the lines, the league was pissed it didn't get its way, but did not want to enter a messy and lengthy legal jungle in the event the NFL Players Association threatened legal action.

The punishment did not fit the human crime, as opposed to a prosecutorial crime. What Watson did was predatory and aberrant. He should have known better. Problem was that possibility never entered his mind. 

He does not think what he did warranted any punishment. There is not a scintilla of remorse in his words. He said his only regret was hurting those either related to him or close to him professionally. Even after the settlement was announced, he stood firm that he did nothing wrong.

He just does not get it. And most likely never will. 

Co-owner Jimmy Haslam III believes otherwise. "I think we've seen him recognize some things he wished he'd done differently," he said. "Some positions he wished he'd not put himself into." Really? How? In what way?

Apparently, he did not hear his quarterback insist he had done nothing wrong. Nothing. 

Part of the settlement requires Watson to undergo therapy. Why bother? That'll be a waste of time. If he doesn't get it now, he never will. You think one day he'll suddenly open his eyes and declare, "What have I done?" Uh, no.

Co-owner Dee Haslam doesn't agree.."I do think in counseling Deshaun will grow to learn about himself," she said. No he won't. If he hasn't up to now, he's a lost cause. Therapy won't  help. His total focus now is resuming his football career, not rehabilitating himself from a personal behavior standpoint.

Watson is a very fortunate young man. He just doesn't know it. The NFL had the right idea of making the punishment as severe as possible to set a precedent -- and act as a deterrent -- that nothing like this would ever happen again. 

The saddest part of this little saga, which will carry on well beyond Watson's stay in Cleveland, is the stain it has planted on this heretofore model franchise. Watson's mere presence on the roster, in and of itself, is a stain. 

It has caused more than a few rabid Browns fans who have been following this team for as long as 50 or more years to choose either to follow another team on moral grounds or bow out until the stench of Deshaun Watson wears a different uniform.

Jimmy Haslam, perhaps unwittingly, revealed the real reason Watson is now a Cleveland Brown. "I think it's important to remember Deshaun is 26 years old and is a high-level NFL quarterback and we're  planning on him being our quarterback for a long time."

Spoken like an desperate NFL owner with blinders on whose moral judgment has come into question the last six months. Forget about those 24 women. It almost as though they are incidental in the big picture.