The NFL now has three days to overview Robinson’s ruling. If it disagrees with the phrases, the league will attraction to Goodell, who may add extra video games to Watson’s punishment.
Here are 4 takeaways from Robinson’s ruling.
1. Watson dedicated sexual assault towards the 4 therapeutic massage therapists included within the NFL’s investigation.
Robinson discovered that the NFL had proved its rivalry that Watson dedicated sexual assault towards the 4 therapists, in violation of the league’s code of conduct. The NFL outlined sexual assault within the Watson case as “unwanted sexual contact with another person,” and claimed the quarterback “committed sexual assault by allegedly ‘touching [his] penis to the women without their consent.’ ”
In the absence of a confession, Robinson mentioned she needed to weigh the circumstantial proof within the case, and he or she discovered it ample “to support the NFL’s contention not only that contact occurred, but that Mr. Watson was aware that contact probably would occur, and that Mr. Watson had a sexual purpose — not just a therapeutic purpose — in making these arrangements with these particular therapists.”
Robinson additionally concluded Watson was conscious such contact was undesirable by the therapists as a result of one in all them mentioned she expressed her discomfort to Watson through the therapeutic massage session, one other ended the session early and not one of the 4 accepted Mr. Watson’s invites for additional therapeutic massage periods.
2. Watson’s conduct posed a real hazard to the security and well-being of one other individual.
The NFL code of conduct additionally prohibits actions that pose a “genuine danger to the safety and well-being of another person,” and Robinson once more discovered the NFL had proved Watson violated this rule. The 4 therapeutic massage therapists all testified that they went by means of some type of anguish after their periods with Watson, with one in all them looking for counseling and one other contemplating different strains of labor in consequence.
3. Watson’s conduct undermined the NFL’s integrity.
The NFL, Robinson asserts, has a nebulous definition of what defines conduct that undermines the league’s “integrity,” as a result of it says the “matters that can affect such integrity and public confidence [in the game of professional football] change over time.” The league mentioned Tom Brady harm its integrity through the Deflategate incident, for example, and claims Watson did the identical right here.
Robinson agreed, discovering that “Mr. Watson acted with a reckless disregard for the consequences of his actions by exposing himself (and the NFL) to such public scrutiny and speculation. Mr. Watson’s predatory conduct cast ‘a negative light on the League and its players,’ sufficient proof that he violated this provision of the Policy.”
4. Nevertheless, Watson’s conduct was not thought-about violent conduct.
Even although she described Watson’s actions as “predatory,” Robinson discovered it “undisputed that Mr. Watson’s conduct does not fall into the category of violent conduct.” And as a result of Robinson used the NFL’s previous participant suspensions as a information, she mentioned that “prior cases involving nonviolent sexual assault have resulted in discipline far less severe than what the NFL proposes here, the most severe penalty being a 3-game suspension for a player who had been previously warned about his conduct.”
The NFL needed to droop Watson for a complete season, however Robinson rejected that notion due to the above purpose and since the league solely outlined what constituted Watson’s prohibited conduct after the very fact, with out defining it within the collective bargaining settlement, a notion she known as “inherently unfair.”
In the tip, Robinson really useful a six-game suspension as a result of “Mr. Watson’s pattern of conduct is more egregious than any before reviewed by the NFL.”