NFL Roger Goodell explains the league's decision to pursue a one-year suspension for Deshaun Watson

[TeamProg]

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell on Tuesday explained the league's decision to pursue a one-year suspension for Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson and weighed in on the findings of an independent investigation into integrity of the game violations committed by the Dolphins.

Goodell told reporters that the evidence showed Watson committed multiple violations of the NFL's personal-conduct policy.

"We've seen the evidence," Goodell said following Tuesday's Special League Meeting in Minneapolis, which was called to allow for a vote on the sale of the Broncos. "[Disciplinary officer Sue L. Robinson] was very clear about the evidence, should we enforce the evidence. That there was multiple violations here, and they were egregious, and it was predatory behavior. Those are things that we always felt were important for us to address in a way that's responsible."

In issuing a six-game suspension for Watson on Aug. 1, Robinson wrote that Watson engaged in "sexual assault; conduct that poses a genuine danger to the safety and well-being of another person; and conduct that undermines or puts at risk the integrity of the NFL." Robinson, however, noted that she was "bound 'by standards of fairness and consistency of treatment among players similarly situated' " in her decision for a six-game suspension despite the NFL seeking a yearlong ban.


https://www.nfl.com/news/nfl-commissioner-roger-goodell-explains-league-s-decision-to-pursue-one-year-sus