As terms of the Deshaun Watson disciplinary settlement became public Thursday, an NFL executive familiar with the Cleveland Browns quarterback posed a question that is bound to linger in the ensuing months. It encapsulated the lengthy path the league carved on its way to the negotiated outcome, a route that went from the NFL’s 19-month pursuit and 215-page investigative report, to an overturned arbitration ruling, to commissioner Roger Goodell embracing words like “egregious” and “predatory” to describe Watson.
“After all that,” the executive asked, “why didn’t [the NFL] drop the hammer?”
The question itself is framed through an opinion.