NFL: Deshaun Watson’s ongoing review ‘played no factor in the scheduling of Browns games’
Updated: May. 13, 2022, 8:58 p.m. | Published: May. 13, 2022, 8:46 p.m.
By
Mary Kay Cabot, cleveland.com
CLEVELAND, Ohio --
If you didn’t know any better, you might think the NFL did the Browns a favor and gave them a presumably soft early part of the schedule in case Deshaun Watson is suspended for violating the Personal Conduct Policy.
But not so, says the league.
“There’s an ongoing review,’’ NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy told cleveland.com. “We do not have a timeline. The ongoing review played no factor in the scheduling of Browns games.’'
McCarthy’s statements confirmed what NFL Vice President of Broadcast Scheduling Mike North told
Adam Schein of Sirius XM Mad Dog Radio on Friday. North also left open that a decision on Watson’s possible suspension in connection with 24 massage therapists accusing him of sexual misconduct during appointments might not happen until next season.
“The honest answer to your question is no,’’ North said of whether or Watson’s situation played a role. “None of us know. None of us knows if he’s going to be all year, if he’s not going to be here at all. None of us knows what’s going to happen at all, and it might not happen this year. I don’t know enough about the legal system, but we could be a year or two away from all of these things finally settling.
“And as you look at the Cleveland schedule, you see that they have a national television game in Week 3, a national television game in Week 8, an opportunity to be back on national television on NFL Network in the Saturday pool in Week 15, so there’s a game in the first third, a game in the middle, a game in the last third. No idea what’s going to happen. I don’t know anything more than you do at this point. So the honest answer to your question is we really didn’t think about it.”
What the NFL did think about was the Browns vs. the Texans — the team that traded Watson to Cleveland amid his legal issues — and keeping it out of Week 1.
“We knew that Houston and Cleveland were obviously going to play each other this year, and Cleveland at Houston is going to mean something,” North said. “I’ll be honest with you, we did see a schedule somewhere along the hundreds of thousands that we looked at this year where that game was in Week Number 1.
“And I’m just not sure that would’ve been the right place for it. That’s maybe not the right, you know, game that we want all eyes on, attention on, taking attention away from some of these other big tentpoles in Week 1. So other than maybe really just thinking about where that actual Cleveland at Houston game fell, there really wasn’t a lot of attention paid because, honestly, none of us knows what’s going to happen.”
The Browns’ first four games are at Carolina, at home against the Jets, at home vs. the Steelers on Thursday Night Football and at the Falcons. The quartet features only one 2021 playoff team in the Steelers, and a combined victory total last season of 25 games for an average of just over six per team.
If Watson is suspended for six games — an arbitrary number at this point — he’ll undoubtedly appeal and try to get it reduced. If he misses the first four games, the Browns, who went 8-9 last season and missed the playoffs, could still win all or most of them with backup Jacoby Brissett. The last time they started 4-0 was 1979.
Watson is in the midst of being deposed in some of his 22 civil suits, with more hearings coming in late June. Lawyers for both sides have agreed not to go to trial from Aug. 1 to Mar. 1, but the NFL will determine any sanctions independent of the civil suits.
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If you didn't know any better............The NFL Browns schedule OF COURSE was not influenced by Watson's situation..............if you didn't know any better............