After a 19-month absence from football, Deshaun Watson started an NFL preseason game Friday night.
Before the game began, the Cleveland Browns quarterback did something else that was almost as long in coming: He apologized for the first time since more than two dozen women said he sexually assaulted or harassed them at massage appointments.
As Watson took the field and was booed by the sparse crowd at Jacksonville’s TIAA Bank Field, a league advisor continued to weigh his suitability for the upcoming regular season.
The day before the game and Watson’s apology, The Associated Press reported that Watson would be willing to accept an eight-game suspension and a $5 million fine after his representatives initially argued no time was wasted.
“I really want to feel sorry for all the women I’ve influenced in this situation,” Watson said in an interview with the Browns’ broadcast team. “The choices I made in my life that got me into this position I would definitely like to have back, but I want to keep moving forward and growing and learning and showing that I’m a real person with character.”
As the game’s kick-off drew nearer, there were growing tensions over whether Watson’s start would go ahead as planned. Even if threatened with a regular season suspension, he can attend all practice and exhibition games until his suspension begins in the first week of the season. But if the appeal had resulted in the season ban the league was pushing for, and if that decision had been made before the game, Watson would have been immediately banned from all team activity and would have had to seek reinstatement at the end of the season.
The appeal will be heard by Peter C. Harvey, a former New Jersey Attorney General who was selected last week by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to review the case and make an “expedited” decision. There is no timeline as to when that will happen.
The Browns announced on Wednesday that Watson would start the preseason on Friday. He looked rusty and completed just one of five passes in three offensive series before being drawn, but his performance on the field was just a footnote.
On August 1, Sue L. Robinson, a retired federal judge jointly appointed by the NFL and the players’ union to oversee the disciplinary hearing, found that Watson had committed multiple violations of the league’s personal conduct guidelines as a result of conduct which they mean for “predatory” and “monstrous”. Two days later, the league appealed under a new disciplinary procedure set out under the 2020 Collective Bargaining Agreement.
When she pleaded for a full-season suspension along with a fine and counseling, the league raised concerns about Watson’s lack of remorse, a factor Robinson also cited in her decision.
Jimmy and Dee Haslam, the owners of the Browns, expressed their support for Watson in a statement last week, saying he was “remorseful”. Watson’s comments ahead of Friday’s game were the first time he publicly expressed regret over his actions.
Watson had previously denied the allegations, telling reporters at a press conference in June that he regretted their impact on his teammates and those around him. Watson has settled 23 of the lawsuits filed against him by women who say he assaulted or molested them during massage appointments, and two Texas grand juries declined to indict him on criminal charges.
Watson’s suspension is scheduled to begin the week of the Browns’ first regular-season game on Sept. 11 against the Carolina Panthers.
He has not played in the regular season or in an exhibition since January 3, 2021, when he was a member of the Houston Texans. He filed for a trade that month, and in March 2021 the first lawsuit was filed against him. Despite being eligible to play, Watson sat out the 2021 NFL season.
The Browns traded for Watson this spring after a Texas grand jury declined to indict him. The team sent several top draft picks to Houston and signed Watson to a five-year, $230 million, fully guaranteed contract.