The NFL Player’s Association reportedly had a plan to defend Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson when they pointed to owners who weren’t punished at all or weren’t punished significantly for actual or potential violations of the Personal Conduct Policy.
The NFLPA focused on Daniel Snyder, Robert Kraft, and Jerry Jones.
Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said that was common practice from the NFLPA, according to Clarence E. Hill Jr. of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
“It is a standard players association comeback,” he told Hill. “That is the drill. That is the drill to go around to say you didn’t punish such and such. Anybody would know that every player case and every case that involves non-players in the NFL are dealing with dramatically different principle facts, which is all the difference in the world.”
The NFL is currently appealing the six-game suspension independent disciplinary officer Sue L. Robinson gave Watson after over two dozen women accused him of sexual assault or misconduct. Not one, but two separate grand juries in Texas declined to indict Watson on criminal charges, and Watson has settled 23 of the 24 civil lawsuits.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has since appointed former New Jersey Attorney General Peter C. Harvey to oversee the league’s appeal. The league is reportedly seeking “an indefinite suspension of at least one year and a fine of around $8 million.”
According to Hill, the NFLPA reportedly “included owner misconduct in the hearing with Robinson before the initial decision on discipline was made because of the league’s threat to seek unprecedented punishment.”
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In 2014, a woman accused Jones of sexual assault in a lawsuit, though the case was dismissed. This past February, it was reported that the Cowboys reached a $2.4 million settlement with four cheerleaders who accused longtime senior vice president for public relations and communications, Richard Dalrymple of voyeurism, while they were undressing after a 2015 event.
The very next month Jones settled for nearly $3 million in a paternity suit brought against him by Alexandra Davis who claimed Jones was her biological father.
