"Shut it down for the year" - Colin Cowherd believes NFL will have no qualms in suspending Deshaun Watson
Deshaun Watson has not had any recent positive developments in his sexual transgressions legal suit, and The Herd host Colin Cowherd believes that won't change anytime soon. The FS1 personality advocated for the league to 'shut it down' on the Browns quarterback's debut campaign in Cleveland.
Cowherd chastised Rusty Hardin, Watson's lawyer, for making what he called one of the biggest verbal blunders an attorney can make:
“Rusty Hardin, the attorney for Deshaun Watson, made one of the biggest verbal blunders I've ever seen an attorney make with a high profile client when he came out and basically said, 'These claims against him, you know, they're not illegal.' What? Excuse me? What? No, don't say that. Take it seriously, please."
@JennyVrentas Rusty Hardin, Watson’s lawyer, seems to have had an unusually large amount of contact with the lead prosecutor in Houston pursuing the criminal case against Watson: nytimes.com/2022/06/07/spo… https://t.co/Uc0BWBi5ok
The host would later accuse Hardin of mobilizing the 24th accuser with his comments, a cardinal sin in the profession:
"Not only did it Harden, have to do a mia culpa. He had a statement over the weekend. We now have a 24th victim, who appears to have been empowered by Rusty Hardin's comments and irritated by it. Your job as an attorney is to speak rarely but profoundly and protect your client. Because in many instances with a high profile client, anything you say about that client makes the news. I thought Rusty Hardin did more damage to Deshaun Watson. In fact, my prediction was, and I'll put this out here, I think the NFL is going to shut him down for the year."
Cowherd believes that Browns owner Jimmy Haslam's standing with the league could cause Watson and the franchise's undoing this season:
"I don't think Jimmy Haslam is a popular owner because he's brought negative press to the league and because he gave Deshaun Watson a guaranteed deal. The owners hated that it was all guaranteed. I think Roger Goodell can shut it down for the year. You know, the Steelers, Bengals, and Ravens won't mind in division. And I don't think the other owners would mind as well.”
Deshaun Watson is another symbol of Cleveland's pro football chaos
Things have not been copacetic in Cleveland since the early 1990s, and this offseason has been a very specific example of widespread futility since the Browns' return in 1999.
Baker Mayfield's drama aside, everything involved in handing Watson a historic guaranteed contract during a period of ceaseless and troubling legal headlines is dysfunctional at best and morally reprehensible at worst.
The Browns structured Deshaun Watson's contract in the most craven way possible, giving him a $1M base salary this year (in case he's suspended) and then $46M annually from 2023-2026.
They deserve every bad thing that happens to them.
Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio has said before that the Browns are getting what they deserve through all of this, but the 'Dawg Pound' most certainly deserve better than what their team has given them over the past two decades.