The NFL's Hall of Fame game will occur on the same day as the league's opening game of the year. At Canton. Just a short drive from Cleveland.
If the league wants the full benefit of three business days to consider its next move, that is hardly ideal. With their mutual permission, the parties may extend the deadline following the applicable provision of the Collective Bargaining Agreement.
It's time to see how the public feels about the six-game ban. It's time to see if there is enough public uproar to force the Commissioner, who came under fire in 2014 for treating Ray Rice too leniently, to step in and lengthen the sentence.
The CBA stipulates that "the appeal should be restricted to reasons as to why the amount of discipline if any, should be adjusted based on the evidence record below."
The player(s), Club(s), and other parties to this Agreement are bound by the Commissioner's or his designee's written decision, which constitutes the complete, final, and comprehensive resolution of the disagreement.
In other words, there won't be any new evidence if there is an appeal. There is no fresh evidence. Nothing that I didn't previously know. The factual conclusions of Judge Robinson will be final.
But whatever the details of her factual conclusions were, they led her to issue a six-game punishment. She determined that she had committed good offenses to warrant a season-long suspension, in other words.
So, if the Commissioner suspends Watson for longer, the evidence is adequate to support that judgment.
The league must first determine whether to appeal before it reaches that stage. Unless the NFL and NFLPA agree to extend the deadline through Hall of Fame weekend, it has three business days.
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