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Examining Bias, Hypocrisy, and Racism In The Deshaun Watson Case



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Examining Bias, Hypocrisy, and Racism In The Deshaun Watson Case

Garrett Bush of the Ultimate Cleveland Sports Show, The Locked On Browns Podcast, and the Barbershop on 92.3 The Fan in Cleveland, Ohio Examining Bias, Hypocrisy, and Racism In The Deshaun Watson Case. Garrett discusses the possibility of the NFLPA filing a class action lawsuit on behalf of Watson and countless other black players who have claimed that the NFL's conduct policy, hiring practices, and financial practices are racist.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has often sighted the phrase "protecting the shield” when it comes to violations of the leagues conduct policy by players. The NFL has been quick to hammer players who run afoul of the law or put themselves in situations that embarrass the good name of the NFL, Goodell is now faced with one of his own doing the very same thing. Jeff Pash, the NFL’s general counsel, might not have done anything illegal, but a report late Thursday by the New York Times about some of his emails certainly has brought shame to the league.

According to The Times, Pash mocked the NFL’s diversity hiring efforts and was sympathetic to the Washington Football Team’s defense of its previous racist nickname. He also appeared to show favoritism to the Washington Football Team and its former president, Bruce Allen.

That chummy relationship is sure to raise additional questions about the NFL’s leniency and lack of transparency following the investigation into the toxic and misogynistic workplace at the Washington Football Team.

Like, was it Pash who told investigator Beth Wilkinson to make a series of oral reports rather than issue a written report, which has been done in seemingly every other high-profile NFL investigation? After all, she reported to him.

How much influence did Pash have on the decision to fine Washington owner Daniel Snyder $10 million? What initially appears to be a significant figure is actually the equivalent of pocket change for someone whose net worth Forbes has estimated at $4 billion. The NFL also didn’t strip Washington of any draft picks, a punishment with the potential for far more impact.

“Jeff Pash is a respected and high-character NFL executive,” Jeff Miller, the NFL’s executive vice president of communications, told The Times. “Any effort to portray these emails as inappropriate is either misleading or patently false.” Spare me the self-righteous indignation. It was appalling enough to see the casual racism, misogyny, homophobia and bigotry in Jon Gruden’s emails – which cost him his job, by the way. At the NFL’s behest, if you look carefully at the comment by Las Vegas Raiders owner Mark Davis.

And given these were just a handful of the 650,000 emails that Wilkinson and her team turned over to the NFL earlier this year, what else is in there? Might the thought of opposing attorneys combing through Pash’s correspondence be the reason the NFL was willing to settle Colin Kaepernick and Eric Reid’s collusion lawsuit? These are all fair questions to ask. And try as the NFL will to insist there’s nothing to see here, they will be asked.

But we’ve always known that NFL owners are the adult equivalent of a frat house. With few exceptions, it’s a bunch of wealthy old white men who view themselves as superior to anyone who doesn’t look like them or run in their circles. Gruden might not have been an owner, but he was one of “them,” a Super Bowl-winning coach with similar attitudes and inflated view of himself.

The league office, however, is supposed to be different. Or, at least, Goodell has tried to spin it as such, claiming to be pained at the lack of diversity in the coaching and GM ranks and preaching tolerance and inclusion. What do those slogans in the end zones say? “End Racism” and “It Takes All of Us”? Apparently Pash didn’t get that memo.

“When Allen shared an audio file of a team song aimed at attracting Latino fans,” the Times reported, “Pash responded, `I am not sure this song will be as popular after the wall gets built.’” He also sympathized when Allen griped about the hiring of Jocelyn Moore, who would become the first Black woman to be the NFL’s top spokesperson. Remember Deflategate? The outrage at NFL headquarters wasn’t about Tom Brady and the New England Patriots inflating footballs to make them easier to throw. It was about their attempts to game the system.


#browns #nfl #deshaunwatson #watson #cleveland #trainingcamp #nflpa
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