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Speaker 1: Just minutes ago, Judge Sue L. Robinson has informed the

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Speaker 1: parties that DeShawn Watsons should be suspended six games. This

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Speaker 1: comes after the three day disciplinary hearing in June, the

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Speaker 1: long awaited ruling for the Browns quarterback. The NFL p

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Speaker 1: A and DeShawn Watson put out a statement late yesterday

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Speaker 1: saying that they would not appeal the ruling, so six

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Speaker 1: games will stand. From the standpoint of DeShawn Watson and

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Speaker 1: from the nfl PA, welcome to around the NFL, Dan Hansas,

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Speaker 1: Mark Cecli, Greg Rosenthal. Listen, we thought about holding our

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Speaker 1: reaction until our scheduled show this week on Tuesday, but

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Speaker 1: in the end, you know what. We talked about it

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Speaker 1: and we recognize that this has been the story, capital

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Speaker 1: t capitalest of the two offseason. Unfortunately, and let's be real,

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Speaker 1: the potential outcome currently in place right now has a

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Speaker 1: major ripple effect in the a f C and the NFL.

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Speaker 1: The Browns, with DeShawn Watson behind center for the majority

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Speaker 1: of the season, are a Super Bowl contender, whether or

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Speaker 1: not the vast majority of the public eye are into

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Speaker 1: that idea. And you heard in at the top. We've

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Speaker 1: all been reading about it all morning. We all kind

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Speaker 1: of were bracing for something along these lines. But the

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Speaker 1: story is not over yet. Greg Rosenthal, Yeah, I think

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Speaker 1: that's my key takeaway, and it leads like this podcast,

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Speaker 1: for instance, in a strange place because I feel like

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Speaker 1: we don't have the final answer. And it's one of

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Speaker 1: the reasons I wanted to do the podcast was just

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Speaker 1: to make sure our listeners and people understood that, because frankly,

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Speaker 1: I didn't understand that as of a couple of days ago.

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Speaker 1: I don't think a lot of people really understood the

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Speaker 1: disciplinary process. First of all, it's never happened before. It's

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Speaker 1: part of this new collective bargaining agreement. When Ian made

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Speaker 1: that report, the key word in his report to me

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Speaker 1: was recommend and that's really what all all. Sue Robinson

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Speaker 1: is doing here. She's recommending a six game suspension. And

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Speaker 1: the next question to me is just like, how important

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Speaker 1: is this to Roger Goodell, Because ultimately Roger Goodell has

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Speaker 1: the final say. The appeals process, which they collectively bargained for,

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Speaker 1: goes to either Roger Goodell or a designate someone that

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Speaker 1: he chooses to hear that appeal. If there was no suspension,

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Speaker 1: then there could be no appeal. It's over. But now

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Speaker 1: that she has decided and we can get into it

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Speaker 1: like that there was wrongdoing. It is absolutely up to

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Speaker 1: the NFL and Roger Goodell whether they want to raise

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Speaker 1: the six games suspension to something more and for context,

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Speaker 1: they recommended during this hearing that he's to be suspended

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Speaker 1: for at least one year. So to me, this is

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Speaker 1: an incomplete story as of now, and the NFL, just

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Speaker 1: as we're starting to take release the statement. UM that

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Speaker 1: didn't say much, but it did point out that they

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Speaker 1: now have three days in which to file an appeal

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Speaker 1: and they will decide to do that or not, but

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Speaker 1: they will you take that time. It is a story

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Speaker 1: that's just far from over. I I really would expect

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Speaker 1: the NFL to appeal. They're in a They're in a

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Speaker 1: tough spot though, because you know, technically from the construct

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Speaker 1: of the collective bargaining Agreement, this is what was pushed for.

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Speaker 1: That that goes out of the hands of Roger Goodell

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Speaker 1: having the initial say an investigation to this independent arbitrre.

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Speaker 1: That's what's happened. And now you know there either they

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Speaker 1: say the process that we've fought for UM or at

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Speaker 1: least agreed on um is faulty still or we ignore

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Speaker 1: the way this looks to so many different fans because

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Speaker 1: I just think about, um, you know, you're on Twitter

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Speaker 1: all morning, the reaction of our female colleagues, both that

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Speaker 1: NFL media and beyond UM and many of many of

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Speaker 1: our male colleagues too, but just um, it's so it is.

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Speaker 1: I don't think the six games is a shocking result.

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Speaker 1: I mean a lot of people were sort of putting

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Speaker 1: it in that zone as a real possibility. But it's

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Speaker 1: a disappointment because I think of the fact that you know,

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Speaker 1: you've got DeAndre Hopkins, um, six games for p E

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Speaker 1: d S. You've got someone like Josh Gordon who missed

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Speaker 1: I think twenty five games for smoking weed. Um, it

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Speaker 1: just looks disproportionate to all of that. There really isn't

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Speaker 1: a precedent for this case, I don't think. But I

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Speaker 1: would be surprised if the NFL is done with this.

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Speaker 1: I think that they they if they want to really

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Speaker 1: look at this whole case and say, this is how

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Speaker 1: we feel about this kind of behavior from a player. Um,

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Speaker 1: They're not done. There's gonna be there's and then this

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Speaker 1: could drag on now into the regular season if that happens,

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Speaker 1: because the NFL p A could reverse and say we're

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Speaker 1: fighting this in court. I mean, this is not going

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Speaker 1: to end in a couple of weeks. Yeah, this is um.

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Speaker 1: I was just about to bring it up with Tom

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Speaker 1: pel Sero's reporting here that the NFL can go down

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Speaker 1: this road. The NFL, with Roger Goodell prominently involved after

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Speaker 1: the league had um, believes this should be a longer suspension.

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Speaker 1: It feels like this is the next step. They have

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Speaker 1: three days to announce whether they're gonna appeal. Let's assume

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Speaker 1: for a moment that there is an appeal, UM, and

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Speaker 1: let's assume for a moment that the suspension UH goes

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Speaker 1: from six games to something higher. Here's Tom Peliser on

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Speaker 1: Good Morning Football breaking down how this thing could go

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Speaker 1: deeper and deeper and drag longer and longer into the season.

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Speaker 1: If the NFL does in fact appeal, and if the

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Speaker 1: discipline for de Shaun Watson increases, I would fully expect

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Speaker 1: the NFL p A at that point, after firing the

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Speaker 1: warning shots saying they won't appeal last night, would take

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Speaker 1: this to federal court. Would create as much chaos as

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Speaker 1: they can into the regular season. There you go. So

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Speaker 1: this chaos is the word the Pallisero used Greg. So

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Speaker 1: I think the NFL from their perspective, you know, this

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Speaker 1: is also obviously an image issue for the NFL. It's

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Speaker 1: an ugly story. I think they're probably gonna be weighing

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Speaker 1: all these things like, Okay, is six games enough in

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Speaker 1: our mind? No? But do we want to keep fighting

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Speaker 1: this and make this a major story of the NFL

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Speaker 1: season after it just essentially marred their offseason. That's part

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Speaker 1: of this, right, That's why this NFL p A statement

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Speaker 1: that was released Sunday night at I'm just referred to

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Speaker 1: was kind of a red herring because they said, yeah,

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Speaker 1: they we're not going to appeal the ruling um that

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Speaker 1: the NFL goes down, because you know they're gonna win

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Speaker 1: anything anyways, you know, because it's Roger Goodell hearing it.

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Speaker 1: But the fact that they're putting it out there and

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Speaker 1: and Tom isn't just reporting this in a vacuum that

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Speaker 1: they could take it to federal court and string this out.

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Speaker 1: If you remember Ezekiel Elliott, a very similar situation happened,

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Speaker 1: and and that actually isn't It's not a one to

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Speaker 1: one comparison. But it is an interesting recent case um

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Speaker 1: where Ezekiel Elliott, who the NFL decided um credibly you know,

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Speaker 1: did commit some domestic violence and they suspended him for

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Speaker 1: six games. And that was one incident. And I thought

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Speaker 1: it was interesting that that to uh Robinson, the former U. S.

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Speaker 1: District Court judge said in this result that even even

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Speaker 1: though there were all of these victims, and to be clear,

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Speaker 1: Watson just settled with four more victims. So that's twenty

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Speaker 1: three that he is settled with in his paying money

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Speaker 1: to and the Texans settled with thirty of them. They

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Speaker 1: they she pointed out that there was no physical violence,

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Speaker 1: and she made a difference between that the that there

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Speaker 1: wasn't violent acts. The only thing with that federal case

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Speaker 1: and we're not lawyers, and this is not our strength,

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Speaker 1: is not what we want to be like diving deep

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Speaker 1: into is like there's no rule that the federal judge

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Speaker 1: would want to hear the case, that they would believe

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Speaker 1: that it was okay. They could slap it down immediately.

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Speaker 1: There is if the NFL wants, If the NFL's goal

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Speaker 1: was to get Watson suspended one year, like their perfect

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Speaker 1: outcome would be they do the appeal um Goodell or

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Speaker 1: whoever he decides the sides it's a year. The nfl

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Speaker 1: p A tries to take it to court and immediately

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Speaker 1: they they could say no, we we don't think that's

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Speaker 1: a credible thing to hear and slap it down and

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Speaker 1: it's over right there, So that that's a potential outcome there. Mark.

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Speaker 1: The one thing I would push back just slightly about

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Speaker 1: is about like the process, you know, whether it would

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Speaker 1: make their process look silly, because ultimately it's like Roger

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Speaker 1: Goodell uh is now giving the final answer, even though

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Speaker 1: they were trying to make it look like he didn't.

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Speaker 1: And and that's true. I think in a perfect world

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Speaker 1: they would have loved Sue Robinson to just give the

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Speaker 1: year and then he doesn't have to get involved. But

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Speaker 1: they negotiated this process, like the appeal with Goodell having

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Speaker 1: the final hammer is the process, and I'm sure that

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Speaker 1: the nfl p A when they were going back and forth,

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Speaker 1: we're trying to prevent that from happening, and they gave

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Speaker 1: up on it that ultimately it's sort of for show,

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Speaker 1: and yes, they like having the arbiter to start, but

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Speaker 1: in the end, it's kind of like that GM coach

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Speaker 1: who has the final say, who has the final power

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Speaker 1: discussion we always have with teams. Roger Goodell has the

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Speaker 1: final power in all of these cases because as long

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Speaker 1: as there's some suspension, he gets to decide on the appeal.

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Speaker 1: And to me, like they bargained in the NFL p

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Speaker 1: A agreed to that that he has the final say.

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Speaker 1: Oh that's fair. I mean I I first of all,

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Speaker 1: I think that if you're Roger Goodell and you're the NFL,

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Speaker 1: what needs to come out of this? This is my

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Speaker 1: opinion that you need to tell fans and people and

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Speaker 1: supporters of the sport and those who cover the sport

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Speaker 1: that justice be served in a in a way that

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Speaker 1: most can agree with. And I think in general, you

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Speaker 1: look at the six game suspension and it feels really

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Speaker 1: light in comparison to other suspensions for much less She

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Speaker 1: called it egregious behavior, for much less egregious human behavior

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Speaker 1: than what we know about the Deshaun Watson case. So,

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Speaker 1: if you're Goodell, like I think, this is a case

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Speaker 1: where oh, yes, we did agree to this new process,

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Speaker 1: but you do have that power to step in and

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Speaker 1: change the result. I mean, the one thing I'd say though,

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Speaker 1: is that her fact finding. They're not going to reopen

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Speaker 1: the case and go through it all again. That's all

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Speaker 1: sealed up and done, so this could go to court.

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Speaker 1: And that's what That's what I read over and over,

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Speaker 1: and that's what we don't see that report. And they

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Speaker 1: they established the precedent, which was new in the Washington

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Speaker 1: Commanders UH investigation into Dan Snyder a couple of years ago.

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Speaker 1: But that was new usually, you know, you remember the

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Speaker 1: flake Gate. We got like, uh, we got two Russian

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Speaker 1: novels out of the flake Gate. And it's weird to

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Speaker 1: me that there's a fifteen page document where she explained

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Speaker 1: her findings that were not going to see and maybe

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Speaker 1: maybe there could be pressure to get that out there too.

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Speaker 1: A couple other things that I don't believe that we've

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Speaker 1: touched on here. That so, yes, six games, Sue Robinson

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Speaker 1: recommends there's no fine. And as we know when the

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Speaker 1: story first broke and we learned about the nature of

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Speaker 1: the contract, the guaranteed contract of the Browns had cooked

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Speaker 1: up to Lauer, Deshaun Watson to Cleveland Um, the first

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Speaker 1: year of salary was very it's a very backloaded contract.

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Speaker 1: So it turns out to be about three forty grand

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Speaker 1: I'm reading I saw three thirty three in one place,

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Speaker 1: three forty three in another. So the money, uh, in

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Speaker 1: terms of what this is gonna cost de Shaun Watson

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Speaker 1: if this holds, is obviously for him a drop in

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Speaker 1: the bucket. Also, part of the ruling from Robinson states

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Speaker 1: that he's not able to get massages from any any

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Speaker 1: place that's not essentially team mandated, which is just I mean,

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Speaker 1: when you take a step back, how absurd that this

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Speaker 1: is even something that's a major part of this. But yes,

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Speaker 1: Deshaun Watson can't do that on his own anymore because

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Speaker 1: of everything that's happened. It has to be from the

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Speaker 1: team and from like a from a Cleveland Brown standpoint. Again,

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Speaker 1: you imagine there are you know, some high fives going

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Speaker 1: on in Barria because this is playing out so far

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Speaker 1: exactly how they hoped it would play out, which is,

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Speaker 1: we got this guy in the building, We finally have

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Speaker 1: solved our quarterback conundrum of the last forty years. Uh,

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Speaker 1: and the suspension. They probably made the deal initially thinking

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Speaker 1: there's a decent chance, given everything that's going on, that

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Speaker 1: we're gonna have to punt on year one of the contract,

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Speaker 1: uh and everything that goes along with it. Well, that's

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Speaker 1: no longer the case. If this again stands as it does, Uh,

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Speaker 1: the Browns just have to tread water for six weeks.

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Speaker 1: And if Watson is as good as he has been

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Speaker 1: in his career, and this is for now a little

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Speaker 1: bit because he hasn't played in so long, he didn't

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Speaker 1: play last season of course with the Texans. He's a

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Speaker 1: damn good quarterback. And in that NFC, A f C

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Speaker 1: and North, I think the Browns are a major player

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Speaker 1: with Watson if he hits the ground running there. So

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Speaker 1: this is this has a major ripple effect. And you know,

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Speaker 1: you can you could be very down about the Browns

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Speaker 1: and what they were willing to give up to get

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Speaker 1: this player in their building. But from their perspective, they won.

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Speaker 1: This is this is a big deal for them. If

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Speaker 1: this is how it holds, uh, just the way it is.

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Speaker 1: You know, I was listening to like local Cleveland radio

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Speaker 1: this morning just to kind of get that take, and

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Speaker 1: you know, listening to fans and some players they had

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Speaker 1: on and like, I think their perspective is so many

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Speaker 1: from many of them, so different than um. How what

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Speaker 1: we've talked about in our angle on it and how

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Speaker 1: we generally, the three of us seemed to feel it's

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Speaker 1: just I think they do view a large chunk of

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Speaker 1: the fans are just like, we're over this situation. We're

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Speaker 1: tired of the story. He's gonna be back playing And

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Speaker 1: I can't reconcile that personally, um, but that that's just

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Speaker 1: out there, that's going to be out there with every

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Speaker 1: fan base. And you know at this point he's scheduled

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Speaker 1: to come back um October against the Ravens, and you

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Speaker 1: know people are saying on six games is a big

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Speaker 1: chunk of the season. We know that that's just not

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Speaker 1: true in the NFL, I mean, there's so much time

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Speaker 1: for them to make up ground depending what happened from

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Speaker 1: a football perspective. But I just cannot believe that we

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Speaker 1: come out of this in the end with the six

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Speaker 1: games suspension. I just I don't think part of this

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Speaker 1: is this started with Ray Rice. I mean it didn't

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Speaker 1: start there, but that was a major flash point with

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Speaker 1: how fans and and people in general view the NFL's

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Speaker 1: process on things like this. That was egregious. This is egregious.

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Speaker 1: If this ends up at six games, I'll be stunned.

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Speaker 1: I just I can't believe this is the final move

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Speaker 1: by the league. I agree, which is why, um, I'm

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Speaker 1: struggling to say that much definitive because I want to

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Speaker 1: find out the final answer first, Like I was, like,

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Speaker 1: before we move on to what it's going to be

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Speaker 1: for the Browns, I want to know what the answer

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Speaker 1: is of how many games Jacoby Brisset and and and

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Speaker 1: I just think for all the fans celebrating and and

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Speaker 1: for all the people understandably frustrated with this result, my

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Speaker 1: my take would just be, wait, like, let's let's see,

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Speaker 1: because the NFL went pretty hard recommending minimum year during

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Speaker 1: the hearing that that was pretty hard, Like they went

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Speaker 1: to the map trying to get him suspended that far,

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Speaker 1: saying that they wanted to and and if they really

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Speaker 1: like believe that in their souls that that was the

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Speaker 1: right thing to do, they can do it. That's it,

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Speaker 1: Like they can chew like if if the the same

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Speaker 1: people who are pushing for the year suspension are going

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Speaker 1: to get to decide if he still is suspended for

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Speaker 1: a year, and maybe that'll get mixed up in federal

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Speaker 1: uh court cases, maybe not, And that would might be

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Speaker 1: a long shot for the NFL p a to overturn anyway,

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Speaker 1: So it all just feels incomplete. And everyone, look, if

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Speaker 1: you missed most of Watson episodes in the offseason, god

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Speaker 1: bless you. Uh you know, it's not like we enjoy

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Speaker 1: this topic. But I think we've been pretty clear about

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Speaker 1: where we stand on it, and and we've talked a

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Speaker 1: lot about you mentioned ray Rice. Just one last quick

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Speaker 1: thing is just there wasn't video of this, and no

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Speaker 1: one cared about ray Rice that much until there was video.

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Speaker 1: And it does make you think, like, look, if there

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Speaker 1: was a video of of this, not that anyone who

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Speaker 1: will want to see any of it, um like that

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Speaker 1: that would have an impact the the the amount of

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Speaker 1: women that um he's ended up settling with out of

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Speaker 1: court is just hard to to uh wrap your mind around.

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Speaker 1: And and that's why I think the NFL knows that

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Speaker 1: like any talking point from the agent, which is clearly

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Speaker 1: coming from the agents, like, well, the NFL has to

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Speaker 1: decide whether they make their process look bad. It's like

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Speaker 1: no one gives, no one cares about their process. This

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Speaker 1: is a brand new process we just learned about yesterday.

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Speaker 1: Second of all the appeals is the process the process.

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Speaker 1: The whole hime that the nfl p A agreed to

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Speaker 1: was Roger Goodell gets the final say in the end,

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Speaker 1: unless there's no suspension in which he can't just like

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Speaker 1: create one whole cloth. Ultimately, the nflp A kind of decided, hey,

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Speaker 1: in the end, you're the commission. You can do whatever

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Speaker 1: you want, and so we'll see like if Roger Goodell

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Speaker 1: basically wants to use that power. But they don't believe that.

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Speaker 1: That's not where they stand on this. That's why you

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Speaker 1: were saying they got ahead of at the union. I

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Speaker 1: think they do know it, and that's why they're publicly

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Speaker 1: positioning themselves at the point is that they said, we're

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Speaker 1: not going to we are not going to appeal this

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Speaker 1: because we both agreed, the NFL agreed, We agreed that

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Speaker 1: Sue Robinson was going to basically figure this out and

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Speaker 1: then they're going to Then if the NFL does say,

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Speaker 1: we're going to now decree that this needs to be

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Speaker 1: way more harsh than what's robin, it's gonna be war

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Speaker 1: you are. That's that's that's why that was just a

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Speaker 1: pr thing, because ultimately they are appealing it, and ultimately

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Speaker 1: they know Goodell would have never changed their appeal to

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Speaker 1: the NFL, and ultimately they signed all the c b

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Speaker 1: A remons because they got the money that they wanted.

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Speaker 1: And this was an important thing that the NFL wanted,

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Speaker 1: was they Yeah, they they changed up the disciplinary process

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Speaker 1: to make it look better and to change it up

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Speaker 1: a little bit. Ultimately, NFL was really important that Goodell

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Speaker 1: kept that hammer, and the NFL p A essentially traded

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Speaker 1: a percentage of the revenue to let Goodell keep the hammer.

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Speaker 1: And here's here's this chance to do what he wants.

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Speaker 1: And I guess my point, my overarching point is this,

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Speaker 1: I agree with everything you're saying. But if Roger Goodell

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Speaker 1: in the NFL come comes in and ups the suspension,

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Speaker 1: obviously the union then is going to come in and

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Speaker 1: fight that tooth and nail, whether or not they what

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Speaker 1: they agreed to for the c b A, and then

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Speaker 1: the federal courts get involved. So if if you're saying

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Speaker 1: right now and not you, but collectively, don't put too

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Speaker 1: much into six games right now, it could change if

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Speaker 1: it goes up to a year or indefinite, I guess

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Speaker 1: don't put too much into that either, because there's a

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Speaker 1: whole next step to the legal process that we're all

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Speaker 1: going through. We're all it's a crash course for all

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Speaker 1: of us. And again, none of this is pleasant. This

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Speaker 1: is we're gonna have tecks, We're gonna have training camps

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Speaker 1: that we're gonna and slogans. You know. Yeah, so we knew,

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Speaker 1: we knew we needed to hit the story here. It

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Speaker 1: comes to you the people. Um and tomorrow we're gonna

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Speaker 1: have a full show, a lot of fun. Like Greg said,

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Speaker 1: we're gonna hit all the updates to training camp. We're

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Speaker 1: gonna have Connor Or with team Slogans two, and we're

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Speaker 1: going to rams camp at the end of the week.

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Speaker 1: But Mark, we had to hit it. And that's the

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Speaker 1: way former brown former Browns fan, we we uh, you know,

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Speaker 1: there are times when you need an emergency pod. This

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Speaker 1: was one of those times. We've been tracking this story

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Speaker 1: NonStop and we are not going to be done tracking this.

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Speaker 1: I sent you. I think we'll be talking about it

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Speaker 1: again tomorrow, depending on what happens. Uh, you're probably right, Geez,

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Speaker 1: You're probably right, Sessa. All right, until Tuesday, do what

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Speaker 1: you gotta do. And you know what that is. He

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Speaker 1: to call Ti