Yesterday the NFL ran into a pretty big issue when announcing their punishment for Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson: Someone leaked the full release before they could publish it.
A full release outlining the 11-game suspension was made available well before the NFL released it themselves. As you might imagine, that wasn’t intentional.
According to ProFootballTalk, an NFL spokesperson informed them that “an issue arose” while they were preparing to publish the release. In an email to PFT, the league informed them that they have “taken steps” to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
“An issue arose during the preparation of the release that was to be published on and distributed via nflcommunications.com,” the NFL told PFT via email. ‘We have taken steps to ensure this does not happen again.”
The NFL has bottled just about every step of this process. From the brutally slow nature of the investigation, to the initial punishment being only six games, the league made the wrong move at every single turn.
Is it any surprise then that the NFL got too careless in distributing the release of one of their biggest disciplinary decisions ever?
Perhaps worse than bottling the decision altogether was not compelling Deshaun Watson to acknowledge any wrongdoing. Watson is continuing to proclaim his innocence even after accepting an 11-game suspension.
Will the NFL make these same mistakes again?