A Return From Scandal, but With Little Said About the Scandal

Watson’s return, and the protection of it, comes because the N.F.L. is underneath intense scrutiny for its remedy of girls. The Washington Commanders are the topic of at the very least six open investigations into widespread sexual harassment and abuse within the group, and this spring six attorneys common warned the N.F.L.’s head workplace to enhance the way it treats feminine staff.

Brian McCarthy, a league spokesman, stated the N.F.L. offered “no route” to its community companions, together with NFL Community, on how one can cowl Watson’s return. A lot of the protection mirrored how the N.F.L., the Browns, the Texans and Watson himself wished soccer followers to consider it: As a turning of the web page, transferring on from the intense accusations made in opposition to Watson to his new function because the Browns’ franchise quarterback. When NFL Community insider Ian Rapoport reported final week that Watson was being reinstated, he concluded, “So meaning it’s formally over.”

But a lot about Watson’s state of affairs stays unresolved. He nonetheless faces two lawsuits accusing him of lewd and coercive habits in therapeutic massage appointments, after settling 23 others this summer time; he should proceed to adjust to the remedy program that was a situation of his reinstatement from his suspension; and the final time he straight addressed the accusations in opposition to him, in August, he insisted he was harmless and stated the general public hasn’t been concerned with his aspect of the story.

Whereas every community lined the event in a different way, they’d a lot in frequent in what they omitted. Aside from an ESPN “Outdoors the Strains” phase that aired final week, it appeared that not one of the key networks used footage throughout N.F.L. programming from both of the 2 information conferences given by Ashley Solis, the primary licensed therapeutic massage therapist to publicly accuse Watson of sexual misconduct. Additionally notably lacking was point out that the Texans, the Browns’ opponent on Sunday, reached settlements with 30 of Watson’s accusers after The Instances reported that the group had offered the venue for among the appointments in addition to a nondisclosure settlement that Watson gave to among the ladies. Nor did the protection element the discovering by the retired decide who oversaw Watson’s N.F.L. disciplinary listening to that Watson had engaged in “predatory” conduct that was “extra egregious than any earlier than reviewed by the N.F.L.”

Eliding the small print of the accusations, particularly on the day Watson returned from a suspension arising from them, can “render what has occurred much less critical,” stated Meenakshi Gigi Durham, a journalism professor on the College of Iowa.

“It’s critically necessary the way in which the media cowl the story, and likewise the way in which that the establishment itself, the N.F.L., the way in which they’re coping with it,” stated Durham, creator of the ebook “MeToo: The Affect of Rape Tradition within the Media.” She added, “As a result of the broader message that’s being despatched about sexual assault and sexual violence generally type of hinges on the way in which that it’s dealt with in public discourse.”

Watson made clear within the days earlier than his return that he wouldn’t handle the controversy straight. In his first information convention after being reinstated, he stated that he had been instructed by his scientific and authorized advisers solely to reply football-related questions. The Browns’ official channels, together with the group web site and the team-sponsored radio present with Coach Kevin Stefanski, additionally caught to soccer, referring to Watson’s suspension with none point out of why he was disciplined.