Cleveland Browns QB Deshaun Watson suspended 11 games, fined $5 million

“I’m moving on with my career, with my life, and I’ll continue to stand on my innocence,” Watson said in a news conference at the Browns’ training facility. “Just because settlements and things like that happen doesn’t mean that a person is guilty for anything.”

Watson’s suspension is without pay, costing him $632,500 of his $1.035 million base salary for this season. He signed a five-year contract worth a guaranteed $230 million with the Browns when they completed a trade with the Houston Texans for him in March. The settlement also requires Watson to undergo a professional evaluation and treatment plan.

The NFL and the Browns will add $1 million each to Watson’s $5 million fine, and the $7 million will be used to support organizations working to prevent sexual misconduct and sexual assault.

According to one person familiar with the NFL’s view, the league backed off its insistence for a full-season suspension and agreed to the settlement because this resolution was “significant, definitive, immediate and final.” The NFL stressed the treatment portion of the settlement.

“Deshaun has committed to doing the hard work on himself that is necessary for his return to the NFL,” Goodell said in a statement Thursday. “This settlement requires compliance with a professional evaluation and treatment plan, a significant fine, and a more substantial suspension.”

Watson issued a public apology in a televised interview Friday before playing in the Browns’ opening preseason game in Jacksonville, Fla. But in Thursday’s news conference following the announcement of the settlement, he said he had “always stood on not disrespecting or sexually assaulting anyone.”

Asked why he had apologized if he maintains that he did nothing wrong, Watson said: “For everyone that was affected about the situation. There was a lot of people that was triggered.”

Watson said he “can’t speak on the fairness” of the discipline in the settlement, adding that he had an opinion but would keep it to himself. His agent, David Mulugheta, wrote on Twitter that Watson “has always stated he is innocent of sexual assault. Nothing has changed in what he said.” Watson “also said he is remorseful,” Mulugheta wrote.