“The simple fact that Deshaun Watson found himself in this situation,” Smith began. “If you’re the National Football League, ‘OK, you’ve impugned the shield because you brought this unwanted attention to our brand and as a result, that is the reason we want to hand down whatever suspension it is that we want to hand down.’ Because the NFL has been trying to make amends for their dereliction of duty as it pertained to Ray Rice, they’ve gone the route of, as far as I’m concerned, trying to resemble law enforcement. The NFL has gone through extraordinary lengths to try to do what law enforcement is supposed to do. That’s my problem with all of this. Where there’s smoke there’s fire. There is no way in hell that Deshaun Watson can claim complete innocence. But to be fair to him, he has ADAMANTLY expressed the fact that he has been innocent of this.”