Deshaun Watson jogged out at NRG Stadium on December 4, 2022, for his first game in 700 days. Before kickoff, he signed jerseys for Texans fans and Browns fans alike. Once play began, the boos came every time he touched the ball. He threw for 131 yards and an interception in a 27-14 win that his defense and special teams carried. “They’re supposed to boo,” he said. Asked about remorse, he said his legal team had told him not to discuss the suspension.

That Sunday closed the visible part of his punishment: 11 games, each one counted. Four years on, the talk around him is about pass protection. On October 11, the Jets sacked him eight times in a 17-12 win, and Cleveland spent the week on its offensive line. The games were all counted. Nobody counted the rest.

“EXCLUSIVE: Four years ago, the NFL pledged $7 million to non-profits as part of Deshaun Watson’s suspension. But that money didn’t all go to charity. Instead, the league steered some of the money back to itself to pay for its own internal ‘training’,” David Covucci of FOIAball wrote on X.

To understand the allegation, it helps to go back to August 2022.

On August 18, Watson received an 11-game suspension and a $5 million fine after the NFL and the NFL Players Association reached a settlement over his conduct. The league and the Cleveland Browns each pledged another $1 million, bringing the announced total to $7 million.

The NFL spelled out the fund’s purpose in the same announcement.

“This fund will support the work of non-profit organizations across the country that educate young people on healthy relationships, promote education and prevention of sexual misconduct and assault, support survivors, and related causes,” the league said.

Covucci set out to determine how much of that money had reached organizations doing that work. He says a Google search for any combination of “Watson,” “NFL,” “Browns,” “non-profit” and “donation” turns up not a single story about the fund in four years. According to his report, the NFL Foundation distributed about $2.3 million over three years to charities focused on sexual abuse and misconduct prevention.

When asked about the figures, the league reportedly said it was still distributing the funds. The report also pointed to the NFL Foundation’s $97 million in charitable giving in the previous year, raising questions about why the Watson-related money had not been fully accounted for.

The NFL then directed Covucci to four organizations it had supported. Together, they had received roughly $600,000, according to his account. After Covucci presented his findings, the league acknowledged that not all of the money was going to outside charities, saying some of it was being used for “harassment education and training programs across the league.”

That explanation raises a question about the original promise. The announcement said nothing about internal league programs. Paying for them is a different use of the money, and one that benefits the league directly.

The Browns’ share is another open question. When Covucci asked about it, the league reportedly directed him to the team. On the day of the announcement, owners Dee and Jimmy Haslam said the team was committed to investing in “programs in Northeast Ohio” that would teach young people about preventing sexual misconduct. Their statement did not say whether that meant the $1 million or something separate. Covucci also found no evidence that the Haslam family, which owns the Browns, had donated to charities focused on sexual abuse during the period he examined.

The report does not establish that the entire $7 million went undistributed. Rather, it raises questions about how much reached outside nonprofits, how much was allocated to internal programs, and whether the original commitment was fulfilled. The publicly available parts of the report do not say how much went to internal training.

How Deshaun Watson’s lawsuits led to an 11-game suspension

The controversy surrounding the fund stems from the allegations against Watson, who faced 24 civil lawsuits from massage therapists who accused him of sexual assault and other inappropriate conduct during appointments while he played for the Houston Texans. Watson denied wrongdoing, maintaining that any sexual contact was consensual.

The first lawsuit was filed in March 2021, with more following into 2022. In March 2022, grand juries in Harris and Brazoria counties declined to indict Watson on criminal complaints from 10 women. That decision meant he did not face criminal charges arising from those investigations, but the NFL continued with its own disciplinary process.

The Browns subsequently traded for Watson and signed him to a fully guaranteed five-year contract worth $230 million. By June 2022, attorney Tony Buzbee said that 20 of the 24 civil lawsuits had been settled**. By August, the count was 23, all of them confidential.**

The NFL’s investigation proceeded separately from the civil cases. On August 1, 2022, former U.S. District Judge Sue L. Robinson, serving as an independent disciplinary officer jointly appointed by the NFL and the players’ union, ruled that Watson had violated the league’s personal conduct policy.

Her 16-page report found the league had proved sexual assault, as it defines the term, against four therapists, and it cited his lack of expressed remorse as an aggravating factor. The NFL had argued for a suspension of at least the full season. Robinson gave him six games, writing that she was bound by “standards of fairness and consistency of treatment” among similarly situated players.

The league appealed on August 3, seeking a longer suspension and a fine. Goodell named former New Jersey attorney general Peter Harvey to hear it, and said the evidence showed multiple violations that were “egregious” and “predatory behavior.” Under league policy, the appeal was limited to the existing record, with no new evidence or testimony. On August 12, Watson apologized publicly for the first time, to the women he “impacted.” Before Harvey could rule, the NFL and the players’ union reached the August 18 agreement.

The deal also required mandatory evaluation and treatment. NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero reported that it covered the four cases Robinson ruled on and any substantially similar violations before August 18. That meant new allegations of the same conduct from 2019 to 2021 could not be investigated or punished by the league, though allegations of a different nature still could be. Watson said he was still standing on his innocence but had to “put pride to the side” to move forward. Scott Berkowitz, president of RAINN, told Axios that Watson had a chance to show he could change and “immediately blew it.”

The $5 million fine was believed to be the first levied on a player under the personal conduct policy, and the math shows why the league wanted one. His Browns contract paid a $44.965 million signing bonus but only a $1.035 million salary in 2022, paid in weekly installments. Because the Browns’ Week 9 bye stretched the 11 games across 12 weeks, the suspension itself cost him $690,000.

The fine took the total to $5.69 million. ESPN also reported that some people at the league office wanted a financial consequence for 2021, when Watson collected his full $10.5 million Texans salary without playing a game. Even after the fine, ESPN calculated, his earnings from summer 2020 through March 2023 would total at least $78.81 million.

Watson, 31, is now in the last year of that contract. Cleveland named him its Week 1 starter, and through five games he has thrown for 1,010 yards, seven touchdowns and two interceptions for a 3-2 team that hosts Baltimore on Sunday.