I want to correct myself on the subject of tolling.
Watson will want to avoid having his contract tolled for a year, but there's been some confusion on my part about what would trigger that. (Having his contract toll would be terrible for him because it would push his $1 million season back a year [instead of getting it out of the way while suspended] and also delay his next free agency by a year.) I was thinking that his suspension would need to be 11 or fewer games because I had in my head that he'd need to be on full-pay status for at least six games. But then I was thinking maybe the cutoff should be 12 games or fewer because the season is 18 games, not 17, if bye weeks count, and I believe players do get game checks during their bye weeks. So I looked some things up in the CBA and realized that I was confusing some things.
The rule is that a player can't report to a team after the Tuesday following the tenth week of regular season games. (Back when the season was 16 weeks, that meant he'd have to join the team for six full weeks of practices and games, hence the six week duration I had in my head.) But reading it over, I've come to think that this provision bars a player from joining his team after the tenth week of holding out, not after ten games of being suspended.
The provision that I believe is likely to apply here is the extension provision, which is as follows:
16. EXTENSION. Unless this contract specifically provides otherwise, if Player becomes a member of the Armed Forces of the United States or any other country, or retires from professional football as an active player, or otherwise fails or refuses to perform his services under this contract, then this contract will be tolled between the date of Player’s induction into the Armed Forces, or his retirement, or his failure or refusal to perform, and the later date of his return to professional football. During the period this contract is tolled, Player will not be entitled to any compensation or benefits. On Player’s return to professional football, the term of this contract will be extended for a period of time equal to the number of seasons (to the nearest multiple of one) remaining at the time the contract was tolled. The right of renewal, if any, contained in this contract will remain in effect until the end of any such extended term.
I remember this issue coming up with the Vincent Jackson situation and there was some ambiguity because, although the CBA talks about rounding to "the nearest" full season, I believe Joey Galloway once held out for exactly half a season, and his absence wasn't rounded up to a full season for tolling purposes. So now that the season is 18 games, it appears that missing 9 game weeks would be okay, but maybe missing 10 game weeks would toll his contract?
It's still a bit ambiguous because it's not entirely clear that being suspended counts as "otherwise fail[ing] or refus[ing] to perform his services" for purposes of that provision. But I think it probably counts as failing. (Also, we don't know whether "this contract specifically provides otherwise." It might, since Watson likely considered the possibility of a suspension.)
But check out that very first phrase in the extension provision quoted above.
As I think about this more, I think it's quite likely that Watson's contract has a provision saying that his contract will not be tolled during any suspension. He and the team both knew a suspension was fairly likely, and the team seemed willing to make the contract extremely friendly to Watson in other ways, so it probably did in that way as well.
So I now think that the tolling issue doesn't matter. Watson will want to serve his suspension during 2022 when his base salary is $1 million. So even if he challenges the suspension in court, he might not seek a preliminary injunction allowing him to play while the litigation is pending because he really shouldn't want to push any part of the suspension into 2023.