Apologies for drifting off topic, but I remember on the NFL network, when the Vick dog fighting thing was going on, Emmitt Smith was on one of those "athletes on bar stools shooting the shit" shows, and started talking about how dog fighting was a lot more common than people thought, and it wasn't a big deal. They almost immediately cut to a break, and when they came back Emmitt looked like he'd been smacked in the face and didn't say five words the rest of the broadcast.
Personally, I've always believed the dog fighting ring involved other pro athletes (some of those dogs were $10,000 or more, who has that kind of disposable income for that kind of hobby?) and the NFL sat hard on it to keep it from coming out.
Sports journalism is a schizophrenic mix of people who will do ANYTHING to keep team access and be one of the "in crowd" and people who want to expose anything they can to get a scoop.
Anyway, back to Watson, this one is weird, in that none of the talking heads know any more than the rest of us. Both parties are only talking through their lawyers. Your point about people getting fired is spot on. Smith and Bayless are probably bullet proof, cause they've made a lot of money by making dumbass comments, but almost anyone else can get cancelled in a minute.