People forget that the Houston Texans set the hotel rooms up for him, helped enable him, and they got off scott-free. It was a PR nightmare for the NFL, who decided to punish the Cleveland organization because of the silly guaranteed contract, and suspend him for 11 games.
No excuses for Watson's behavior. Remember though, all this stuff came out after Watson had a hissy fit with the owner about not being involved in the GM search. So they exposed him and his deeds while he was a Texan. So instead of punishing that organization, Goodell punished Cleveland for signing him....pretty ass-backwards if you think about it.