Tide turning against Deshaun? Beware the long arm of the NFL
Updated Friday, March 26, 2021
HOUSTON – As much as it hurts to say this, the tide is turning against Deshaun Watson. Seems like almost every day the same publicity-hounding lawyer posts on Instagram about another female massage therapist suing the Houston Texans quarterback for some sort of sexual assault.
Tony Buzbee, who once put up 10 billboards urging the Texans to draft Johnny Manziel, knows how to stay in the spotlight. He uses social media to reach out to potential clients as well as to voters. He polled 44% in a mayoral election, and he says 24 women have come to him with complaints about Watson, and 16 have filed lawsuits.
I don’t like how this story is trending, even though Watson’s reputation until very recently was impeccable. Dabo Swinney, his coach at Clemson University, said the closest he came to a scandal was being 5 minutes late for one team meeting. It was easy for me to believe Watson’s assertion that “I have never treated any woman with anything other than the utmost respect.”
NFL sources were saying a week ago that six teams were willing to give three No. 1 draft picks for Watson, so confident were they that he would beat the rap. But USA Today this week quoted an NFL general manager – anonymous of course – saying, “If I’m thinking of giving up three No. 1s, not right now. Not until I have some accounting and a resolution.”
Watson has hired Houston attorney Rusty Hardin, who’s higher-profile even than Buzbee, but more seemly. If you polled Houston’s million or so lawyers, I’m sure you’d find that Hardin is more respected than Tony Buzbee. But so far the evidence about Watson, as revealed to the public, is running strongly in favor of Buzbee.
Hardin claims he’s found women who massaged the quarterback and had no improper incidents. Hardin says such testimony “calls into question the legitimacy of the other cases.”
I’m probably biased because I’ve had my own experiences with lawyers who stretch the truth from here to China and women who go along with it if it might earn them a couple thousand dollars. In the divorce filed against me, one of the first sentences states that I beat my wife. She admitted to me that it never happened, but “my lawyer said it could help to put that in there.”
I wonder if what could have happened is getting confused with what did happen and the role money has in all this.
In the first lawsuit filed against Watson, the accuser says, “He repeatedly stated that he wanted the focus to be on his groin area,” which made her feel “uncomfortable.”
Buzbee claims to have captured a text message from Watson saying, “Sorry about your feeling uncomfortable. Never were the intentions.”
Chris Simms, a former NFL quarterback, spoke of having similar confrontations with masseuses. Appearing on NBC’s Pro Football Talk, Simms said: “As a football player there was no place on my body that was more sore than the upper thigh, groin and glutes. Sometimes a masseuse would say, ‘I’m not comfortable going there.’ And I’d say, ‘That’s cool.’ But I wasn’t going to see her again.”
He pointed out that a quarterback is constantly crouching, extending and tumbling. The muscles of the groin and upper thighs are stressed more than any others.
Groin injuries are frequent in all contact sports. In the 1970s and ‘80s it was common to see trainers and assistant trainers – always male – massaging groins, sometimes with their hands, sometimes with vibrating rubber-tipped instruments.
But many of today’s athletes prefer a woman’s touch. And sometimes the man’s desires rub women the wrong way, so to speak. The plaintiff in the first suit against Watson said he “wanted a massage for only one reason – sex.”
Watson’s cause is compromised by having so many masseuses. Why fly one in from Atlanta? Can’t he find a competent masseuse in the much larger city of Houston? Why not massage from a man? Doesn’t America still have masseurs?
According to TMZ, Watson used Instagram to find massage therapists because his usual one was unavailable during the pandemic. So he sought references from “various friends, teammates and associates.”
Buzbee claims Watson last July was masseused in Beverly Hills. More and more graphic details are coming out, that he forced oral sex and flaunted his genitals. You do have to wonder how much smoke there can be without a fire.
Buzbee said he’s preparing affidavits to present to Houston law enforcement in hopes of inducing criminal charges against Watson. If that happens, Watson probably lands on the Commissioner’s Exempted List, which derailed Antonio Brown’s career and ended Ray Rice’s. I doubt it comes to that in Houston, where there seems to be lack of video like there was with Rice or shady reputation, as with Brown. We’ll see how many more text messages emerge.
Nowadays we’re constantly told – even by men – that we should assume women are truthful when they say men abuse them. My view – supported by psychologists — is that everyone lies sometimes and we should assume nothing. Especially when there’s huge financial incentive to bear false witness. Buzbee boasts of once obtaining a settlement for $500 million.
Some legal esperts urge Watson to settle these cases, even if he’s innocent. But that will only encourage more women to step forward with new claims and new lawyers.
Watson needs more support to be shown. It would help him to put forth six or seven masseuses – not just one or two — who will sing of his decency. He’s facing an uphill battle in the court of public opinion. Buzbee got the head start.
The Texans are giving up on Watson. They signed his replacement, the much traveled 31-year-old Tyrod Taylor, to a one-year contract. The Houston Chronicle’s John McClain, the ultimate authority on the Texans, said this week, “I don’t see any way Watson plays here again.”
And now you have to wonder about the other possibilities. Being called a “serial sex predator” has to undermine his status as a leader of football players. How smart was he to put himself in such a vulnerable situation? He sought rubdowns from women without anyone else nearby who could challenge what they might say.
Even if I’m right that no criminal charges will be filed, Watson could be suspended for any number of games for violating the NFL’s very vague and broad “Personal Conduct Policy.”
This could turn out like it did for Ben Roethlisberger and Zeke Elliott, who were not charged with crimes. Two women accused the Pittsburgh quarterback of rape, and he faced one lawsuit, settled for undisclosed terms. Then he was suspended for four games. Elliott, Dallas Cowboys running back, was suspended six games because one woman would not stop accusing him of assaulting her, even though she didn’t sue him.
But here there are many more than one or two accusers. This sordid story won’t end well. It might not end.
