WATSON SCRAMBLES, BUT HE SHOULDN’T ESCAPE A ONE-SEASON SUSPENSION
The Cleveland Browns were foolish to acquire and shower a troubled star with unprecedented guaranteed riches — amid 24 active civil lawsuits, the NFL has no choice but to issue a substantial ban
Would two dozen women lie about Deshaun Watson? Even in the sleazy underworld of attorney-driven opportunism — where extracting money from prominent, wealthy public figures is a convenient pursuit — the staggering number of accusers is what makes his total innocence implausible.
Conspiracies usually reveal cracks and lead to defections in the ranks. In Watson’s case, the allegations continue to expand, despite his sweeping denials. The core question, at this point, isn’t whether he turned a number of massage therapy appointments into sexual gratification sessions. The case now centers on how frequently he exposed himself and/or touched women with his penis and whether the encounters were premeditated.
When the New York Times reported this month that massages were a regular part of Watson’s lifestyle — in a 17-month period, he met with at least 66 different women — suspicions rose to a likelihood that the star quarterback coerced sexual acts. And when the same report said the Houston Texans, for whom he played four seasons, enabled his behavior by arranging for hotel rooms and requiring nondisclosure agreements, all eyes shifted to NFL headquarters.
Here we are again, the looming dawn of another season choked by the exhaust of a personal conduct case. The league is expected to impose a lengthy suspension, and anything less than a full season will be another stain on commissioner Roger Goodell’s erratic record as adjudicator. Only this time, after a shift in the most recent collective bargaining agreement between players and owners, he won’t act alone as judge and jury. A third-party mediator, Sue L. Robinson, has been appointed by the league and NFL Players Association to consider evidence from the NFL’s months-long investigation. Once Robinson issues a suspension, Watson probably will appeal, whereupon Goodell can step in and lengthen or reduce the terms.
A logical argument can be made, of course, that Watson deserves no suspension when he hasn’t been arrested or charged with a single crime. That was my contention in April when Major League Baseball suspended pitcher Trevor Bauer for 324 games, or the equivalent of two full seasons. But Bauer finds himself in a stronger legal position than Watson — and don’t be surprised, once arbitrator Martin Scheinman gets around to it, if his suspension is reduced dramatically or thrown out altogether, forcing the Los Angeles Dodgers to pay off — or reinstate — an accomplished but problematic pitcher they don’t want around. Unlike Watson, who has been accused in 24 active civil lawsuits, Bauer has two definitive courtroom victories: the L.A. County District Attorney’s Office didn’t file charges after probing allegations of sexual assault made by a San Diego woman, and an L.A. judge denied her earlier request for a restraining order. So far, in criminal proceedings, his legal team has convinced authorities that the woman consented to rough sex and returned for more.
Watson’s legal defense is hanging perilously, like a wobbly pass waiting to be intercepted. Two grand juries in Texas found no probable cause that he committed a crime, but there’s an overriding sense that anything and everything is still possible in this drama. His attorney, Rusty Hardin, did Watson no favors during a Houston radio interview when he made light of “happy endings” — sexual climaxes — that happen in massage sessions. “I don’t know how many men are out there now that have had a massage that perhaps occasionally there was a happy ending,” Hardin said. “If that has happened, it’s not a crime, OK, unless you are paying somebody extra or so to give you some kind of sexual activity.”
This was no time for a bro-dude joke on a sports show. Hardin tried to walk back the comments, but rival attorney Tony Buzbee, who represents the plaintiffs, told ESPN that Hardin “may have single-handedly lost his client’s case because I’m absolutely going to use that comment because I think it speaks volumes to how he, his team and his client think about the massage industry. If you’re in the massage industry, according to Rusty Hardin, that’s to be expected. And apparently that’s what his client expected. I promise you that’s not what any of these women expected.”
What makes the NFL’s disciplinary decision particularly consequential, with the ruling expected any day, is how it impacts the immediate and distant future of the Cleveland Browns. However one describes their controversial March trade for Watson — foolish, ignorant, tone-deaf, brain-dead — it could be remembered as a self-destructive moment in modern sports history. If Watson can’t play for a season, or two seasons, a sad-sack franchise that never has reached a Super Bowl will waste one of pro football’s premier defenses. Worse, Browns owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam committed the league’s most lucrative guaranteed contract — $230 million over five seasons — to a player in legal hot water with a troubled past and murky future. They did so while knowing every detail of every accusation against Watson. They did so while knowing a suspension was probable.
Why? Are the Browns that desperate after the Baker Mayfield flop, recklessly risking whatever smidgen of credibility they still have as an organization? Watson is a skilled, mobile playmaker, but he has won only one playoff game and is a tier below the NFL quarterbacking elite. The Haslams certainly would appreciate if Watson took chunks of the $230 million and settled the civil lawsuits. Last week, in his first comments since his introductory press conference, he held firm to his innocence.
“I've never assaulted anyone, or I never harassed anyone, or I never disrespected anyone, never forced anyone to do anything,” Watson said.
Does he still have no regrets about his massage sessions, as he said in March? “What I was saying is, yes, I've never assaulted, disrespected or harassed anyone. But at the same time, I understand and I do have regrets as far as the impact that it's had on the community and people outside of just myself,” he said. “That includes males, females, everyone across the world. That's one thing that I do regret is the impact that it's triggered on so many people and it's tough to have to deal with.”
Why not settle so he and the Browns can move on?
“I just want to clear my name and be able to let the facts and the legal procedures continue to play out,” he said. “So right now, that’s all I’m doing is wanting to clear my name and be able to let all of the facts come out in a court of law, and be able to focus on that. … I’ve talked to the league and I’ve been honest and told them truthfully of every question that they’ve asked, so I feel I can’t really have no control on that. Whatever decision comes, then I feel like that’s the next step for this organization.”
For every women’s rights crusader urging the NFL to throw the book at Watson, restraint arrives from various precincts. Former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is willing to wait. Of course, she’s happens to be a Browns fan. “Well, I'm someone who believes that you keep an open mind until all of the facts are evident,” Rice said in a recent conference call related to a golf achievement award she is receiving. “I know the league is doing an investigation, the Browns have done an investigation and I will just wait to see what the outcome is. These are serious matters. I think every woman feels these are serious matters, but hopefully people will get to the bottom of it and we'll see where we are in a couple months.”
Goodell is known to make disciplinary decisions that help owners. A light suspension, four to six games, would be widely viewed as preferential treatment to the Haslams. The commissioner, remember, works for the 32 ownership groups. As it is, hitting Watson with a stiff suspension invites questions to Goodell: Why hasn’t he been punitively aggressive against owners whose franchises face accusations of toxic workplace cultures? Such as Daniel Snyder in Washington, Jerry Jones in Dallas, Mark Davis in Las Vegas? Has the commissioner completely forgotten the Florida rub-and-tug prostitution sting involving Robert Kraft — the New England owner and league influence broker — because he’s averse to piling on the Patriots after the Deflategate and Spygate rulings?
The NFLPA will point out the hypocrisy of the almighty and powerful. It will make for great viewing and reading. But 24 is a round and very large number, a zone blitz much too elaborate for Deshaun Watson to escape.
Next time, try using a massage robot.
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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.