Deshaun Watson won.
The NFL failed women, failed the accusers of a person the commissioner of the league itself called “predatory,” failed its fans, and failed itself.
In fact, Watson is the real victim here. Just ask him.
“There were a lot of people that were triggered,” Watson said Thursday, when the NFL and Watson settled on an 11-game suspension and a $5 million fine for his behavior toward more than two dozen massage therapists from 2019 to 2021. “I’ve always stood on my innocence. I never assaulted or disrespected anyone.”
When Watson spoke, he contradicted a canned statement that had been released earlier Thursday, in which he accepted accountability and issued an apology. It turns out, that was just lawyer-speak. PR prattle. Boilerplate BS.
Now that the NFL had closed the book on his case, Watson could disavow words that clearly were not his. He spoke with a Cheshire smile on his face. He spoke without contrition. Without humility. Without accountability.
He flicked the fine off his shoulders like so much lint; after all, he just banked nearly $45 million in signing bonus money as part of the five-year extension he signed with the Browns after the Texans traded him in March, and he’d already made $51 million in five NFL seasons. That’s just “a little bit of money” to guys like Deshaun Watson.
Watson defied every questioner who sought any admission of wrongdoing. He accepted the discipline, he said, so he could get on with his promising NFL career.
“For us to be able to move forward, I have to be able to take steps and put pride to the side,” he said.
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell is cringing.
Watson is humoring the NFL. He is humiliating the Shield.
He made it very clear that he will go through the motions of mandatory counseling. He will abide by the rules of the settlement, such as, he cannot seek massages from anyone not affiliated with the Browns. And he made it evident that he will never, ever admit culpability.
Watson looked beyond smug.
He looked like a mob boss walking out of a courtroom because the cops didn’t read him his rights.
Welcome to the victory lap
It wasn’t a news conference. It was a victory lap.
In an orange Browns hoodie before Thursday’s training camp session, Watson preened for more than 11 minutes. His hubris was suffocating.
He called the more than 30 massage therapists who accused him of sexual assault liars. He dismissed the learned opinion of retired federal judge Sue L. Robinson, the NFL disciplinary officer whose six-game suspension judgment on Aug. 1 was deemed insufficient by the NFL, which appealed. Robinson called Watson’s behavior “egregious” and said it met the NFL’s standards for sexual assault.
NFL officials wanted Watson to lose a full season and twice as much money, which would have been his entire salary in his wasted 2021 season in Houston, but they feared that Watson would challenge them in court, so they caved.
Watson won.
The quarterback faced 25 lawsuits from massage therapists. One was dropped, and Watson settled 23 of the other 24. Still, he maintains complete innocence.
“Just because settlements happen doesn’t mean a person is guilty [of] anything,” Watson said. Fair enough.
Then he continued:
“I continue to stand on my innocence. We proved that on the legal side.”
No, they didn’t. They didn’t prove anything. Not being convicted does not prove innocence.
Ask O.J.
Not being convicted means that prosecutors failed to present sufficient evidence to persuade two grand juries to indict Watson. It doesn’t mean he’s innocent; it means two grand juries in football-crazy Houston didn’t see enough evidence to make a football star stand trial. In this context, the difference is as big as Texas.
Goodell called Watson’s behavior “predatory.”
He is going to let the predator come back in Week 13.
Guess where?
Houston, we have a problem
The hand-slap suspension and half-measure, $5 million fine are only slightly more revolting than the tasteless scheduling of Watson’s return.
His first game back will be in Houston — the city where his massage addiction led to his ignominy. Watson played for the Texans through 2021. The Texans settled suits with 30 massage therapists for the team’s role in all this.
Most of Watson’s accusers still live in Houston. The spotlight of the sporting world will focus on NRG Stadium on Dec. 4, and these victims will be the unwilling chorus in this seedy pageantry.
Watson will take the field to boos from fans who watched him steal $10.54 million in 2021. He refused to play for Houston and was rendered untradeable because of his legal problems and a no-trade clause he used to avoid being shipped to a football purgatory city, like Philadelphia.
Their ire will be warranted.
Watson avoided criminal charges, accepted a trade to Cleveland, and signed a record $230 million guaranteed contract. The contract was designed to pay him just $1.035 million for the 2022 season, the minimum for a veteran with his service time, so as to minimize the salary he’d lose to a suspension. He will lose $632,500 by missing 11 games.
By contrast, next season he will make $2.706 million per game — or more than four times as much as his entire salary forfeiture. It will take him about two games to cover that $5 million fine. Six hours of work.
The massage therapists lost. Women lost. Fans lost. The NFL lost.
Deshaun Watson? He won big.
