That’s disappointing, but not terribly surprising. Pro Football Network’s Aaron Wilson, a longtime Houston-based reporter on the Texans beat, reported Friday evening that the New Orleans Saints are one of many teams exploring a potential trade for Houston Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson. Watson, of course, was cleared of criminal charges earlier Friday afternoon despite facing 22 civil suits against him alleging sexual misconduct. With no criminal charges coming, Watson is now cleared to facilitate a trade to another team.
That doesn’t mean that Watson is innocent or that the 22 different women accusing him of predatory behavior are lying — in the eyes of the court, there wasn’t enough evidence to warrant further action. That’s a frustratingly bleak reality for many sexual abuse survivors in America today, and we can’t afford to just gloss over it.
But teams will overlook a lot of baggage if a player is talented enough. The Pittsburgh Steelers overlooked Ben Roethlisberger’s sexual assault allegations. So did the Saints themselves when bringing in Jameis Winston and his own history of not keeping his hands off of women. Whichever team trades for Watson, and one almost certainly will, is going to be prepared to accept a possible NFL suspension and the negative public reaction to the move in hopes that they’ll start winning games and fans will forget about it eventually. It isn’t right. It’s the reality we’re in.
