It's been nearly a year since we first became aware of
the initial lawsuit against DeShaun Watson, alleging misconduct
during massage therapy sessions. It became 22,
civil complaints, and it then became eight or ten
criminal complaints.
Nothing has happened
from the standpoint of
the legal process, on the criminal side.
A grand jury has been poised
to take up the case at some point. Well,
yesterday. Okay, Rusty hardened told the New York Times and
Rusty hard and represents DeShaun Watson. And also Tony
Busby who represents the 22 individuals, suing Watson. They
both told the times
that on Friday, there will be an effort by the grand jury in
Houston to look at the situation and
from Watson's perspective, decide that day,
not to indict him on any charges
may be like,
yeah.
Well,
here's what it all comes down to because This isn't bad news
or good news. It's just the next step in the process. And
it's good news for Watson from the standpoint
of they're getting this done before free agency begins.
So if he does emerge from it with no charges, specifically,
no, felony charges. He's in a position where someone could
maybe trade for him and the Texans could finally move on.
But,
look,
you hear the saying all the time? A prosecutor could indict
a ham sandwich
if the prosecutor wants to, and
what that means is
the process is one-sided.
There's no voice. There's no defense.
There's no push back. If you want to go in there and you
want to load up and fire up the Granger, you're on your own.
And if you really want to do it, if you really want to
convince them. They are going to go your way because
they see your motivation to get this indictment.
The flip side is
if you really don't want
to go through the
trial and the dream team and if it doesn't fit, you must acquit
and trying to show Reasonable Doubt. And our do we really
have criminal misconduct here? Does it rise to the level of
a violation of the applicable laws?
You can kind of, mealy, mouth your way through it and not get
an indictment either. So, you can indict a ham sandwich, or
you can not indict, a ham sandwich. It all comes down to
what you want, as a prosecutor. We don't know that. We don't
know that, but if this prosecutor isn't motivated to
take on,
what would be a high-profile trial and
believe that she can get a conviction Beyond a reasonable
doubt, very high standard, then we could see no Indictments
of DeShaun Watson by the end of the day on Friday,
which would lay the foundation for the Texans to try to work
out a trade over the weekend and have something in place by
Wednesday. Whether it's Carolina,
you know, I've, I've seen suggestions of Washington.
I still think that's a tough one to pull off. When you consider
what's going on in that organization in recent years.
You look at the allegations against Watson, the allegations
against a team.
It's a tough PR
cell, right? I think Ryan may not handle it. Ron Rivera. You
know what Matt? Hey.
Hey Chris, maybe maybe it's
it's not going to make a much worse. It's already as bad as
it can be. No, go ahead and add two Sean W. And what are going
to say? Yeah already saying these things about here right?
At least. We're good on the field now, I mean, you know,
maybe that's what they'll
say. I know it'll be interesting. We know that
there's team still got their eye on the Sean, wasit 100%.
I think you name the, the really the two teams, the look at,
I'd probably throw in the Philadelphia Eagles in there as well.
To be a part of it. I'm just glad we're getting going here
with this. Finally, to just you know, for For the Houston
Texans and Nick has stereo for himself. I mean, damn, we saw
last week he tried his best to answer those questions. He's in
a tough spot. He really
is, and yeah, for Watson and his own good too. We'll see
where it goes. But hopefully this does get a little
resolved. I would think. Yeah. I mean, I would think
even if there's no indictments, right, I mean if there's no
indictments and everything goes good, I guess. Yes, that's
where I would think. Even though. There's some other
things may be
on the horizon. This would go a long way to
appealing to an owner or GM that things are going in
the right direction.
He's still looking at a potential suspension right
under the personal conduct policy. The Ben Roethlisberger
precedent would would suggest six games reduced to for maybe
eight games reduced to six for good behavior.
The other side of it is the 22 civil lawsuits and I said from
the outset, he needs to take his Reckoning. He needs to make
good with these individuals. They believe something happened
that shouldn't have happened. He should settle with them. She
get everybody in a room and work out a settlement,
and
they didn't do it early. They tried to do it during
the season. They try to Do it as a precursor to a trade to
the Dolphins because Stephen Ross, the owner of the team insisted
on all of those cases being settled before a trade would
happen.
The reality, is those cases are still going to be there, even
if he's not indicted, if someone traits from next week,
those cases will still be there.
You got to be comfortable with that last year the Panthers
were presumably, they still, are
you clear away the criminal possibility,
then it just becomes civil cases and
you know, the other side of it too.
If you've got to settle these cases
before you trade.
DeShaun Watson those cases have far greater settlement value
lot more expensive. Yeah, right to
to negotiate Justice. And Justice comes in many forms.
And one form of justice is a cash settlement. That's what
the Civil Justice System is all about. It's about getting
monetary compensation
for some sort of indignity that you have suffered that crosses,
the line of what the law allows about. My what about this will
hold on one quick one just to just because I know it'll hit
home and we didn't bring it up there. We said Carolina and
Philadelphia. Yeah, but there's another team in the state of
Pennsylvania that I would think. Now
that Brian Flores is in Pittsburgh
that
I just I have a hard time not connecting a DOT there. I know
Flores was a huge proponent of wanting to Sean Wasson in
Miami, you know, there is some sort of connection there,
you know, as we've discussed.
It seems like it all went downhill a little bit when
Stephen Ross and Greer, and whoever else decided to close
the door on the DeShaun Watson thing and it doesn't, it
doesn't sound. Brian Flores was involved in the conversation.
That's another team. I just, you know, what have my eye on
a little bit.
They did sign Mike Vick at one point now it was years after.
Yeah, he got out of prison for dog fighting. This is
a different vibe so different. I'm not sure that our true
knees going to be on board with this. And remember, in
the aftermath
of the Roethlisberger stuff from 2010.
They thought about trading and it was bad that. But but but
they've been through this Redemption
Journey once before with Roethlisberger. Maybe they
learned from that. At that, if you if you show up and you win
and we've done our due diligence and we're comfortable
that we understand what happened, what didn't happen.
And there's no criminal charges
II, you know,
I wouldn't rule it out for a team that currently is looking
at Mason Rudolph as its primary option at quarterback.
I wouldn't rule out to show them Watson because they got to do
something better. Sorry Mason, they got to do something better
than
Masonry.