This week of 23rd, lawsuit was filed against Browns.
Quarterback DeShaun Watson. And
in footnote 2, at the bottom of page 2, there was a comment
that,
that struck me when I saw it. And I follow this case,
I think, as closely as anyone out there, and when I read that
line, I thought, wait a minute I did. This is not as obvious
as Tony Busby the lawyer for the plaintiff would think. And
here is the language from the footnote,
of course. Now know that DeShaun Watson offered each
plaintiff 100,000 dollars to settle their cases, but not all
would accept that amount due to the aggressive non-disclosure
agreement that Watson's team proposed. That was the language
that made me. Say
am I missing something here.
Do I just forget? This is this,
of course? We now know, we don't know. We never seen that.
He didn't ever been reported. And I went and checked last
night. The only thing that had ever been reported, The Daily
Beast reported that one of the twenty two plaintiffs at one
point was offered a hundred thousand dollars.
That is different from
Saying they all were offered a hundred thousand dollars
with an aggressive non-disclosure agreement.
That some of them decided not to sign and that is a complete 180
from earlier in the year
2021, when it was Tony Busby who represents the 22
plaintiffs, who wanted
the non-disclosure agreement and Rusty Harden, who
represents DeShaun Watson saying it all needs to be
public. Because Busby as Harden has said, didn't want people to
know how little his clients got
Well as it turns out, and this all happened in the context of
the trade that didn't happen to Miami. The Dolphins, wanted
the cases settled. He was going to pay each of them. A hundred
thousand dollars,
18 were ready to go.
Four of them said, no. And I don't know whether it was
the NDA or the amount and at the end of the day, Watson decided
he wasn't going to settle some if he couldn't settle. Although
in hindsight
settling, any
hindsight foresight, any site. Current site settle these cases
if you can. But
this NDA and and
Watson's Camp would say, well, John didn't want the ndaa. The
Dolphins did. Well. The Dolphins aren't parties to this
lawsuit. They don't come to the table and say to Tony Busby. We
want your clients to sign an NDA.
They say to DeShaun Watson.
If we are going to trade for you,
you have to get these cases settled with an NDA and Watson
says, okay, I'll do it. So even if it wasn't Watson's idea, if
he's doing it to The trade to the Dolphins.
He's the one who's asking for it. His team asked for the NDA,
they call it aggressive, and look every nda's aggressive.
The idea is, you can't talk to anybody. You can't tell anybody
what you got, they all. I've been,
I've been the lawyer on both sides of the ndaa.
All you can say is the matter has been resolved. You can't
talk about the amount. You can't even say it's been
settled with the cash payment. All you say is it's been
resolved period so
it didn't work. It didn't get it done, but That was news.
That was one of those.
You know, I think Tony Busby knew damn. Well what he was
doing dropping that little bomb in the footnote for
the purposes of someone in the media catching it writing about
it. But that's the bottom line. And
different people are going to interpret different things
based upon the fact that Watson was, it was willing to pay
a hundred grand to each of these 22 individuals. And there's
gonna be a lot of people who look at that and say,
why would he have offered a hundred thousand dollars?
If he didn't do something, he shouldn't have done. But that's
not. That's not all of that. That's not a reliable
conclusion. I won't sir. That logic, sometimes it makes good
business sense.
To purchase peace.
Treat it as a transaction
in order to get past this and move forward. He wanted to play
last year for the Dolphins. So this was part of the price to
pay
to go play for the Dolphins.
Mike, you know, when DeShaun Watson signed
this guaranteed contract, five years, 230 million dollars
with the Cleveland Browns.
I basically said at the time and I continue to say it,
I think it is. One of the worst transactions I've ever seen in
NFL owner. Make
And it isn't that
DeShaun Watson as a football player
isn't worth two hundred and thirty million dollars over
a five-year period, as very little to do with it.
It is signing a player
who has 22 swords of Damocles hanging over his head and this
week
that became a 23rd Sword of Damocles
hanging over his head.
Because obviously, now,
Another woman has joined the parade of civil lawsuits
against DeShaun Watson.
With, I would say some harrowing accusations
about sexual misconduct by DeShaun Watson.
And, and I said, at the time and this, you know, I wrote
a damning story
at the top of my column,
when the Browns did this, I thought it was an absolute total.
Screw ace
and I continue to think so,
but what I said at the time is that this is basically going to
be the distraction that keeps on distracting
and what has happened now over the last couple of weeks with
DeShaun Watson. I'll tell you what has happened.
HBO on Real Sports
has two women who come out
and talk about their very negative experiences with
Watson. And
as a professional
massage therapist,
then this week,
There's even more a 23rd woman
joining the civil suits then last night with what you said
that he's already offered
to all of the women.
A hundred thousand dollars to make this go away.
So if you've done nothing wrong whatsoever, and I mean nothing
And then you offer 2.2 million dollars
to
people who have accused you of doing something wrong.
Does that lead to public opinion? Then thinking that
you've done nothing wrong? No, it does not. It leads to public
opinion. Thinking that
yes. We just want to make this go away and go on with
the career. And probably that was the smart thing for him to do
to make that offer.
But, you know, it's hard
to Can offer like that
when you are absolutely totally without any fault,
and that is the thing. This is not going away
and it's going to continue to be a black guy in a black cloud
over the Cleveland Browns, until all of these civil cases
are adjudicated and until
he finishes serving, whatever sanction, the league hands down
and
Watson would say Say that the money was offered for one
reason only
so he could get the trade that he wanted. So he could try to
play football. Even though the Dolphins were under
the impression. I've heard multiple times that it was going to be
a 6 game suspension of DeShaun Watson if he settled those
cases, but, you know,
in hindsight.
If he'd have been traded last year to the Dolphins, he would
have gotten 230 million dollar fully guaranteed contract. On
the way through the door. He actually
has made more money
by waiting. Not that the problem is any better
for him because I think the sooner this all goes away,
the better off. He is going to be
and I've said from March of 2021,
and I said it in March of 2022. When he was traded, these cases
need to be resolved. You need to find a way to let
the individuals believe they've, Gotten their Justice, and this
is the way the Civil Justice system works. It is
a transaction. It
is a payment of money.
They compensate someone
for whatever it was that they endured, that they shouldn't
have had to endure that, they believe that they endured
whether you agree with it or not. That's how you make it,
right? He should have made it right? Right out of the gates.
He should have made it right right after he was traded to
the Browns. And now this continues to linger to Port
where Browns fans get dragged into it. And some Browns fans
don't like the fact that he's on the team. Other Browns fans
are caught up in this.
Tribalism. They're going to shout fake news. They were
shouting old news last night. That was there. That was their
reaction to this. This is old news.
First of all, no, it's not
and second of all is that the best you got?
Is that really the best? You got?
You're going to try to shout me down
because you think it's old news
when it's not old news, but hey,
that's what fans do.
They got thrust into this
because Watson didn't settle the cases
before he became a member of the Browns. And now,
Peter, he is in full.
Edge full-blown, I'm going to fight these mode, and let me
just tell everybody how this works. How here's how this is
going to work because I handled civil cases for 20 years
almost.
Each one of these cases is going to go to trial
and in each one of these cases,
the plaintiff is going to get on the witness stand.
And the plaintiff is going to tell her story about what
the Sean Watson did.
And DeShaun Watson is going to get on the witness stand and
he's going to deny it.
And there's going to be other evidence that may or may not
get in, depending upon the rules of evidence, and
the arguments made by the parties about the other claims being
made against DeShaun Watson, or other things that he has done
other things that he has said, that would tend to maybe push
the needle.
A little bit more toward the plaintiff. In each given case.
They'll be, they'll be
many hearings
where there are fights over what can and can't be used from
other cases. In each of these individual cases. They go to
trial, but 23 of them
soon to be 24
with
23, soon-to-be 24, different juries.
And I know how these cases. Go. Look, we get an idea of how
the legal system is based on TV and movies.
Every one of these cases is a coin flip
at best for Deshaun Watson.
Good luck flipping a coin 23 times
and having it come up your way.
Every time we either way. I doubt that. He loses every one
of these
But I would not bet that he's going to win every one of them
23 times and how long's it going to take to process 23,
trials, Peter.
This is going to be hanging over the Browns,
all of this year,
all in next year
and into 2024.
And what is it? What the hell, does the NFL in begin to do
about this? So, you know,
I know I like he's got every right to defend himself, but
there's an intersection between defending yourself and moving
forward with your life
and when you've got 23, soon-to-be 24 of these
Cases all of which are going to be tried separately.
They're hanging over your life
and six months of the year
is out of the picture for any of these trials to happen
because you're playing football or at least you think you're
playing football, you know, that'd be the best, the ap2,
the best thing for him. Now that I just kind of thought of
this
just suspend him for the whole year,
and let him focus on these cases
and just get these damn cases behind him.
Just try the cases during foot by, it's
probably too late to make that happen.
But just sit out the whole year and
and folk between now and next year. At this time
Focus exclusively on getting these 23 cases behind you,
whether you try them, settle them, whatever that should be
the full focus at this point is making these end.