Editor's note: This story contains graphic details of sexual assault.
By the time you read this, the Deshaun Watson scandal will be bigger than it was an hour ago. As it stands now, a grand total of 24 women have come forward and 14 separate lawsuits have been filed against the Texans quarterback. The lawsuits allege that Watson sought the women out for massage therapy, even if some of them were not formally trained for it, and then demanded they all go many steps beyond what massage therapy entails. One woman said Watson forced her into performing oral sex on him. Another woman said Watson ejaculated on her without her consent. Another said he forced his penis into her hand. The accusations are ugly, abundant and growing.
But they’re still proving hard for many people, especially men who cover the NFL, to accept. Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk has written about the case with an initial arch skepticism that reads almost as if he’s giving Watson advice from afar. Peter King of NBC was simply aghast that such charges could be levied against Watson at all:
"To say this is out of character for Watson is an understatement," King wrote. "I spoke to someone close to Watson over the weekend, and this person was stunned at the charges and had never seen him treat women with anything but respect. So let’s wait for all the evidence to surface. It’s smart in such cases to keep an open mind until we see complete details and stories."
This narrative has played out so many times that you could set your f—king watch to it. That’s just not the guy I know! In Watson’s case, the narrative is only too convenient to deploy, because Watson himself began this NFL offseason as a perceived victim.
At least, that’s how I felt. Watson is one of the best young quarterbacks in football. But over the past year, the Texans have made Herculean efforts to squander that promise. They traded away some of Watson’s best teammates for nothing. They unofficially allowed a discount Hillsong preacher to usurp all of their front office responsibilities. They ignored Watson’s request to interview Chiefs offensive wizard Eric Bieniemy as their head coach. And they let J.J. Watt, the finest player in team history until Watson arrived, walk for nothing. Fans like me were outraged on Watson’s behalf. I didn’t want Watson to fail. I wanted to see him flourish and win. When Watson demanded a trade out of Houston — a demand that he has yet to back down from, which a few NFL teams are reportedly still entertaining — I hoped his wish would be granted.
So when attorney Tony Buzbee came forward last week with a civil lawsuit against Watson that included a portion of these allegations, I acted just like King in the paragraph above and was like, “Oh, well that simply can’t be! They must be talking about ANOTHER Deshaun Watson!”
There were easy ways to justify this initial skepticism. Buzbee remains the only lawyer to bring these cases against Watson, and he’s got a resume that screams "MICHAEL AVENATTI" to any casual observer. Combine the established sympathy toward Watson from this winter with the carnival barker bombast of Buzbee, and you get supposedly progressive dudes like me suddenly acting like this is all surprising. But if you get into the details of the cases, your surprise ought to quickly turn into guilt, if not outright disgust. I wanted Watson to be innocent. Then I read through the many accusations and realized how hollow, and how blind, that desire was. From ESPN:
"Watson kissed the plaintiff when he arrived, she says. She was shocked and left the office quickly to compose herself, and when she returned he exposed himself, the lawsuit says. Later, she says, Watson asked her to work on his buttocks and penis area but she declined. The lawsuit says he moved in a way to have his penis touch her hand and offered to pay extra if she worked on his buttocks and penis. She says when she declined, Watson got upset and left."
This is hardly the first credible allegation of an NFL luminary taking liberties with and/or assaulting female massage therapists, female personal trainers and female training staff personnel. It’s almost as if, as Buzbee has already claimed, the NFL “fosters sexual assault and harassment,” with players tipping each other off as to freelancing women who might make for easy targets.
For his part, Watson has denied the charges. His agent, David Mulugheta, has already tweeted out that tiresome reminder of, Hey, do we really wanna ruin one man’s life over this? and implied that all of the plaintiffs were looking to make a buck. (Watson's attorney Rusty Hardin is now specifically singling out one alleged victim with that defense.)
If Watson, Mulugheta and Hardin have a strategy, it’s that Watson’s otherwise pristine image will carry him over to the other side. They’re banking on the kind of confirmation bias that had people like me WANTING Watson to be innocent when the news first dropped. Yes, there are some very bad men out there. But CLEARLY Deshaun Watson can’t be one of them. Come on, you guys! It’s Deshaun! That strategy has already worked magic on King and his ilk, in part because they’re likely eager to preserve their access to both Watson and to the rest of Mulugheta’s client roster.
And the sad part is that such optical maneuvers could help Watson get away with what he’s accused of, whether he and his people stick to their current approach or shift to a different one. The NBA literally changed its All-Star Game rules to honor the legacy of Kobe Bryant, who was not only credibly accused of raping a woman but then worked with Nike — the sponsor that stood by him — to build a brand persona out of those accusations once Kobe’s lawyer had savaged the victim’s reputation. Kobe has essentially been beatified since his death. Watson could try using that same playbook. Or, like Antonio Brown, he could go into temporary career purgatory and still come out the other side with a Super Bowl ring. There’s no one way to be a s—tbag.
So you can side-eye Buzbee and hold your tongue until the legal process plays out, leaving open the possibility that Watson is innocent. Perhaps he is. But if you ASSUME he’s innocent automatically — or you pen defensive columns and tweets and dance around making that assertion outright — then you’re reinforcing the entire “good guy” defense apparatus that has both destroyed and silenced so many women.
You don’t REALLY know if Deshaun Watson is a nice guy. S—t, his teammates may not even know. The only avenue I have for judging Watson’s character is from snippets of him expertly laying out defensive schemes to the press and slapping helmets with his buddies on the field. That’s ALL I have. How the f—k can I know what the man is capable of? I can’t. No other fan, no matter how much they hate the Texans organization, can.
And yet, Watson still has sympathizers out there. The tragic subtext to this story, no matter how it plays out, is that Watson and other men ALWAYS have plenty of sympathizers on hand. The women who credibly accuse powerful men of abuse are rarely afforded such luxuries, and they face the risk of potentially being doxxed, harassed and shamed for the rest of their days regardless of how the story ends up playing out in court.
It doesn’t matter who Deshaun Watson is to you. You don't get to ignore the #believewomen rallying cry if you happen to find the accused a believable fella. The whole point of the MeToo movement is to understand that “good guys” aren't always good, so that sports fans (and media) don't fall for that line of defense again and again and again, same way it always has.
More Drew Magary
March 24, 2021 at 05:25AM
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