Houston Texans added as defendants in Deshaun Watson sexual misconduct civil trials

[ET80]

2 hours ago, Danger said:

Honestly at this point, the league should nullify the trade (aside from draft picks already used), and void the contract 

Why? The Browns “did their own investigation” into Deshaun Watson, per Jimmy Haslem himself. Why do they get a redo on a decision they made on a guy with 22 pending civil cases? 

The risk was always there, Cleveland just chose to ignore it. They shouldn’t be bailed out.

Vacate the picks entirely, go with 31 picks in the first round next two drafts. Houston should feel the consequences, but Cleveland shouldn’t be absolved of their poor decision making on this one.

[ET80]

17 minutes ago, minutemancl said:

There is also the question of now who does this look worse for, from a public perception and from the perspective of the league handing down punishments- the Texans or the Browns? It now looks like the Texans enabled this to some extent, while the Browns actively pursued Watson while assumingly knowing all of this. Both look bad, while obviously paling in comparison to Watson's actions, but is it enough to punish one or either or both?

It’s par for the course with a Cal McNair and Jimmy Haslem production, tbh. They’re both reaching that Dan Snyder level of lack of decency.

Texans enabled the situation with NDAs, and Browns rewarded it with that ginormous contract. Both are culpable, IMO.

[AFlaccoSeagulls]

24 minutes ago, minutemancl said:

There is also the question of now who does this look worse for, from a public perception and from the perspective of the league handing down punishments- the Texans or the Browns? It now looks like the Texans enabled this to some extent, while the Browns actively pursued Watson while assumingly knowing all of this. Both look bad, while obviously paling in comparison to Watson's actions, but is it enough to punish one or either or both?

The answer, IMO, is just "Yes". They both look awful.

One organization enabled the behavior, the other rewarded it and defended/continues to defend it.

Not only that, the Browns look worse I think because they straight up lied to everyone when they said they investigated this when they clearly didn't do a damn thing.

[minutemancl]

I agree with @ET80. I think you forfeit all picks involved and suspend Watson at a bare minimum. 

[ramssuperbowl99]

30 minutes ago, ET80 said:

Why? The Browns “did their own investigation” into Deshaun Watson, per Jimmy Haslem himself. Why do they get a redo on a decision they made on a guy with 22 pending civil cases? 

There are videos (and have been for a long time) of Mia Khalifa in DeShaun's house in a maid outfit. The NFL and Browns are out here saying "how could we have known" when he's hiring literally the world's most famous escort and putting videos of it on social media.

Edited June 9, 2022 by ramssuperbowl99

[ET80]

17 minutes ago, minutemancl said:

I agree with @ET80. I think you forfeit all picks involved and suspend Watson at a bare minimum. 

Brent Naccara (the Texans Head of Security who provided the NDA following Watson advising of threats from Nia Smith) should also be fired for his hand in this.

Maybe Naccara was only thinking of this individual case, maybe he didn’t know Watson would make copies of the NDA and weaponize it as he did, but that ignorance is the gateway to a significant amount of the issues we all are finding out about. At the very least, he - as the head of security and a former Secret Service agent - should have taken the lead on investigating the claims made by Smith and securing the NDA for this one instance (if that was truly his intention, mind you). Watson would of lied to Naccara, possibly - but at least keeping that NDA in his control (Texans control) would have done a lot in this whole discussion.

I would also argue that Naccara’s boss - Texans EVP of Operations Jack Easterby - should be fired for his inability to set up appropriate governance in relation to this sort of request from players on roster. (I can fully admit that my views on Easterby are biased, to say the least).

Nonetheless, those in the Texans organization (up to and including Janice McNair) need to hold accountability for this entire lack of oversight. If they just asked “why is she claiming to ‘expose’ you?” at the onset, a lot of victims could have been avoided. I understand the pressure from their side - he is the new face of the franchise, he’s the top employee in the building, he’s the rainmaker from a revenue and wins perspective - but you HAVE to still cast suspicion instead of enabling him to do worse.

[ET80]

18 minutes ago, ramssuperbowl99 said:

There are videos (and have been for a long time) of Mia Khalifa in DeShaun's house in a maid outfit. The NFL and Browns are out here saying "how could we have known" when he's hiring literally the world's most famous escort and putting videos of it on social media.

Two things:

1. We first caught wind of it before Watson made his first start against Cincinnati in 2017 - heck, Khalifa posted the vids herself while wishing Watson good luck on his first NFL start. If you knew, you knew… y’know?

2. I’d argue Lisa Ann is more famous.

[DontTazeMeBro]

I’ve always been suspicious that McNair or whoever was burying it and then used it to destroy him when it became clear he wasn’t going to cave and play for them again.

Not a theory I’d bet money on but it’s crossed my mind a few times. I mean if I gave someone that kind of money and they proceeded to try to destroy my business 

[THE DUKE]

5 minutes ago, DontTazeMeBro said:

I’ve always been suspicious that McNair or whoever was burying it and then used it to destroy him when it became clear he wasn’t going to cave and play for them again.

Not a theory I’d bet money on but it’s crossed my mind a few times. I mean if I gave someone that kind of money and they proceeded to try to destroy my business 

That's pretty much what I thought was the case as soon as all this came out in the first place.  Texans had been covering for him for years, and when Watson turned his back on the Texans they used it as ammo.

[ramssuperbowl99]

24 minutes ago, ET80 said:

Two things:

1. We first caught wind of it before Watson made his first start against Cincinnati in 2017 - heck, Khalifa posted the vids herself while wishing Watson good luck on his first NFL start. If you knew, you knew… y’know?

2. I’d argue Lisa Ann is more famous.

Yep, exactly. Which completely undercuts the "we performed and in-depth investigation and found nothing". The balls on Gooddell and the Texans to say that with a straight face to a bunch of 18-35 year old men.

[ET80]

8 minutes ago, THE DUKE said:

That's pretty much what I thought was the case as soon as all this came out in the first place.  Texans had been covering for him for years, and when Watson turned his back on the Texans they used it as ammo.

According to Buzbee, his first complaint from Ashley Solis was during the 2020 season… while Watson was starting for the Texans and working with Cal McNair on the coaching search post-Bill O’Brien.

I think it’s a fun narrative, but the timeline doesn’t sync up - complaints started coming in during Watson’s last season as a Texan, while he was still playing.

 

[ramssuperbowl99]

51 minutes ago, minutemancl said:

I think you forfeit all picks involved and suspend Watson at a bare minimum. 

You have to suspend him, and suspend him indefinitely. Well, not actually "have to", but if there's a functioning brain cell left anywhere in Goodell's head he'll suspend him indefinitely.

The New York Times does not reveal all of their cards in the first article. They've played way dumber people than the NFL way better than this, and Watson is a big enough idiot who knows how much ammo they've got ready to go. If the NFL announces a finite suspension, then the NYT can drop the hammer right after and make them look bad, and we're right back on the merry go round again.

Edited June 9, 2022 by ramssuperbowl99

[ET80]

10 minutes ago, ramssuperbowl99 said:

The New York Times does not reveal all of their cards in the first article. They've played way dumber people than the NFL way better than this, and Watson is a big enough idiot who knows how much ammo they've got ready to go.

This… I hadn’t considered. This has also got to extend to McNair and Haslem, you’d think.

Boyyyy, bidness about to pick up!

[DawgX]

2 minutes ago, ET80 said:

This… I hadn’t considered. This has also got to extend to McNair and Haslem, you’d think.

Boyyyy, bidness about to pick up!

[StatKing]

Honestly I dont know who's a bigger idiot, Andrew Berry or Deshaun Watson. Cleveland shouldn't be allowed to void the contract simply because they were stupid enough to actually give it to him. 

Lets just assume for the sake of argument Watson is 100% innocent and this is all a smear campaign in an attempt to get money. How does he even put himself in a situation like that?  He had the potential to make damn near a billion dollars in football as long as he stayed healthy and he's gonna risk it all because he cant keep it in his pants?