From March 2020 to March 2021 Deshaun Watson was up to some really bad behavior off the field. If you haven’t heard about it yet then you have probably been living under a rock for the past few months. During that year period he has been accused of sexually harassing as well as assaulting over 24 women. The Houston Texans have reached settlements with 30 women and Deshaun Watson has reached a settlement with 20 women and has at least 4 outstanding allegations. The idea that this guy is going to get away with what he did with just a 6 game suspension and some money paid out to women just goes to show you how once you get to a certain level of stardom you can basically do no wrong. Brazoria County declined to charge Watson back in March which just tells me there were most likely some Texans fans on that jury. Before that, a grand jury in Harris County (where Houston proper is located) rejected a further 9 cases against Watson as well.
So where do we go from here? Who really won with this suspension? Well, the Cleveland Browns definitely won because they traded for Watson and the contract he signed basically states that even if he is suspended he is still guaranteed money each season. How much money you ask? Well he gets $230 million dollars guaranteed spanning over the next 5 years. He also receives a $44.965 million dollar signing bonus. He won’t even have to give his signing bonus back over this suspension. The NFL will likely appeal this ruling as they wanted an entire season of suspension while Watson’s camp really just wanted no suspension at all. If you are reading in between the lines it looks like this investigating committee sided more with Watson than they did with these women.
Luckily back in April of last year he started losing major endorsement deals such as H-E-B (my favorite grocery store in the world), Nike, and Beats by Dre. So he is getting hit in his pocket book for sure which is fine but doesn’t change the fact the man is about to make almost a quarter of a billion dollars over the next 5 years. What I find interesting is that even though all of this was going on in 2021 and Deshaun Watson had not played a down of football since the 2020 season, the Cleveland Browns took it upon themselves to trade for Watson back in March of this year. Not only that, they gave away their future for this guy. The next 3 years of first-round picks, 1 third-round pick, 1 fourth-round pick, and 1 fifth-round pick. This guy just keeps on winning. He goes to Cleveland, signs a major contract with hundreds of millions of dollars guaranteed, then just sits back and watches all of this unfold. The best part for him is that now he doesn’t even have to play the first part of the season so if they end up losing the first few games and essentially play their way out of a playoff run early, there is no pressure (or at least less pressure) on him to do extremely well.
I really hope the NFL is able to successfully appeal this ruling of a 6-game suspension and that he ends up not seeing the field this upcoming season. Training camps are beginning soon and I would just hate to see this guy succeed in any aspect after what he has done. The best part about all of this is how it makes the Houston Texans look. I already knew that organization was dumpster fire-esque but this just takes the cake in my opinion.
