Largely lost in the news that a 23rd lawsuit has been filed against Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson is that a 24th lawsuit is coming.
Attorney Tony Buzbee, per multiple reports, said Tuesday that yet another lawsuit against Watson is in the works.
Watson will deny all allegations, as he has throughout this process. But the total number will become two dozen.
Although Watson’s lawyers want to make Buzbee the focal point of the suggestion that it’s all embellished, exaggerated, and/or fabricated, it becomes very difficult for Buzbee, if he’s indeed holding together 24 women with meritless claims, to keep them from eventually getting wobbly. From complaining among themselves or to others that they thought it was going to be a quick and easy payday, that it’s all taking too long, and/or that they “didn’t sign up for this,” something along those lines would have surfaced by now. However, there’s been no indication whatsoever of a fracture or fissure among the plaintiffs who are suing Watson.
While there may indeed be serious weaknesses in one or more of the claims made against Watson, there are now 24 people making those claims. How can a reasonable person accept that all 24 are wrong or lying and/or that Buzbee has somehow engineered without a hitch a conspiracy of women who have weak cases to come together — and to stay together — for nearly 15 months, and counting.
He could still win each of the 24 cases, if they all go to trial. However, anyone who knows anything about how the legal system truly works would have to admit that any given lawsuit aimed at resolving contested facts is a crapshoot, a coin toss. The chances of winning 24 such coin tosses are slim, to say the least.
Through it all, the expanding portfolio of lawsuits continues to provide a very real distraction for Watson, his new team, and its fans — many of whom aren’t comfortable with the situation and many of whom have slipped into predictable, knee-jerk efforts to defend their quarterback, no matter what.