Report: Two more lawsuits to be filed against Deshaun Watson

Posted by Mike Florio on June 13, 2022, 8:30 PM EDT
Cleveland Browns Offseason Workout
Getty Images

The bad news still is not subsiding for Deshaun Watson.

KPRC 2 in Houston reports that two more lawsuits will be filed against the Browns quarterback. Watson currently faces 24 lawsuits alleging sexual misconduct during massage therapy sessions.

The report doesn’t say whether the two new plaintiffs will be represented by Houston attorney Tony Buzbee. He currently represents all 24 of the women who have sued Watson.

If the report is true, the extra lawsuits underscore the fact that new information can surface at any time. It makes it more difficult for the NFL to make a final decision on a potential suspension, and it makes paid leave until all cases are filed and resolved arguably even more appropriate.

The Commissioner took paid leave off the table in late March. Recent developments arguably should prompt the league to revisit that decision. The league declined comment last week in response to two different inquiries aimed at determining whether the circumstances had changed regarding the possibility of Watson being placed on the Commissioner Exempt list.

Permalink 51 Comments Feed for comments Back to top

51 responses to “Report: Two more lawsuits to be filed against Deshaun Watson”

  4. CAN WE VOID HIS CONTRACT AND RELEASE HIM
    signed all of the browns fans worldwide? id rather go with brissett or dobbs then this guy he a damn DISTRACTION and is bad luck
    im sorry but im losing faith in this guy being a decent human being hes a legit football player but this guy has some dark stuff in his closet

  7. Absent criminal charges that involve Watson being indicted it shouldn’t matter if he has 24 or 50 alleged victims that end up filing a civil suit he is innocent until proven otherwise and a Civil Suit will not alter his presumed innocence. His playing status should not be effected by a civil suit . It’s really that simple

  8. can’t remember the last time this guy even played

    I can. He went 4-12.

  9. Paid leave? Watson abuses women and then gets paid mega millions to ride the pine. It hardly seems fair.

  10. i would say more lawsuits are to come considering he used more than 60 different women in the last couple of years…

  11. Let’s set emotions aside for a moment and ask what these new lawsuits really mean. Florio, what kind of suspension is Watson looking at now?

  15. So seriously, if you are Cleveland management (oxymoron), what are you thinking happens next to bring this to resolution?

  16. William Shakespeare knew about lawyers such as Tony Buzbee several hundred years back.

  19. Watson thought he outsmarted the NFL by insisting his salary for 2022 be very low ($2 million from what I understand) so that any suspension would be less impactful. NFL should turn that around on him by giving him paid leave for all of 2022 so that these cases can be resolved, then impose the penalty on him in 2023 when it will really hurt him financially.

  23. Unfortunately we live in a lawsuit filled society where $$$ always get the best of individuals. We all know the majority of these are a money grab.

  24. I think the only thing that needs to happen if these women are credible is a life time ban

  26. Why should he get “paid” leave? And if so who would be doing the paying? The Browns? That makes zero sense he was not their employee then. Or what am I missing

  28. I know we given out some ridiculous contracts like the one to Gruden but the browns top that with this ridiculous contract on a player who may not play for them anytime soon or possibly never wow….

  29. One thing I’ve learned over the last 50 year or so is if you think something is bad, it’s usually actually worse. I think that’s the case with Watson.

  31. Seems crazy to me that paid leave is even an option. Any other profession in the world would just be done and fired. This is so out of hand bad move by the browns giving a fully guarantee contract I truly feel bad for the browns fans. No fan base deserves this type of punishment. This could set the browns back a decade or more. All contracts are so out of control, the contracts should be more about performance. No reason to have to fork out all this cash to a player that might not ever be the same after a big payday. We have seen it all way too much through the years of sports

  33. This has settlement written all over it. They know there’s a settlement coming and want a piece. Ironically they all have the same Lawyer??

  34. It’d been at least 4 days since the last bad news for Watson came out. So last night I started wondering when more would begin to come out.

    This has been very well orchestrated by Buzzbee to achieve maximum impact on Watson and the NFL prior to a potential decision on discipline.

    If Buzzbee is able to have Watson placed on paid leave by the NFL then Watson reaches a point where he essentially HAS to settle the cases if he wants to play football again anytime soon.

    I don’t know if Watson has realized that he NEEDS to settle yet, but even if he has, his legal team can’t appear to eager to settle as that will only drive up the price. When you’re talking about 26 lawsuits even 200k a person comes out to 5.2 Million.

    I think he’ll be lucky to get out of this for 40 Million when you include the monetary amount of the settlements and all the money he owes Rusty Hardin for defending him.

    That assumes he settles ASAP and is then able to serve his upcoming suspension this season to minimize the financial damage that the suspension will cause.

    If he has to sit on paid leave this season he might as well just settle even if it costs him 40m because he’s going to lose that much money anyway if he’s suspended for the 2023 season because of his salary.

    I’m sure Watson feels like he shouldn’t have to pay anything on top of what he’s paid Hardin to defend him. That is not a reasonable assessment of the situation that he is in.

  37. favresthumbdrive says:
    June 13, 2022 at 8:50 pm
    I can’t remember the last time this guy even played football
    ———–
    At this rate, it will be but a distant memory that he ever played.

  38. Considering the pattern of his behavior, it’s not really that surprising. He set himself up for this. Can’t engage in that kind of lifestyle and expect not to get outed eventually. I wonder if the Browns dug this deep? I’m guessing they didn’t. Especially with how fast they alienated their incumbent starter. They went all in on a player with HUGE off field issues. I’m not sure of the ins and outs of the league’s discipline policy but this may end up being an indefinite suspension where he has to file for reinstatement just like Josh Gordon’s multiple issues got him. And these are multiple issues. On top of all this, if it’s normal behavior for a professional football player, where the support? Shouldn’t teammates and peers be standing up for him saying this is normal stuff? That’s because it’s not.

  39. And the hits…the just keep on comin’…couldn’t happen to a bigger slimeball

  41. It’s not gonna stop they can always find more people looking for an easy payday

  43. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out the NFL isn’t interested in disciplining Deshaun Watson. That much is clear.

  45. NFL slow walking this stuff…tip toe tip toe…don’t look over here….don’t look over there. Go away go away…CLEVELAND SUCKS.

  47. Goodell needs to put Watson on the exempt list now, so Cleveland can prepare for the season. Watson needs to handle all 66 allegations before he steps onto a field in a Browns uniform. The Browns need to be focused on football, not sexual assaults.

  48. I don’t see how this changes the NFLs investigation/punishment one bit (unless the new victims coming forward have better evidence of his crimes.) Either he did this or he didn’t. It shouldn’t take more than 20 people to come forward to get to a conclusion about his guilt. He should have been suspended by now. At least a year. If more people come forward suspend him another year if you want. But don’t say you don’t have enough information to suspend the guy.

  49. jkb0162 says:

    June 14, 2022 at 8:33 am

    I don’t see how this changes the NFLs investigation/punishment one bit (unless the new victims coming forward have better evidence of his crimes.) Either he did this or he didn’t. It shouldn’t take more than 20 people to come forward to get to a conclusion about his guilt. He should have been suspended by now. At least a year. If more people come forward suspend him another year if you want. But don’t say you don’t have enough information to suspend the guy.
    ———-
    You dont see how new evidence changes anything? You dont see how Watson lying to the nfl investigators about the number as new evidence? Also you cant punish him and then decide soon after you didnt punish him enough, it doesnt work that way which is why the NFL has learned to take their time so they dont have the same issue they had a few yrs back with the giants kicker.

  50. If the report is true, the extra lawsuits underscore the fact that new information can surface at any time. It makes it more difficult for the NFL to make a final decision on a potential suspension, and it makes paid leave until all cases are filed and resolved arguably even more appropriate. ————— So what your really saying is that after months of clamoring saying the NFL should make a decision and how there is no reason to wait and it’s not fair blah blah blah etc that instead the process they were following is correct and there was no reason to make a move that would’ve been premature

  51. This is starting to sound like cases will keep trickling forth for as long as they have to until some some one somewhere gets the message and does whats wanted of them.

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to leave a comment. Not a member? Register now!

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.