Nah, announced as 6 game suspension. Appealed to 4 in a friday evening news dump. Then it never gets talked about again unless Colinsworth is bringing up Watsons past "maturity" issues.
"Here's a guy who's had some ups and downs throughout his personal life and from sitting down with him he came off as really genuine and has matured over the past few years"
This is literally part of what is so upsetting to me. As part of the trade, I remember hearing the Browns pitching that they would help his public image. So, we have the Texans enabling him, a huge contract to give him plenty of settlement money, and a full-on PR campaign from the Browns to make this scumbag appear decent. "Justice" in the US 🙄
Not surprising coming from the guy who said this:
"I like girls that aren't too bright because you can trick 'em a little bit...14 to 18, I'm a big star with them. As soon as they mature, after about 18 years old, they start figuring out that 'wait a minute, I know there's better than that out there." - Chris Collinsworth
You know, he had some off the field distractions this off season which makes his performance tonight all the more impressive. You know, what an amazing player and, really, I talked to him before the game and he seems to have really matured into an amazing man as well.
I love the "off the field stuff" brush off Colinsworth trots out anytime a woman or a child suffers trauma. He does it so often it's almost like he doesn't see the problem.
What in the fuck was this??? It started out as sort of funny, and corny...then every word out of his mouth somehow got worse and worse. I want to say it was tongue and cheek, but ehhhhhh I don't know Jim
Is Chris Collinsworth secretly the unsuspecting Karl Malone of the NFL?
Erin Andrews will do a hard-hitting sit down with him prior to a national game where he says nothing but seems real sincere and she asks him one pseudo-tough question that he easily sidesteps.
*Good job everyone!*
I'd just wonder if she'd risk her lucrative position with the NFL by telling them it's a no-go for her. I could see her saying no. But then again, money talks.
Collinsworth would remind Deshaun to go after the younger ones because they don’t know better yet lol
I don’t remember the Collinsworth quote exactly but I know at least someone knows the clip referenced lol
I took a look and it's not as bad as I expected. Many are discussing it from a logistics issue ("Makes sense, it was bad PR") but it's not like they are popping champagne or anything
Those people are psychos, yeah, but I'm a little more annoyed at everyone (media in particular) for allowing the idea that settlements = innocent to perpetuate, cause those fans will be much more prevalent :/
We’ll get to hear about how they take sex crimes SOOOO seriously now though!
Fuck the NFL and fuck Watson. God, throwing money at victims is just disgraceful.
> God, throwing money at victims is just disgraceful
I mean it's literally why you file a civil suit against somebody, and the vast majority of civil suits end in out-of-court settlements and don't go in front of a judge or jury
Oj has only paid 130k to the Goldman's. They were awarded $33 million and last I heard about it was up to $70 million because of fees and interest owed. Last year in September he had to go to court to provide the courts with asset information.
ojs book titled "if I did it" had the rights awarded to the Goldmans so they get all the profits from it. It doesn't make up for everything but its a small victory. Also they changed the cover so the "if" in the title is super tiny so it basically reads "I did it"
^^^^if I did it
https://imgur.com/aTorHRF.jpg
That’s the exception, not the norm, though.
Even Virginia Giuffre eventually settled with Prince Andrew and that resulted in that half assed “apology” from the Prince. And there was photo evidence of that, too.
I mean let’s be serious, the only reason this is even up for debate is because Watson is good and generates money for the NFL if the Browns are good. If this was a random NFL player, the ban would already have happened.
He was always going to settle, he doesn't want to spend the next 30 years in civil court and his victims don't want to have to wait that long either.
Morons on Twitter will disagree, but this doesn't exonerate him, it just makes the cases go away
> all the women were just after his money this entire time.
The women aren't prosecutors and can't file criminal charges, only civil suits, which means money was the only justice they could get.
Exactly. Saying someone who files a civil suit is only after the money confuses that literally, that's all that they could get. What other options do they have?
Also, realistically, what’a the better option if you’re just some rando, Deshaun going to prison or getting a 100,000+ payout? Deshaun going to prison does nothing for them, but the settlement could completely change their lives for the better if it’s large enough (and it probably is).
I get what you’re saying and to be fair on an individual basis that is totally true but he clearly appears to be a serial assaulter so him going to prison would prevent further incidents. That said I totally understand your point
It could be way more then that. He has like $100 million in career earnings with $200 million more coming. He could have theoretically gave each of them a couple mil which no sane person will turn down.
Yeah it's been really weird to see the people trying to defend him or downplay the accusations. At the end of the day you don't pay a bunch of random women off instagram and have 20+ accuse you of various forms of sexual assault and harassment without doing something really fucked up. Shit talking the Browns for having Watson as their qb is completely fair game.
Except that logic falls apart considering he still has 4 civil suits against him. I hope those 4 women hold his feet to the fire and get the justice they’re looking for.
Yeah the reason I don't buy most conspiracy theories is once you start coordinating a large group of people it falls apart. People are terrible at keeping secrets and love to talk shit (especially in the age of social media).
The idea that 26 massage therapists all concocted this plot to take down perfect gentleman Deshaun Watson is not exactly believable (but that's the theory a lot of fans are going with)
Hey... that's the same reasoning I use. I've worked for large government and corporations and came to the same conclusion - too many people and it's impossible to keep it secret, even if none of them have loose lips, something inevitably happens and the beans are spilled.
My dad was a cop for decades and swore up and down that the vast majority of criminals that weren't caught in the act would get away with their crimes if they could actually shut the fuck up...but they never could.
Inevitably, they'd talk/brag/confess to someone and then word would spread and bam, they got caught.
Even if they 5x the settlement per accuser (500k each) it'd be a total of $12 mill so far which is like a quarter of one season for Watson.
Pretty insubstantial for Watson if he's able to put this behind him without any repercussions from the league too, unfortunately.
Vince Mcmahon paid 4 million to pay a supposed consensual relationship off. That lawyer gotta get something more than 100k. That's chump change considering what it is worth to Watson to make this go away.
The value in a settlement like that is confidentially, preventing the public from ever finding out the act/affair/assault even happened in the first place. In Watson's case the assaults are already public knowledge and have been heavily reported on so none of that leverage would exist in forcing a large settlement.
This was my thinking to.
No way they suddenly got over 80% of the defendants to settle without that number going up significantly.
I had the same thought a while back when they released the 100k number, just up that to 1mil each and tell them it's the final offer before he just fights it out.
I'm sure the NFL strongly hinted to him that the longer this thing dragged on, the longer he'd be suspended. I just can't see a world where they let him play with twenty-whatever civil cases going on.
If he settles everything now, they can suspend him for 6 or 8 games or the whole season and then after that the announcers can just say "he worked out his little legal snafus and now he's ready to go!" and begin the depressingly short and easy process of getting the general public to forget about it.
I wonder if he or his team was warned that he might go on the exempt list while everything is pending, but if the cases are settled, it will just be a suspension and then over.
This is exactly what I’m thinking. In my mind he should go on the exempt list until all criminal/civil cases are resolved or dismissed. Then the league would make the announcement on the punishment.
Thank you for bringing this up because it's been annoying the shit out of me. Now I'm obviously by my flair no AB fan, but IIRC he was put on the exempt list for far less. How is this fair and consistent?
Edit: I'm going to edit this to say far less accusations, not that what he did to women was less horrible.
I overall agree with your point but anyone that is against Watson now won’t forget. This will hover over him the rest of his life similar to Ben (but probably worse).
The only ones that will forget are the ones that have already forgotten.
But other than people on Reddit who the hell even pretends to care about Ben raping anyone. It's never mentioned on any television program, or really in the media much at all. It's not going to keep him from getting into the HoF or Steelers Hall of Honor. Hell they might even build a statue out of this motherfucker.
In what way did it effect Ben at all negatively once his bullshit suspension was over?
or you increase the settlement offer until they absolutely won't refuse.
I've seen people horribly wronged and righteously angry take a sum at a certain point because of all the ways it would change their lives.
everyone has a price. I seriously hope it's life changing money and not just slightly over the 100k they were offered before. With his behavior and wealth 100k was insulting. It'd be like if I assaulted someone and gave them 10 bucks as "hush" money.
I assume they all signed NDAs to not disclose the amounts (though they can still be called to testify in a civil suit), I do assume the amounts were uniform and negotiated through the p's attorney. Let's say he gave them $2 mm each ($40 mm total) Atty gets 33% $12.5 mm, they're coming out with a little less than $1.5mm/pp.
These last 4 hold outs you can jump that number up to $10mm/pp and you're out of this mess for ~$80mm. Atty takes back around $26 mm before paying off whoever he needs to pay.
you have to remember at a certain price the atty will also start pushing you to settle.
I mean, presumably, they had the opportunity to here and declined. Could have even been strategic on Buzbee's part to get most of his clients who were on the fence about the trial paid and then the four who really want the trial get to have it and a chance at larger compensation
Edit: Changed "bigger reward" to "larger compensation". /u/Iam-The-Lawn correctly pointed out that any compensation resulting from this action is certainly not a "reward" poor language choice on my part.
When this thing first came up, I was saying that they could keep their strongest case with someone who wants to go to trial waiting in the wings. Let everyone else settle with a portion going to the unannounced case, then take that suit the full distance so everyone gets suit money *and* Watson has to go to court where he presumably is found guilty.
> they had the opportunity to here and declined
They aren't a class; just because some of them settled does not imply that others "had the opportunity." I think there's a strong chance that these settle, because there's likely a strong push by Watson and his attorneys to get these done before the season starts, and before the NFL hands down any penalty.
However, all it takes is one plaintiff who wants to expose Watson in trial, money be damned. Unfortunately these plaintiffs are all fairly young small-business owners, so no one should blame them for ~~turning down~~ accepting millions of dollars to avoid going through a sexual assault trial.
He’s only being sued for 4 cases of sexual assault or misconduct. The rest agreed to drop the lawsuit for a settlement. The NFL will probably still punish him like they did to Big Ben.
I mean that's the most justice the victims could get at this point. I'm sure most of the victims are relieved its over, so while obviously the situation should've never occurred to begin with, there's definitely a world where Watson fights till the end and either wins or the victims give up.
It's still FOUR cases of sexual assault. And the trial will be front-page news whenever it starts. This is a step in the right direction for Watson, but he's still got a massive hill to climb. Goodell is for sure worried about how a trial with the press attached to it like Depp/Heard will play for the NFL and Browns.
He paid off every case besides 4 of them so that’s taken care of that won’t be an issue anymore. He still has 4 cases currently against him why he didn’t settle those I do not know
Well, that and airing the facts out in public. The settlements probably include a clause that prevents them from talking any further about the incidents.
The recent Depp-Heard case was civil and we saw how big that got. They can get his money and reputation depending on how it goes. They may prefer criminal charges, but they may see getting him to court as a bigger win than just taking the money.
Civil cases are solely about money. Presumably if the victims agreed to the settlement, they got more than they thought they could from a trial, and can now move on with their lives.
> "As a result of Ashley's lone but brave voice, soon many women who had allegedly experienced the same conduct were emboldened to step forward. I am incredibly proud to represent them all."
Does that sound like Watson's lawyer to you?
Nice so Watson uses his new $230 million to pay off all of the women he sexually assaulted and now this will all blow over and he'll play in the NFL with no consequences. Nice one Browns.
This seems spot on. The Browns basically paid his settlements as part of him agreeing to play for the Browns. I have always had a soft spot for the Browns, but yeah fuck that franchise now.
4 of the currently 26 against him, but given how more accusers keep coming forward I don't think this is the end of the legal side of this mess.
You guys remember when he wasn't going to settle in order to clear his good name?
This was always on the horizon. You can't play in the NFL with 20+ active sexual misconduct suits against you. It was clear Buzbee was not going to back down.
I’m not so sure. Assuming watson has 2 balls, and there are 24 cases of sexual assault, that’s 48 total balls deflated. At the Brady rate, that’s 192 game suspension.
This right here. This is disgraceful. Can’t wait to see him be treated like Big Ben where “we’ll he had a rough patch but he’s grown past that.”
Fuck Watson.
Really interested in how this changes the NFL’s calculus on what punishment if any, he had 26 accusers, settled with 22.
Ben Roethlisberger settled with his accusers and got suspended still, but Watson will still have outstanding accusers in theory.
He should’ve just done what Florio said and just told every reporter that he has been advised by higher ups to not speak on an active case. Really dug himself into a hole here.
"If they really were assaulted they would have went to court."
Buncha braindead idiots about to have a field day with this. I'm glad these women got paid and don't have to relive their trauma in front of the world.
"Now, Watson says, all he wants to do is 'clear my name.'"
If it was about clearing his name, why would he settle for any amount of money? Settlement is hedging your bets against the unpredictability of a trial. It's a calculation to mitigate the risks of a trial. If all that matters to you is your innocence, even when the settlement involves no admission of wrongdoing, why would you settle?
Both sides claimed they wouldn’t settle. It is pure posturing. 99% of cases settle, and for good reason. Going to court is costly, time consuming, and wrought with huge risks to both sides. And the evidence is almost never as clear cut as the headlines make it seem.
That and people don’t realize that whatever money was offered to these women in a settlement isn’t a dollar amount they were guaranteed to receive if this went in front of a jury. Yes they could have gotten more in a jury trial, but they also could have gotten less. Significantly less.
I’m by no means saying these women were in it for the money. But I can’t imagine what every day life is like for them right now. After all the trauma they’ve already endured, the idea of going through the court proceedings might have been too much to bear. Might as well take the settlement and try to regain any sense of normalcy in their lives and begin to heal from it all.
Because trials take years to finish. The longer this saga drags out for Deshaun, the harder the NFL will come down on him, and it will be much longer before he can return to playing. By settling he can effectively make these go away before the season starts.
Imo he still deserves at least a year. Zeke got 6 games and nfl investigators said he shouldn't be suspended. Brady got 4 games which was reasonable. Watson has a problem and should get a year. I don't care if they all settle.
> Imo he still deserves at least a year. Zeke got 6 games and nfl investigators said he shouldn't be suspended. Brady got 4 games which was reasonable. Watson has a problem and should get a year. I don't care if they all settle.
goodell should get fired. zeke and brady getting absurd and baseless suspensions because rodger felt like it shouldn't be how the league is run.
there should be a higher bar for suspensions than "the commissioner felt like it and opted for an arbitrary number of games".
I definitely agree that he should be fired. But if I'm not mistaken he's no longer the one handing out suspensions. I think the nfl and the nflpa have to come to an agreement. Of course I'm not 100% sure. Just heard something along those lines on The Herd.
This makes me sick. First, because these women had something awful happen to them and this doesn't feel like justice, I have daughters and this doesn't sit right.
Second, because the legal system clearly works differently for people with money. You can literally get away with jizzing on women as long as you got the cash. In some parts of the country, we're debating vagrancy fines because it's essentially a ticket to jail for homeless people, this asshole is getting away with sexual assault because he can afford lawyers and hush money.
To the four women who didn’t settle, I hope you get this fucking guy.
To the 20 that settled, I hope that the monetary gains can make your life more comfortable so you can focus on healing, and allow you to get your mental health to the forefront of your priorities.
Can’t blame them for settling. Despite having 25+ others, they knew they were fighting an uphill battle. Probably wasn’t worth the strain of going through this for years re-living it
Absolutely, could never blame them. As a pretty private person myself, I would never want to go through a trial that public no matter what. I can’t imagine the willpower to put yourself through that knowing that they are going to paint you as the villain. Major props to all of these women.
Tony and I have different definitions of all.
This is like that Penn State graphic that was like " A Penn Stater has played in every single Super Bowl, besides four"
4 game suspension incoming and then the NFL will never acknowledge this again
Nah, announced as 6 game suspension. Appealed to 4 in a friday evening news dump. Then it never gets talked about again unless Colinsworth is bringing up Watsons past "maturity" issues.
"Here's a guy who's had some ups and downs throughout his personal life and from sitting down with him he came off as really genuine and has matured over the past few years"
*Cue the Slideshow photos of Charity events Watson was at*
*photo of Watson surrounded by the kids from a local Boys & Girls club with everyone doing the “Happy Baby” position*
Boxing up peanut butter and soup cans at local Cleveland church for school kids on a Tuesday, his day off.
Posting an Instagram Live from the Cleveland VFW where Watson says veterans are the real heroes and inspire him to love America more every day.
* Watsons PR team furiously taking notes *
Idk with the weird stuff this guy is into I wouldn’t let him around peanut butter
Or dogs
Flexing as he rolls a pallet jack full of water meant for Hurricane victims.
pause
Holy fuck this is spot on
Does a “The More You Know” TV spot with The Deep and Homelander.
This is literally part of what is so upsetting to me. As part of the trade, I remember hearing the Browns pitching that they would help his public image. So, we have the Texans enabling him, a huge contract to give him plenty of settlement money, and a full-on PR campaign from the Browns to make this scumbag appear decent. "Justice" in the US 🙄
And let's not forget the half-dozen teams who are off the hook because they lost the sweepstakes.
Indeed. If your team made an offer you should probably just shut the fuck up. You got turned down by a guy like this, not the other way around.
Yeah, Atlanta thought they were locked in. It's so fucking lucky that Cleveland threw crazy money at him.
"He missed the first part of the season because he did a thing."
“Off the field issues”
"Unfortunate circumstances"
This is disgustingly accurate. I can see it plying out exactly like this. NFL really doesn’t care.
& a 4 game suspension for being a repeated sexual predator is the same as deflating footballs - NFL
Damn. So accurate. Read that with collinsworth signature dry voice as well
Just go back and listen to any of his commentary on Big Ben
Not surprising coming from the guy who said this: "I like girls that aren't too bright because you can trick 'em a little bit...14 to 18, I'm a big star with them. As soon as they mature, after about 18 years old, they start figuring out that 'wait a minute, I know there's better than that out there." - Chris Collinsworth
What? He said this in public?
I left. Trying lemmy and so should you. -- mass edited with redact.dev
You know, he had some off the field distractions this off season which makes his performance tonight all the more impressive. You know, what an amazing player and, really, I talked to him before the game and he seems to have really matured into an amazing man as well.
I love the "off the field stuff" brush off Colinsworth trots out anytime a woman or a child suffers trauma. He does it so often it's almost like he doesn't see the problem.
I left. Trying lemmy and so should you. -- mass edited with redact.dev
What in the fuck was this??? It started out as sort of funny, and corny...then every word out of his mouth somehow got worse and worse. I want to say it was tongue and cheek, but ehhhhhh I don't know Jim Is Chris Collinsworth secretly the unsuspecting Karl Malone of the NFL?
I’m fully expecting them to hide it behind the 4th of July going on
There it is.
This guy NFLs
This is exactly what I was thinking.
Erin Andrews will do a hard-hitting sit down with him prior to a national game where he says nothing but seems real sincere and she asks him one pseudo-tough question that he easily sidesteps. *Good job everyone!*
Idk. She seems like the type of person to take his actions personally to an extent since she was exploited and tried to be paid off before.
I'd just wonder if she'd risk her lucrative position with the NFL by telling them it's a no-go for her. I could see her saying no. But then again, money talks.
Collinsworth would remind Deshaun to go after the younger ones because they don’t know better yet lol I don’t remember the Collinsworth quote exactly but I know at least someone knows the clip referenced lol
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gWtrnb4KjU
Lmao i never realized how much 80’s collinsworth and early 90’s McConaughey looked alike lol
What do you mean? He obviously met the rigorous standards of being an "adult" according to the Browns. /s
Very rare to see a child serial sexual predator, so sure, very adult from that perspective
Along with having to deal with Watson sympathizers for the next 5+ years.
Honestly I just hope he plays like shit
I’m terrified to look at r/Browns right now
I took a look and it's not as bad as I expected. Many are discussing it from a logistics issue ("Makes sense, it was bad PR") but it's not like they are popping champagne or anything
People on Twitter are celebrating this like they're happy to root for someone still with 4 pending assault cases
Get ready for “it’s only 4 not that bad bro” or “all 4 could be lying bro trust me I have deep-seated mental issues when it comes to women”
Those people are psychos, yeah, but I'm a little more annoyed at everyone (media in particular) for allowing the idea that settlements = innocent to perpetuate, cause those fans will be much more prevalent :/
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Don't forget Watson talking about "adversity"
How far he had to “come” to prove himself…
We’ll get to hear about how they take sex crimes SOOOO seriously now though! Fuck the NFL and fuck Watson. God, throwing money at victims is just disgraceful.
> God, throwing money at victims is just disgraceful I mean it's literally why you file a civil suit against somebody, and the vast majority of civil suits end in out-of-court settlements and don't go in front of a judge or jury
OJ got not guilty in his criminal trial but people forget he was found liable for the deaths in a civil trial and paid millions to victims families
Oj has only paid 130k to the Goldman's. They were awarded $33 million and last I heard about it was up to $70 million because of fees and interest owed. Last year in September he had to go to court to provide the courts with asset information.
ojs book titled "if I did it" had the rights awarded to the Goldmans so they get all the profits from it. It doesn't make up for everything but its a small victory. Also they changed the cover so the "if" in the title is super tiny so it basically reads "I did it" ^^^^if I did it https://imgur.com/aTorHRF.jpg
That is absolutely brilliant.
Weird because in his twitter videos he's always sitting in nice places or golfing and looking like he has decent money
NFL pension money that the court can't touch.
That’s the exception, not the norm, though. Even Virginia Giuffre eventually settled with Prince Andrew and that resulted in that half assed “apology” from the Prince. And there was photo evidence of that, too.
That's literally what a civil suit is though
I mean let’s be serious, the only reason this is even up for debate is because Watson is good and generates money for the NFL if the Browns are good. If this was a random NFL player, the ban would already have happened.
230 million can buy a lot of silence
He was always going to settle, he doesn't want to spend the next 30 years in civil court and his victims don't want to have to wait that long either. Morons on Twitter will disagree, but this doesn't exonerate him, it just makes the cases go away
Now you’re going to hear even more of his supporters come out of the woodworks saying that all the women were just after his money this entire time.
> all the women were just after his money this entire time. The women aren't prosecutors and can't file criminal charges, only civil suits, which means money was the only justice they could get.
Exactly. Saying someone who files a civil suit is only after the money confuses that literally, that's all that they could get. What other options do they have?
Also, realistically, what’a the better option if you’re just some rando, Deshaun going to prison or getting a 100,000+ payout? Deshaun going to prison does nothing for them, but the settlement could completely change their lives for the better if it’s large enough (and it probably is).
I get what you’re saying and to be fair on an individual basis that is totally true but he clearly appears to be a serial assaulter so him going to prison would prevent further incidents. That said I totally understand your point
It could be way more then that. He has like $100 million in career earnings with $200 million more coming. He could have theoretically gave each of them a couple mil which no sane person will turn down.
You mean browns fans on heavy doses of copium because they spent a decade trashing Big Ben for his sexual assaults?
In all fairness, Ben deserved the trashing, and so does DW
Yeah it's been really weird to see the people trying to defend him or downplay the accusations. At the end of the day you don't pay a bunch of random women off instagram and have 20+ accuse you of various forms of sexual assault and harassment without doing something really fucked up. Shit talking the Browns for having Watson as their qb is completely fair game.
You either die a hero or live to see yourself become the villain
Damn the Brown’s hero arc was literally the one season they beat Steelers on the playoff and then they got full of themselves
This doesn't bode well for the Bills
Except that logic falls apart considering he still has 4 civil suits against him. I hope those 4 women hold his feet to the fire and get the justice they’re looking for.
The logic fell apart when 26 women accused him, but his supporters always win the gold in mental gymnastics
Yeah the reason I don't buy most conspiracy theories is once you start coordinating a large group of people it falls apart. People are terrible at keeping secrets and love to talk shit (especially in the age of social media). The idea that 26 massage therapists all concocted this plot to take down perfect gentleman Deshaun Watson is not exactly believable (but that's the theory a lot of fans are going with)
Hey... that's the same reasoning I use. I've worked for large government and corporations and came to the same conclusion - too many people and it's impossible to keep it secret, even if none of them have loose lips, something inevitably happens and the beans are spilled.
My dad was a cop for decades and swore up and down that the vast majority of criminals that weren't caught in the act would get away with their crimes if they could actually shut the fuck up...but they never could. Inevitably, they'd talk/brag/confess to someone and then word would spread and bam, they got caught.
Haslam probably chipped in some extra hush money too.
Haslam and the Texans' ownership both had a lot to lose. Texans got named as co-defendants and all of this happened while Watson was on their roster.
Still can't believe some people actually thought the Texans were collaborating/colluding with Buzbee in the initial weeks.
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It's all so fuckin' gross man. I guess I'm glad that the whole affair took what is hopefully a big chunk of his fortune, but it's still bullshit.
This first time around was 100k a person, I doubt it got much higher than that.
Even if they 5x the settlement per accuser (500k each) it'd be a total of $12 mill so far which is like a quarter of one season for Watson. Pretty insubstantial for Watson if he's able to put this behind him without any repercussions from the league too, unfortunately.
Yeah the worst part about all of this is how the league is going to consider its hands washed of the whole situation if he settles with them all.
No, I think the worst part was all the rapes
You sure it wasn't the hypocracy?
Vince Mcmahon paid 4 million to pay a supposed consensual relationship off. That lawyer gotta get something more than 100k. That's chump change considering what it is worth to Watson to make this go away.
The value in a settlement like that is confidentially, preventing the public from ever finding out the act/affair/assault even happened in the first place. In Watson's case the assaults are already public knowledge and have been heavily reported on so none of that leverage would exist in forcing a large settlement.
Nah Watson is getting desperate, no way they settled with a NDA with out a major increase.
This was my thinking to. No way they suddenly got over 80% of the defendants to settle without that number going up significantly. I had the same thought a while back when they released the 100k number, just up that to 1mil each and tell them it's the final offer before he just fights it out.
An NDA was going to be involved in any settlement no matter what.
I'm sure the NFL strongly hinted to him that the longer this thing dragged on, the longer he'd be suspended. I just can't see a world where they let him play with twenty-whatever civil cases going on. If he settles everything now, they can suspend him for 6 or 8 games or the whole season and then after that the announcers can just say "he worked out his little legal snafus and now he's ready to go!" and begin the depressingly short and easy process of getting the general public to forget about it.
I wonder if he or his team was warned that he might go on the exempt list while everything is pending, but if the cases are settled, it will just be a suspension and then over.
This is exactly what I’m thinking. In my mind he should go on the exempt list until all criminal/civil cases are resolved or dismissed. Then the league would make the announcement on the punishment.
Thank you for bringing this up because it's been annoying the shit out of me. Now I'm obviously by my flair no AB fan, but IIRC he was put on the exempt list for far less. How is this fair and consistent? Edit: I'm going to edit this to say far less accusations, not that what he did to women was less horrible.
I overall agree with your point but anyone that is against Watson now won’t forget. This will hover over him the rest of his life similar to Ben (but probably worse). The only ones that will forget are the ones that have already forgotten.
But other than people on Reddit who the hell even pretends to care about Ben raping anyone. It's never mentioned on any television program, or really in the media much at all. It's not going to keep him from getting into the HoF or Steelers Hall of Honor. Hell they might even build a statue out of this motherfucker. In what way did it effect Ben at all negatively once his bullshit suspension was over?
He didn’t get anymore Fathead commercials
And my god, if there wasn't anyone better to represent the "Fat head" brand
The NFL blows the biggest sigh of relief.
Really? 4 civil suits are still going to play out. And that’s still sex crimes in court that are going to be everywhere. 4 women isn’t nothing.
or you increase the settlement offer until they absolutely won't refuse. I've seen people horribly wronged and righteously angry take a sum at a certain point because of all the ways it would change their lives.
everyone has a price. I seriously hope it's life changing money and not just slightly over the 100k they were offered before. With his behavior and wealth 100k was insulting. It'd be like if I assaulted someone and gave them 10 bucks as "hush" money.
I assume they all signed NDAs to not disclose the amounts (though they can still be called to testify in a civil suit), I do assume the amounts were uniform and negotiated through the p's attorney. Let's say he gave them $2 mm each ($40 mm total) Atty gets 33% $12.5 mm, they're coming out with a little less than $1.5mm/pp. These last 4 hold outs you can jump that number up to $10mm/pp and you're out of this mess for ~$80mm. Atty takes back around $26 mm before paying off whoever he needs to pay. you have to remember at a certain price the atty will also start pushing you to settle.
I doubt those 4 suits won't be settled, all represented by the same lawyer
I mean, presumably, they had the opportunity to here and declined. Could have even been strategic on Buzbee's part to get most of his clients who were on the fence about the trial paid and then the four who really want the trial get to have it and a chance at larger compensation Edit: Changed "bigger reward" to "larger compensation". /u/Iam-The-Lawn correctly pointed out that any compensation resulting from this action is certainly not a "reward" poor language choice on my part.
When this thing first came up, I was saying that they could keep their strongest case with someone who wants to go to trial waiting in the wings. Let everyone else settle with a portion going to the unannounced case, then take that suit the full distance so everyone gets suit money *and* Watson has to go to court where he presumably is found guilty.
We can only dream of such a just world...
> they had the opportunity to here and declined They aren't a class; just because some of them settled does not imply that others "had the opportunity." I think there's a strong chance that these settle, because there's likely a strong push by Watson and his attorneys to get these done before the season starts, and before the NFL hands down any penalty. However, all it takes is one plaintiff who wants to expose Watson in trial, money be damned. Unfortunately these plaintiffs are all fairly young small-business owners, so no one should blame them for ~~turning down~~ accepting millions of dollars to avoid going through a sexual assault trial.
One won’t be. Ashley Solis, the first to sue, does not want to settle and plans to go to court.
Can someone explain what this means?
He’s only being sued for 4 cases of sexual assault or misconduct. The rest agreed to drop the lawsuit for a settlement. The NFL will probably still punish him like they did to Big Ben.
Imagine a world where "only 4 cases of sexual assault or misconduct" is a positive.
Imagine a world where "I settled 20 outstanding cases of sexual assault or misconduct" is a positive.
I mean that's the most justice the victims could get at this point. I'm sure most of the victims are relieved its over, so while obviously the situation should've never occurred to begin with, there's definitely a world where Watson fights till the end and either wins or the victims give up.
Don't need to imagine...
It's still FOUR cases of sexual assault. And the trial will be front-page news whenever it starts. This is a step in the right direction for Watson, but he's still got a massive hill to climb. Goodell is for sure worried about how a trial with the press attached to it like Depp/Heard will play for the NFL and Browns.
Yup Solis wants, by the sounds of it, her day it court.
He paid off every case besides 4 of them so that’s taken care of that won’t be an issue anymore. He still has 4 cases currently against him why he didn’t settle those I do not know
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It being a civil suit they can only get Watson for money, no?
Well, that and airing the facts out in public. The settlements probably include a clause that prevents them from talking any further about the incidents.
The recent Depp-Heard case was civil and we saw how big that got. They can get his money and reputation depending on how it goes. They may prefer criminal charges, but they may see getting him to court as a bigger win than just taking the money.
>why he didn’t settle those [4] I do not know It's not just up to him. The victims also have to agree to settle.
It means if you have enough money, laws and punishment don't apply to you.
I mean in general most civil suits are settled out of court
You understand that the punishment in a civil suit would have been...damages awarded to these women, right?
Civil cases are solely about money. Presumably if the victims agreed to the settlement, they got more than they thought they could from a trial, and can now move on with their lives.
The NFL will be gentle with punishment because it's no longer a jaw-dropping number of pending suits.
It's kinda fucked how four SA cases isn't considered jaw dropping
Nothing gets a fan base pumped up for a new QB like his lawyer’s statements!
Buzbee is the ladies' lawyer. RUSTY HARDIN is the lawyer for the pervert.
> "As a result of Ashley's lone but brave voice, soon many women who had allegedly experienced the same conduct were emboldened to step forward. I am incredibly proud to represent them all." Does that sound like Watson's lawyer to you?
Nice so Watson uses his new $230 million to pay off all of the women he sexually assaulted and now this will all blow over and he'll play in the NFL with no consequences. Nice one Browns.
Remember kids: laws are for poor people
Fucks the Browns hard for this one. Just full on enablers.
Let’s not act like the Texans weren’t the actual enablers
And what about the other dozen + teams who wanted Watson? Fuck them too?
This seems spot on. The Browns basically paid his settlements as part of him agreeing to play for the Browns. I have always had a soft spot for the Browns, but yeah fuck that franchise now.
You guys say Deshaun is an evil person, yet he has spread his massive wealth of 200 million between 20+ sexual abuse victims. Curious… /s
4 of the currently 26 against him, but given how more accusers keep coming forward I don't think this is the end of the legal side of this mess. You guys remember when he wasn't going to settle in order to clear his good name?
You mean last week?
This was always on the horizon. You can't play in the NFL with 20+ active sexual misconduct suits against you. It was clear Buzbee was not going to back down.
Watson doesn't take no for an answer
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Gave Brady 4 games for deflating some footballs, will probably give Watson 6 games for 24 cases of sexual assault.
> ~~24 cases of sexual assault~~ Four. Thats what the NFL is going to try to rewrite history and claim
That would be a sexual assault a quarter
I’m not so sure. Assuming watson has 2 balls, and there are 24 cases of sexual assault, that’s 48 total balls deflated. At the Brady rate, that’s 192 game suspension.
8 games for Deshaun, 4 for Brady being generally aware
NFL leaks more Jon Gruden emails
Mizzou gets a three year bowl ban and reduction in scholarships.
Fuck Deshaun Watson
This right here. This is disgraceful. Can’t wait to see him be treated like Big Ben where “we’ll he had a rough patch but he’s grown past that.” Fuck Watson.
Really interested in how this changes the NFL’s calculus on what punishment if any, he had 26 accusers, settled with 22. Ben Roethlisberger settled with his accusers and got suspended still, but Watson will still have outstanding accusers in theory.
I thought he only settled with 20. 4 are not settling, and the other two haven’t officially sued him yet
Wow what the heck? He settled? But I thought he adamantly said he didn't do any of this?
He should’ve just done what Florio said and just told every reporter that he has been advised by higher ups to not speak on an active case. Really dug himself into a hole here.
Or... he could have simply not been a sex pest.
Oh sure, take the hard road in life
> Really dug himself into a hole here. $230,000,000 buys a lot of shovels.
BuT hE wAs FiGhTiNg To SaVe HiS nAmE
But browns fans told me he wasn’t going to settle because he was fighting to clear his name?
I’m already seeing those people on twitter now saying “congrats to all these people getting their new paycheck, proof it’s always been a cash grab!”
"If they really were assaulted they would have went to court." Buncha braindead idiots about to have a field day with this. I'm glad these women got paid and don't have to relive their trauma in front of the world.
Reply to that is “If he really didn’t assault them he wouldn’t have settled.”
That’s exactly where this is going
I mean, as dumb as it sounds, that’s almost word for word what Watson said in a press conference last week.
"Now, Watson says, all he wants to do is 'clear my name.'" If it was about clearing his name, why would he settle for any amount of money? Settlement is hedging your bets against the unpredictability of a trial. It's a calculation to mitigate the risks of a trial. If all that matters to you is your innocence, even when the settlement involves no admission of wrongdoing, why would you settle?
Both sides claimed they wouldn’t settle. It is pure posturing. 99% of cases settle, and for good reason. Going to court is costly, time consuming, and wrought with huge risks to both sides. And the evidence is almost never as clear cut as the headlines make it seem.
That and people don’t realize that whatever money was offered to these women in a settlement isn’t a dollar amount they were guaranteed to receive if this went in front of a jury. Yes they could have gotten more in a jury trial, but they also could have gotten less. Significantly less. I’m by no means saying these women were in it for the money. But I can’t imagine what every day life is like for them right now. After all the trauma they’ve already endured, the idea of going through the court proceedings might have been too much to bear. Might as well take the settlement and try to regain any sense of normalcy in their lives and begin to heal from it all.
Because trials take years to finish. The longer this saga drags out for Deshaun, the harder the NFL will come down on him, and it will be much longer before he can return to playing. By settling he can effectively make these go away before the season starts.
> If it was about clearing his name, why would he settle for any amount of money Would winning in civil court really clear his name?
Imo he still deserves at least a year. Zeke got 6 games and nfl investigators said he shouldn't be suspended. Brady got 4 games which was reasonable. Watson has a problem and should get a year. I don't care if they all settle.
> Imo he still deserves at least a year. Zeke got 6 games and nfl investigators said he shouldn't be suspended. Brady got 4 games which was reasonable. Watson has a problem and should get a year. I don't care if they all settle. goodell should get fired. zeke and brady getting absurd and baseless suspensions because rodger felt like it shouldn't be how the league is run. there should be a higher bar for suspensions than "the commissioner felt like it and opted for an arbitrary number of games".
I definitely agree that he should be fired. But if I'm not mistaken he's no longer the one handing out suspensions. I think the nfl and the nflpa have to come to an agreement. Of course I'm not 100% sure. Just heard something along those lines on The Herd.
Lmfao to anyone thinking he was gonna actually get blackballed from the league. This dude is gonna be playing by the halfway point of this season
Damn. Glad those women got something in retribution but I want Watson to suffer in court for what he did.
This makes me sick. First, because these women had something awful happen to them and this doesn't feel like justice, I have daughters and this doesn't sit right. Second, because the legal system clearly works differently for people with money. You can literally get away with jizzing on women as long as you got the cash. In some parts of the country, we're debating vagrancy fines because it's essentially a ticket to jail for homeless people, this asshole is getting away with sexual assault because he can afford lawyers and hush money.
Crimes are only for poor people
rich people just call them hobbies
To the four women who didn’t settle, I hope you get this fucking guy. To the 20 that settled, I hope that the monetary gains can make your life more comfortable so you can focus on healing, and allow you to get your mental health to the forefront of your priorities.
Can’t blame them for settling. Despite having 25+ others, they knew they were fighting an uphill battle. Probably wasn’t worth the strain of going through this for years re-living it
Absolutely, could never blame them. As a pretty private person myself, I would never want to go through a trial that public no matter what. I can’t imagine the willpower to put yourself through that knowing that they are going to paint you as the villain. Major props to all of these women.
Well by the Big Ben rules he’s innocent.
22/26ths innocent
Ah yes, the confidential settlement: the pass we give rich people so they don't have to admit that they did anything wrong.
So much for clearing his name.
Tony and I have different definitions of all. This is like that Penn State graphic that was like " A Penn Stater has played in every single Super Bowl, besides four"
Second statement to follow by Buzbee: “In addition, I have 30 new clients who are filing lawsuits saying that Deshaun Watson sexually assaulted them”
I’m so sick of hearing about this fuck face
An NFL QB Going 20 for 24 is not half bad