As Deshaun Watson continues to train intermittently at the Texans’ facility but away from the team’s drills, the off-field issues that have ensnared him for months have kept churning. The FBI is now involved.
The attorney representing the 22 women who have filed civil suit against Watson, Tony Buzbee, said the FBI has contacted him regarding the suits, via League of Justice’s Amy Dash. The FBI has met with Buzbee three times, met with some of his clients and spoken with Watson. The Texans quarterback reaching out to two out-of-state masseuses over the internet brought the FBI into the equation, per Buzbee.
[RELATED: Grand Jury To Be Convened In Watson Case]
Watson’s attorney, Rusty Hardin, said the FBI is investigating one of the plaintiffs for extortion, indicating (via ESPN.com’s Sarah Barshop). Watson spoke to the FBI to discuss one of his accusers’ allegations, per Hardin, who said he will continue to cooperate with the FBI.
The civil suits emerged first, and this matter remains ongoing. The Houston Police Department’s investigation now involves at least 10 women — eight of which are part of the civil case — and a grand jury. An indictment may be in the cards for Watson, which could well prompt the NFL to place the Pro Bowl passer on the commissioner’s exempt list. The league has thus far refused to do so, leaving the Texans in an awkward spot. The NFL is not planning to interview Watson until its interviews with all 22 civil accusers have commenced.
With less than a month remaining until the regular season, Watson sits fourth on the Texans’ depth chart as the team transitions to a new offensive system. Having requested a trade before the accusations emerged, Watson remains in limbo. He has not missed a game since tearing an ACL in 2017, but given the multiple legal issues, the fifth-year QB looks highly unlikely to suit up to start this season.
I get that the NFL is still in their investigation state, but can’t they sideline Watson on the Commish exempt list? None of this is a good look for the league, team, and player.
Agree. They made him show up to get paid. He showed and here we are. They should send him home until there’s some resolution.
Yeah, this makes absolutely no sense to me. Like, what are they waiting for? Do they honestly want him on the field with this looming over him? Contrast this to Trevor Bauer, who MLB immediately put on the exempt list. There’s photos and stuff in Bauer’s case, but there are way more women involved in Watson’s case. They don’t need to wait for a guilty verdict or anything to exempt him. Just baffling that they haven’t done anything here.
NFL has got to be the most haphazard of the major sports leagues when it comes to punishing players.
I actually think Goodell is doing the right thing for a change. There are already enough moving parts in this drama without the NFL getting into the mix.
If he’s dong the right thing then why isn’t Watson on the exempt list?
I mean Watson is 4th on the depth chart and not practicing with the team, he is on the exempt list for intents and purposes, do you feel better now that he’s on the list? Dudes a weirdo allegedly, I don’t care what list he goes on, his reputation has been forever stained regardless of the outcome, why are you guys asking for better optics? What kind of man is like “please make the optics more pleasant for me I’m so scared”
I agree if he is doing what he would be if on the list does it matter? Maybe someone got to Goodell and said slow play this. Ask the Texans to do this and when more comes out use the exempt list. Would be one of the smartest things he’s done.
I was wondering what would have happened if the Texans traded him to say Denver. Then a week to a month later this comes out. Would the NFL unwind the deal? What if it happened at the draft and the Texans used Denver’s first pick then it all came out. Would be very interesting how it would have been worked out.
It’s on the team doing the trade to do their research. No one in the league office would have rescinded it if it was finalized by a certain date after the new league year started. Different scenario, but look at all of the stuff that came out about Antonio Brown after the Raiders had already traded for him. If they had that knowledge before they made the trade, maybe they wouldn’t have gotten involved or offered less compensation.
I agree for the most part but not sure any research would uncover this before anyone came forward. Brown was a bit more obvious but don’t think anyone could have foreseen his total torpedoing of his career. I doubt the league would do anything it was just to me a fun what if.
He’s not the exempt list because he hasn’t been found responsible for anything civilly nor guilty for anything criminally. The league is not the court, so right now a “look” is just that-a look. The league frequently missteps or over corrects in discipline, and we as fans complain. There is really no incentive for the league to jump ahead of a more detailed and powerful investigation to come up with a conclusion itself, except for impatience by fans. Until the process is through, the league only exposes itself to criticism or lawsuits by acting early.
So a player under investigation is not a good look for the National Felons League? Really? A league that disrespects law enforcement, veterans, service members, and basically everything American but greed and you think they are concerned about another of their felons under investigation? I think not.
This will end well.
Nice they found time in between investigating the noose in bubba wallaces garage and not solving the Vegas mass shooting
To be fair, they still have thousands of Vanilla ISIS to arrest.
That Vegas shooting is solved. Finding a motive is a different story. They’ve combed through everything and still can’t find one, except that he wanted to kill a lot of folks.
yeah, jeez, how is that involved at all? what’s this dude’s angle?
My angle is the fbi is totally corrupt and totally political
The noose was solved it was a mechanic and had nothing to do with Bubba. I think it only had a couple wraps and he used it to hold something up.
“The Texans quarterback reaching out to two out-of-state masseuses over the internet brought the FBI into the equation, per Buzbee.
Watson’s attorney, Rusty Hardin, said the FBI is investigating one of the plaintiffs for extortion, indicating (via ESPN.com’s Sarah Barshop). Watson spoke to the FBI to discuss one of his accusers’ allegations, per Hardin, who said he will continue to cooperate with the FBI.”
So, the FBI began their interest due to Watson’s actions and spoke to Watson about one of his accusers allegation and his lawyer doesn’t have a problem with this…? Because he loves the shiny thing headline about one of the 22 accusers possibly being investigated for extortion? Some lawyer.
FBI- So, this woman was extorting you?
Watson- Yeah, so wrong.
FBI- OK, let’s talk about the other 21 now.
They’d only be talking about the two from out of state about crossing state lines, which I highly doubt is something the FBI would spend much time on from what we know. I’m leaning toward Hardin on this one as more likely what they’re looking into. The only time I see the state lines for human trafficking thing come up is when there are underaged people involved or actual coercion to get a person to have sex with someone else. See the current Matt Gaetz matter.
Extortion on the other hand, we see them look into that all of the time like with the David Letterman case and other situations where someone tried to put the screws to someone to keep something quiet, and we’ve already heard about those initial demands from one of the accusers and her boyfriend.
The FBI gets involved in cases where a person aka school kid gets a pic of or from a girl with nudity. This is legal because she did it. When the other kid sends it out it is now a federal crime. You think a HS kid sending his friends a pic of a girls boob is worse than what Watson did? The way kids are now a days they all have probably seen the boob.
Watsons lawyer is saying the FBI was not investigating his alleged wrongdoings but rather one of the women trying to extort money from him. Buzbee who represents the women and has already tried to get money from Watson is saying the opposite.
“ThE tExAnS oUt To GeT dEsHaUn bEcAuSe He WaNtS oUt”
Fbi is now involved. Lol where did all those conspiracy theorists go about this being some trump related bs.
In all of the arguments surrounding this case, I’ve literally never seen anyone invoke Trump. No idea what you’re talking about.
Though the sentence appears he’s referring to the former president, I notice he didn’t capitalize the word, so this makes me believe that maybe MAYBE he is attempting to use the word “trump” as a verb. Obviously if this is the case the attempt went horribly wrong but I’m giving this guy the benefit of the doubt.
The FBI….
The Texans could save some big bucks by invoking the ‘player misconduct’ clause of Watson’s contract. The dude will never play another snap for them anyway.
It’s an idea… but then they won’t get any draft picks.
Watson, settle these cases ASAP. Whatever it takes. Why sit for an entire season and waste your football years? NFL = Not For Long.
I feel like the FBI should have more important things to spend their time on.