REPORT: Tony Buzbee’s Lawsuit Against The Houston Texans Claims The Team Enabled Deshaun Watson’s Massage Behavior
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Attorney Tony Buzbee’s lawsuit against the Houston Texans was officially filed on Monday. In that suit, Buzbee claims that the Texans were made aware of Watson’s behavior by a company that was reportedly contracted by the Texans organization to provide professional, therapeutic services to their players. Not only is Buzbee alleging they were made aware of this behavior, but his suit also claims that they enabled this behavior by fielding complaints at The Houstonian Hotel regarding the number of women that were said to be visiting Watson in a team-provided suit.
In a released statement on Monday, Buzbee said, “Today we filed the first case of what will likely be many against the Houston Texans related to Deshaun Watson’s behavior. Suffice it to say, the overwhelming evidence collected indicating that the Houston Texans enabled Watson’s behavior is incredibly damning. We believe the Texans knew or most certainly should have known of Watson’s conduct. Beyond that, we believe the filing speaks for itself.”
A spokesman of the team had this to say after acknowledging that they were aware of the lawsuit filed against them, “Since March 2021, we have fully supported and complied with law enforcement and the various investigations. We will continue to take the necessary steps to address the allegations against our organization.”
Yahoo Sports has more HERE.
Deshaun Watson recently settled 20 of his 24 civil lawsuits; however, while it may be good personally for him and those involved in his party, the NFL has stated that the settlements of those cases will have no impact/influence on their decision regarding Watson. A recent report tells us that the league has informed all parties involved that they have proposed an indefinite suspension of the Browns quarterback, without pay for at least one year.
Watson’s 5-year, $230 million dollar, fully guaranteed contract makes him the highest paid QB in NFL history. If you want a more in-depth perspective of just how shocking that is, Tom Brady has the most total earnings by a quarterback throughout the course of his 20+ year career with $303 million dollars. Second to Brady would be former Saints quarterback Drew Brees with $269 million dollars in career earnings.
The 26-year old would miss the entirety of the 2022 season, but it wouldn’t hurt the Cleveland Browns financially this year. The Browns had set Watson’s 2022 base salary at $1.035 million, to save cap space, and his signing bonus is $44.965 million. Watson would have a chance to get back on the field in 2023, provided certain conditions are met. Him continuing the counseling sessions he acknowledged he was attending on the 14th of June would likely be one of those said conditions.
Watson has maintained his claim of innocence throughout the entire process thus far, stating “I never forced anyone, I never assaulted anyone, so that’s what I’ve been saying it from the beginning and I’m going to continue to do that until all the facts come out on the legal side.”. Depending on the final terms of Watson’s punishment, it’s possible that the Cleveland Browns could retain his rights all the way through 2027.
Cleveland.com has more HERE.
The Lawsuit against the Texans also gives us more information regarding who allegedly complained to the organization about Watson’s behavior. The owner of Genuine Touch Massage Clinic, Joni Honn, was said to have “complained to the Texans that Watson was seeking out unqualified strangers for massages via Instagram” as early as June 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic. “Her stated concern to the Texans was that Watson was putting himself in danger of contracting Covid, or getting himself sued.”
“Despite having a full training staff available to him with the Texans, and despite having the services of a specified massage therapy entity — Genuine Touch — available to him, Deshaun Watson refused to have massages done at the Texans stadium and instead preferred to reach out to strangers on Instagram for massages,” Buzbee’s lawsuit states.
ESPN has more HERE.
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