Vanessa Richardson of NBC Sports Houston reports that multiple sources tell her that Deshaun Watson has admitted to having “consensual” sexual encounters with some of his accusers.
This shouldn’t be surprising.
BSO, from the beginning, has known the issue wasn’t so much if the encounters were happening, but if they were consensual or not.
There is also a fine line between a sexual and non-sexual encounter. Several lawsuits speak on what I would assume Watson believes is a sexual encounter (oral sex, hand jobs, etc.). Others speak on non-sexual encounters that could still be considered sexual assault (exposing yourself, rubbing your private area on someone and etc).
Watson’s lawyer Rusty Hardin even points out in the one case that Watson possibly was being extorted, there was a “consensual” sexual encounter of some sort.
The sources spoke on condition of anonymity since they were not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.
Those same sources insist the sexual encounters were “completely consensual.” They also said Watson had “non-sexual encounters” with some of the other accusers, where he was simply given a massage and there was no sexual contact.
We are now in the grey area of he said/she said or more specifically, what a person believes is happening. Is it possible Watson believed these encounters were consensual when in reality, the women didn’t? It is possible, but it is also possible that they were all consensual, which is a money grab.
The truth could also be that some were and some weren’t.
These are the things that have to be sorted all out before we can pass judgment.
In the interim, here is Richardson’s statement, Rusty Hardin’s statement, and Watson admitting to making one massage therapist uncomfortable via text.