Deshaun Watson really wanted to get traded, but teams, specifically the Dolphins, were leery of bringing him unless he settled some of his massage sexual assault cases.
In a turn of events, Watson, who initially said he didn’t want to sign an NDA, was trying to force the women in the case to sign NDAs where they could never speak negatively or about Watson ever again. If they would agree to that, Watson would then pay them a pretty large lump sum of money to make this all go away.
Some of the women in the case, though, were steadfast against signing any NDAs.
“Tony Buzbee, the attorney representing the 22 women suing Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson, said settlement talks between the two sides broke down recently because of language Watson’s legal team insisted they include in nondisclosure agreements,” per Sports Illustrated.
“In what was submitted to us, there were nondisclosure agreements and many of the women pushed back on those,” attorney Tony Buzbee told Houston television station Fox 26 in an interview Tuesday evening.
“Bottom line was, apparently, at some point the Dolphins wanted 22 settlements. I made it clear, after talking to my clients, that that wasn’t gonna happen and then they lowered that number. I made that clear that wasn’t gonna happen. Watson’s team was trying to sell the Dolphins on some lower number and I think that never came to pass,” Buzbee said, via Fox26.
Once the Texans got wind that a settlement was possible they upped their asking price for Watson and the deal broke down before any agreement could be reached.
It seems like more than ever, Watson will be the one who blinks and will end up paying for this to go away. The last thing he wants is for all these cases to go to trial, and one by one, these women start going through in detail what happened during their massages. That would be very damaging to his future. If he was to settle the cases, the criminal charges are unlikely to move forward.
Flip the page for Tony Buzbee speaking on how the Dolphins tried to help Watson settle the cases.