Possibly. At least a decade ago teams were willing to put up with some pretty horrible behavior if you were a top tier player. Ben Roethlisberger, Michael Vick, and Ray Lewis all had pretty significant careers after their various scandals. If they had been backup grade players they would have been cut the next day and no teams would even bother with the distraction.
Although in the last 5 years or so we are seeing careers of pretty powerful men ended by their victims coming forward, and that would never have happened even 10 years ago. Although most of those careers are in media and entertainment, which is a much less meritocratic environment than the NFL. Iād like to believe that banishment of men who commit sex crimes is coming from a place of moral responsibility, and not just a long term money decision in a new environment where they become financial liabilities. Watson will be a major test case to see how teams are going to handle things of this matter going forward. I suspect heās done in Houston, will eat some sort of significant suspension, and may even miss the 2021 season altogether, but likely lands somewhere else as a full time starter in 2022.
Iām wondering if some of these were already rub and tug types. One of the masseuses he got somewhere, then got again on instagram. She said he assaulted her both times but didnāt realize the second time was him until she showed up. Do normal non happy-ending masseuses advertise on IG? I guess maybe.
Like maybe these are sex workers but he still got off on harassing them and not paying for sex or something. I donāt think thereās nothing there, but it just seems weird.
We could get pretty far off into the weeds on this one. Thereās now 14 accusers I think? If it was just him trying to turn a massage into something more, you would think after the first 13 times of it not working, maybe youād stop? Iāve only read a couple articles, but it sounds like this is more of a Weinstein/Louis CK type situation where he exposes himself and then goes further in front of women who arenāt expecting it and didnāt consent.
I have no idea how the massage industry operates and how many places/masseuses are legitimate vs. sex workers. I imagine itās pretty terrible if you just want to be a legitimate masseuse and you constantly have men trying for more, and it sounds like Watson went a step further than just asking.
We are only hearing about the times it didnāt work. Most likely he was doing this very often, and quite possible many of the women were fine with providing a happy ending for extra $.
It doesnāt sound like he raped them, but exposed himself without consent and then tried to coerce them into the happy ending. This might be fine (although sketchy) if he were going to places that specialized in this (like Kraft), but it sounds like he was having random people come to his place for a massage and assuming all were sex workers.
Watsonās lawyer and his marketing manager finally made a couple of statements anyway. Iām not saying this proves or disproves anything, just passing along whatās out there.
And the sad part is that such optical maneuvers could help Watson get away with what heās accused of, whether he and his people stick to their current approach or shift to a different one. The NBA literally changed its All-Star Game rules to honor the legacy of Kobe Bryant, who was not only credibly accused of raping a woman but then worked with Nike ā the sponsor that stood by him ā to build a brand persona out of those accusations once Kobeās lawyer had savaged the victimās reputation. Kobe has essentially been beatified since his death. Watson could try using that same playbook. Or, like Antonio Brown, he could go into temporary career purgatory and still come out the other side with a Super Bowl ring. Thereās no one way to be a sātbag.
āAt first, I thought it was just one or two liars trying to ruin a great athleteās life, but itās clearly much deeper than that. Iād be naĆÆve at this point if I didnāt admit that a massive, potentially satanic operation was responsible for these assault claims. Thereās simply no other explanation.ā
Holy shit! What the hell are they doing??? 3 first round picks!?! There is like one QB worth that much and I doubt Patrick Mahomes is going to a) be in the draft and b) available as the 3rd pick.
Yeah, I mean, on the one hand, Iām a bit sad that the Niners arenāt deluding themselves into starting Jimmy G again, but on the other, hooooooo boy is that a lot to give up.
They also need to fix the secondary, improve the OL and maybe get a true WR1(*). Instead they continue their strategy of paying out the nose for a promising but unproven QB.
(*) TBF Samuel, Aiyuk or Bourne could all be that guy but they are not quite there yet.
