On Friday morning, two of Deshaun Watson’s lawyers, Rusty Hardin and Leah Graham, appeared on Sports Radio 610 for an extended interview. At one point during the interview, Hardin made some eye-opening comments.
“I don’t know how many men are out there now that have had a massage that perhaps occasionally there was a happy ending,” Hardin said. “Maybe there’s nobody in your listening audience that that ever happened to. I do want to point out, if it has happened, it’s not a crime. OK? Unless you are paying somebody extra or so to give you some type of sexual activity, it’s not a crime. … Doing something or saying something or being a way that makes you uncomfortable is not a crime.”
The optics here aren’t ideal to say the least. Watson is facing 23 civil lawsuits alleging sexual misconduct during massage sessions.
Football fans couldn’t believe that Hardin actually made these remarks while on air.
“Deshaun Watson needs a new lawyer,” one fan said.
“Deshaun Watson’s attorney is not helping his case,” another fan wrote.
A third fan tweeted, “Can someone explain to me how this is all gonna just be fine at some point?”
Earlier this week, NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport said Watson could potentially face discipline from the league prior to training camp.
“The hope would be to have something decided before training camp,” Rapoport said. “I believe that is probably going to happen. We’ll see if this 23rd [lawsuit] kinda delays things a bit.”
There’s no guarantee that Watson will be suspended, albeit many analysts expect that to happen.