Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
No trade, no way
Dolphins should stay away until lawsuits are resolved
It all starts and ends with the 11 civil lawsuits of sexual assault. Nothing happens with Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson until they leave him, if they ever leave him.
That’s assuming the count stops at some point, too. It bumped from seven to 11 civil lawsuits Monday morning.
Their attorney previously said a 12th was coming. It’s also assuming those 11 (or 12) civil lawsuits don’t lead to a criminal case against Watson.
Watson is an NFL franchisechanger, the quarterback who from a purely football standpoint you should want on the Miami Dolphins and fear ends up on the New York Jets. Or, worse, the New England Patriots.
But there’s the fantasy world of sports trades and the real world of sexual-assault accusations, lawyers, liability and compensation.
More explicitly: Watson is accused of exposing himself to multiple women, touching some with his penis and trying to kiss some against their will. He is accused of attempting to force one woman to perform oral sex on him.
Watson denies everything, his attorney called them “meritless allegations,’’ and they
welcome the day — or months, even years — to clear his name.
The Dolphins’ job, like yours and mine, isn’t to sort out the truth amid the allegations. The legal process will resolve that. And then the NFL will judge Watson against the league’s “personal conduct clause.” Or maybe the Houston police become involved before the NFL does.
The women’s lawyer, Tony Buzbee, said Friday the police have contacted his law firm regarding the accusations. He stated plans to deliver information regarding the lawsuits to police.
Houston police, however, told The Houston Chronicle there hasn’t been any contact with Buzbee and no incident reports filed by anyone regarding sexual assault against Watson.
So sit back, judge nothing and let the gears of jurisprudence grind toward some truth. All you know from afar — all that matters in this smaller world of the Dolphins, for instance — is that no trade can be considered until all this is resolved. And only then by considering how it’s resolved.
Already, there’s the segment of the sports world wondering how this will affect Watson’s trade value. Translation: Can a team get him on the cheap? Full translation: Can a team get him on the cheap because 11 women accused him of sexual assault?
Does anyone even want to go there?
The sports world, of course, is conditioned to have such value decisions. Just look at the Dolphins of late. They swapped seventh-round picks with Tennessee for Isaiah Wilson. He was a first-round pick a year ago before a series of off-field incidents, including a DUI.
Everyone hailed it a good risk for the Dolphins because the pros aren’t colleges. There’s no phony morality involved. Only winning matters. So it hardly mattered the Dolphins released Wilson after a few days of getting to know him. He was late for meetings, failed to attend workouts and refused get help from the team —basically, he didn’t show he wanted to play football.
Watson is in a different universe as a player than Wilson — and in a different one regarding his problems, too. He’s a top-five quarterback in the NFL. He can lift your team for the next 15 years. He would become the face of the franchise, too, the first player to market by selling tickets and jerseys — if he’s marketable after all this. Do you see the issue here? Watson demanded a trade out of Houston months ago.
Now no NFL team can trade for him in light of the sexual-assault lawsuits. There’s too much unknown, starting with such basics as how many women are accusing him, as the number seem to climb daily.
The idea once was Houston would trade Watson before the draft — if it traded him at all. Now that’s off the table. How this affects the Dolphins is simple: It’s clearly Tua Tagovailoa’s team heading into the 2021 season. The rebuilding plan hinges fully on him.
Maybe all this works on the Dolphins timetable, too. They get another year of Tua. If he succeeds, great, they’re on their way. If he struggles, Watson and Seattle’s Russell Wilson could be again on the market next offseason.
For now, there’s no trading for Watson. No way. Not until the truth of these accusations gets told.