At the time of writing, there are now three lawsuits against Deshaun Watson from women who say they were assaulted by the (currently) Houston quarterback. All of them have been met, mostly, with claims of tenuous connections between the lawyer representing the women, Tony Buzbee, and some billboards he put up once and being a neighbor to Bob McNair. Call it the “sports talk radio defense.”
Almost every time we get a story like this, one has to wonder how many women does it take before all of them are taken seriously? Any of them? Why does one woman claiming to have been attacked or harassed need many others, or any others, to be validated? How many suits will it take in this case? Buzbee is claiming there will be six. Would that satisfy the cries of “bUT His bILLbOArDS?!”
In this case, it sadly may take more than that. This is one of the most sought-after quarterbacks in history, and at least three-quarters of NFL fans have spent some time the past month or two dreaming of how to get Watson to their team and what he’d look like in their colors. And they now don’t want, or outright refuse, to contemplate that they may have spent time dreaming about welcoming a true scumbag to their team. If he can throw for 4,500 yards next year, they’re not really going to care that he might be trash. Fuck, they’ve been doing it in Pittsburgh for over a decade now.
I don’t know what will come of all these suits against Watson. I don’t like that the lawyer is announcing them on his Instagram and then claiming he doesn’t need the attention. But these cases ultimately aren’t about the lawyer. They are about the women. And it’s notable that there are three lawsuits against Watson, and the two we have details for follow the same pattern of behavior. Watson vehemently denied the first one, and has yet to comment on the next two. There are certainly more twists and turns to come with Watson’s high-profile name. But what if he didn’t have one?
However it goes from here, this opening phase has been another example of how most every woman can’t get a fair shake in the court of public opinion — at least — and most of the time in a court of justice either. When it was one woman, it was just some underhanded ploy by a friend of the Texans’ dead owner. When it was two, it was just a more layered ploy, according to most fans, and the second one was just made up to cover for the first one, which was also made up, so their story goes. It’s three now.
It shouldn’t take a throng. It should only take one. And yet even multitudes don’t seem to sway most people. Which shows how long a road we have to go.
Spinning, uncomfortably, to matters on the field or court of play, the Milwaukee Bucks would have wanted everyone to know that there’s no such thing as a statement regular season game for most of their contest with the 76ers last night. The Sixers were without Joel Embiid, had played last night, and yet the Bucks went into half trailing by 14 with Giannis having only four points. They eventually got it together, with Giannis putting up a monster 28-point second half and overtime to win, 109-105.
They still did their best to blow it, up seven with 52 seconds to go. Then they left Shake Milton open enough for this three to die of broken heart syndrome. Then after Khris Middleton missed Giannis on an alley-oop that probably would have sealed it by a couple yards, they left Danny Green open for another three. Middleton once again saw his brain go into spinning rainbow wheel mode, heading in for a lay up when he could have just sat in the corner and waited to be fouled and taken more time off the clock. The three seconds he left were more than enough Furkan Korkmaz to hit a game-tying three.
Giannis bailed them out in OT. They shouldn’t have needed it.
Finally, the Philadelphia Flyers played one of the worst periods in recent NHL history last night, giving up seven second period goals to the thoroughly middling Rangers last night to lose 9-0. Brian Elliot ended up with a save-percentage for the game of .615. Carter Hart, his replacement, ended up with one of .750. It should also be mentioned that the Rangers were using their AHL coaching staff, because their coaching staff was locked up in COVID protocol before the game. So the Flyers got trucked by a team where the guys behind the bench had to check the nameplates of every player they sent out onto the ice. That’s fine work.
It’s been the same story as it’s been for 30 years with the Flyers. A promising roster that should be competing for the big prizes is being undone by the burial ground curse that infests their crease. Hart has a .880 SV% on the season. Elliot is at .892. Same as it ever was.