Saints Fans ‘Thankful’ After Bombshell Deshaun Watson Report Details Massages from 66 Different Women
Perhaps the Saints' best move this offseason was failing to get Deshaun Watson as their quarterback.
Yesterday, the New York Times dropped a bombshell report detailing that Watson met with at least 66 different women massages over the course of 17 months—a number that was far higher than previously known.
Another concerning detail in the report was that Watson had help from the Houston Texans when it came to orchestrating the meetups—even down to the team providing nondisclosure agreements for the appointments.
Watson has been accused of sexual misconduct during massage appointments, and while the accusations "have been frequent and startling," two grand juries in Texas declined to charge the NFL star criminally earlier this year.
The NFL star has yet to hear of any punishment from the league (they're reportedly still considering whether or not to discipline him) but in the meantime, Watson managed to land an insane 5-year, $230 million contract with the Cleveland Browns that is fully guaranteed.
As the start of the 2022 NFL season approaches, Watson and his team have continued to send the message that they believe "it's time for everyone to move on."
In the wake of this New York Times report, moving on just got a little more complicated for Watson's camp after his attorney Rusty Hardin recently raised eyebrows in a recent radio interview.
Hardin reminded listeners that "happy endings aren't necessarily illegal." He would later walk those comments back saying he was using the term "hypothetically."
The comments were discussed and reported on by numerous outlets, but nothing has been as thorough as yesterday's New York Times piece that uncovered far more women than previously believed to have given Watson massages.
While no one knows what will come of this recent report or the overall situation in general, fanbases of teams that vigorously went after Watson in the offseason are feeling like they may have dodged a bullet by failing to land the embattled quarterback.
New Orleans was one of the teams that went after Watson and the general consensus is that both the Saints organization and their fans should be thankful that he chose brown over black and gold.
Others believe that the Saints and other failed suitors aren't necessarily innocent in all of this either—especially if they knew the details of this NY Times report.
Overall, Saints fans are breathing a sigh of relief that they aren't in the same situation as the Cleveland Browns.
Speaking of fanbases, the Browns faithful is probably not having the best time right now as it looks like Deshaun is still guaranteed every penny of the $230 million contract regardless of his legal woes.
No matter how you shake this situation, 66 different women (many of them alleging the same behavior) in a matter of a year and a half is an enormous number to explain.
But we will follow this story and be grateful that the Saints aren't dealing with this troubling situation while remaining hopeful that anyone who was wronged will get their justice.