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Deshaun Watson denies allegations: ‘I never assaulted any woman, I never disrespected any woman, and I never harassed any woman’
NFL

In an emotionally charged introductory press conference, Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson vehemently denied allegations levied against him by 22 women who have accused him of inappropriate conduct that includes allegations of sexual assault and sexual misconduct.

Details of the Deshaun Watson press conference
Watson was asked dozens of questions in regard to his character and how he plans to conduct himself moving forward. He is currently facing 22 active civil lawsuits with no current intentions to settle them. Two separate Texas grand juries declined to charge the three-time Pro Bowl selection and Georgia native with any crimes after he faced a total of 10 criminal complaints.

“I understand the seriousness of the allegations,” Watson said at the Browns’ training complex a week after being acquired in a trade from the Houston Texans and signed to a record-setting $230 million fully guaranteed contract. “I never assaulted any woman, I never disrespected any woman, and I never harassed any woman in my life. My mom and my aunties didn’t raise me that way. Over the course of my life, that’s not in my DNA. As far as the details of actually the things they’re alleging, I can’t speak on that because there’s an ongoing investigation. In the future, once everything is resolved, I will sit down and love to talk about it…

“I understand that there’s going to be a stain that’s probably going to stick with me for a while. I’ve never done the things these people are alleging. I’m going to continue to fight for my name and clear my name.”

Browns general manager Andrew Berry addressed the allegations in an opening statement.

“We as an organization know this transaction has been very difficult for many people, particularly women in our community,” Berry said. “We realize it has triggered a range of emotions. The nature of the allegations weighed heavily on all of us. We do have confidence and faith in Deshaun as a person. If we didn’t get comfortable with Deshaun the person, it wouldn’t have mattered how talented he was. We wouldn’t have pursued the trade.”

Toward the end of the press conference, Berry was asked directly if he believes in Watson’s innocence and replied: “We believe in Deshaun the person.”

Watson was asked if he would change anything about his actions.

“I don’t have any regrets,” Watson said. “The things off the field that came up caught me by surprise, I never did anything that these people are alleging. I continue to work to be a better player, a better person and a better son.”

Jimmy and Dee Haslam, Browns owners, speak following press conference
In a Zoom press conference a short while after Watson’s press conference, Browns owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam spoke about the trade.

‘We understood a lot of people would not be comfortable with it and would criticize it,” Jimmy Haslam said. “We are confident in time that he will gain their trust.”

Dee Haslam said that she and her husband spoke with their daughters and other people about this decision.

“We respect our fans and their feelings,” Dee Haslam said. “This is a really tough subject. I think we knew this could trigger a lot of emotions. I think the conversations coming out of this have been helpful to us to understand the issues. This has been a very hard and difficult journey for our families. It was really hard. We had to work really hard to get comfortable with the decision. We knew it could trigger emotions from individuals who have been through sexual abuse. Our compassion is very deep.”

Jimmy Haslam said that he was advised if either his wife or his daughters vetoed the trade to not pursue Watson and said, “I thought that made a lot of sense. Everybody was on board with doing this. Some later than earlier.”

When asked if there is a zero-tolerance policy on Watson to avoid these issues in the future, Jimmy Haslam replied: “We expect very high performance levels on and off the field from our players and Deshaun knows and understands that.”

In his press conference, Watson was asked if he would be open to getting counseling and he doesn’t sound inclined to pursue that avenue, but he wasn’t completely unwilling to have a conversation.

“It’s hard for me to say the counseling part because I don’t have a problem,’’ Watson said. “I don’t have an issue and that’s what I’ve been saying from the beginning. This situation is definitely tough and it’s very difficult. But me having a problem and going to counseling, I’m willing to talk to people about certain situations to make sure I’m not getting back in this. I’ve never assaulted anyone, I’ve never disrespected anyone, I’ve always been respectful. That’s what I’ve always stood on and who I am as a person.”

Dee Haslam said later that she believes counseling would probably be beneficial for Watson or anyone generally.

“Well, I think we’ll leave that up to our medical personnel, but I do think, I personally believe in counseling for everybody,’’ she said. “I think at times in your life you need that and he’s been through a tremendous amount and it would probably be beneficial, but I’m going to leave that up to the experts. That’s not something that I’m an expert in, but I would hope that that’s something that he would consider.’’

The fallout from the Texans trading Deshaun Watson
Watson was asked why he wanted to be traded from the Texans months after signing a four-year, $156 million contract.

”It’s hard to get too far into the details,” Watson said. “It was time for us to part ways. I was honest with the organization. They were honest with me and we came to the conclusion this was the best situation.”

Watson initially turned down the Browns and Carolina Panthers and was considering the Atlanta Falcons and New Orleans Saints as candidates to waive his no-trade clause for. Ultimately, he turned back to the Browns because of their roster, the unprecedented contract, and his conviction about the AFC North franchise after meeting with Berry, coach Kevin Stefanski and Jimmy Haslam at Hardin’s law office in Houston.

The Browns agreed to send three first-round picks, a 2023 third-round selection, a 2022 fourth-round pick, and a 2024 fourth-round choice to the Texans in exchange for Watson and a 2024 sixth-round selection.

Watson emphasized that the contract wasn’t why he chose the Browns and said he didn’t know about the offer until he told his agent, David Mulugheta, his intentions to go to Cleveland.

“It wasn’t necessarily a turn-down,” Watson said. “I think the media was kind of rushing me to make a decision, and I wasn’t comfortable making that right decision. So, the news gets out and things like that. But, for me, I knew that Cleveland was the best situation from a football standpoint and just for a community and family atmosphere.”

The contract has a $1 million base salary and a $45 million signing bonus. If Watson is suspended, then he can only lose $57,500 per game check he loses with a potential punishment from the league.

The Browns created more salary-cap space by doing that. It also includes “typical club protections” language, per Berry, should Watson be suspended.

“We understand the optics of it,” Berry said. “I think for us, after we got comfortable with Deshaun, the contract was really a football decision. The things that were important to us from a club perspective were to have Deshaun under contract for another year and to have it structured in a manner that would allow us maximum flexibility to execute the rest of our offseason plan. I think probably the other to mention is that structure is very similar to a lot of the larger player contracts we already have on the books. For us, getting an additional year of control was very important for us.”

Work in the community
Watson said he intends to get involved in the community, as he did in Houston. The Deshaun Watson Foundation is devoted toward helping underserved children and communities.

“Definitely,’’ Watson said. “Especially on the end of that question, working with women’s groups, I think it has to be something that I have to earn that trust to be honest. I have to earn that trust back into the community so I can step out. I do not want to just jump out and make it seem like I am just doing it just to try to clear my name.

“I have always been a community leader with Habitat for Humanity, with kids with cancer because my mom had tongue cancer, with education, giving back to schools and also with just all types of charity work around the community of building communities, building houses and things. I am going to work with this organization and my team to find the perfect opportunity for us to come out and just help because I have always been that type of person. That is how I was raised. That’s why I continue to say I am a servant leader because I wrote a book on it. That’s how I was before any of these allegations.”

Insight into the Browns’ investigation of Watson
Berry said the Browns researched Watson thoroughly for five months, including independent investigators in Harris County to get an “unbiased, comprehensive perspective on the allegations,’ and used ‘third-party legal counsel to analyze all the information.”

Berry said that the Browns didn’t contact the 22 women on the advice of legal counsel to not interfere with the legal process.

“I’ll say the investigators that we hired were able to get a full perspective of all the cases,” Berry said. “I’m not going to go into necessarily the details of everything the investigators did, but they got a full perspective for all the criminal and civil cases.”

Asked about not contacting the women who made allegations on the advice of legal counsel, Haslam said, “We got very strong recommendations’ to not contact the women to not interfere with the legal process.”

Berry said the team is not ‘naive’ to the fact that many aren’t comfortable with Watson.

“We do have faith in him as a person,” Berry said. “We aren’t naive in that there is still work to do. We do have faith that Deshaun Watson will not only meet the expectations, but exceed them.”

Acquiring Watson, one of the most dynamic players in the game and a former Clemson star, national championship game winner and a first-round draft pick, has earned the Browns criticism from the Cleveland Rape Crisis Center and the National Center on Sexual Exploitation.

“I think it’s important – we will both say this – for you to understand how seriously we took this whole process,’’ Jimmy Haslam said. “Dee and I both have close friends who have been victims, men and women, of sexual abuse. We have seen up close the impact it has had on their lives, both short and long term. It is something we take very, very seriously. I was thinking this morning and this October will be 10 years that we have been involved with the Browns and have had that responsibility

“I know we can both say, as can others in our organization, that we put more time, more thought, more effort, talked to more people and did more research on this decision by far than other decision we have made with the Cleveland Browns. It is not something we took lightly. It is something that we took very seriously, and we feel comfortable with the process we have been through.”

Deshaun Watson’s legal situation
A Brazoria County grand jury in Texas on Thursday declined to charge Watson after being presented with a single criminal complaint of an allegation of sexual misconduct in a massage therapy session.

“After a careful and thorough review of the facts and evidence documented in the
reports prepared by the Brazoria County Sheriff’s Office and the Houston Police
Department, as well as hearing testimony from witnesses, the Grand Jury for Brazoria
County has declined to charge Deshaun Watson with any crimes. Accordingly, this matter is closed,” Brazoria County District Attorney Tom Selleck said in a statement.

This wasn’t a new complaint, and it stemmed from a 2020 massage therapy session and an allegation of inappropriate behavior. A courthouse official indicated that it was a fast process.

Previously, a Harris County grand jury declined to indict Watson on nine allegations of sexual misconduct or sexual assault from massage therapists. In a social media post and after the grand jury in Harris County declined to return any indictments, Watson denied all wrongdoing. His lawyer, Rusty Hardin, has acknowledged previously in a press conference that sexual acts happened that were consensual in nature. Watson is still facing 22 active civil lawsuits and gave a third deposition Tuesday.

“We are thrilled that the Brazoria County grand jury cleared Deshaun Watson of the one remaining criminal allegation,” Hardin said in a statement. “We’ve known all along what people who learn the facts also know – Deshaun committed no crimes. In fact, two separate grand juries have now found that there wasn’t even probable cause to believe he committed a crime. Once the Harris County cases were concluded, we were informed that Brazoria County intended to present their case to a grand jury on Wednesday March 23. We, and the complainant, were offered the opportunity to provide any information we wanted to the grand jury. It’s important to note that both we and the Cleveland Browns knew this grand jury presentation was pending and attempted not to discuss it publicly until it was completed.

“Now that the criminal investigations and two different grand jury presentations have been completed, I hope the public and the media will take to heart the closing statement from the Brazoria County district attorney’s letter stating: “Accordingly, this matter is closed. It is time to let the civil litigation proceed at a normal pace and for Deshaun Watson to take his place as the quarterback of the future for the Browns. I am fully confident that the Cleveland community will discover that Deshaun Watson is not just a great quarterback but also an incredibly decent person they will be proud to have represent their city. “

Hardin said that this criminal complaint stemmed from a massage therapy session conducted in Pearland, a suburb of Houston. That is why the Houston Police Department office referred it to Brazoria County. The Brazoria County district attorney, per Hardin, waited until after the Harris County grand jury rendered its decision and then went forward with a separate criminal complaint.