Let’s talk about Deshaun Watson.
I want to start this by saying I am not defending this man in any way shape or form. He is an idiot. He is an idiot in exactly the same way that Micheal Vick was an idiot. In saying this I am going to acknowledge the embedded racism that makes the Watson and Vick cases front page news that may ultimately cost the latter a chunk of his career as it did the former. I am saying this largely because of the quick and dirty dismissal of the Robert Kraft incident where he solicited sex from a massage parlor and was arrested (charges dropped) and the people giving the massages (and sex) were also arrested, prosecuted for sex trafficking, and later jailed. I can’t even begin to get into the nonsense of Commanders owner Daniel Snyder and his 15 cases of sexual harassment. These owner cases vanish as quickly as possible–with Snyder’s being the catalyst for a much needed name change as an obvious way to deflect attention.
But this isn’t about right, wrong, or even racism. This is about a very dumb man who entered into an arrangement with a woman who enabled his behavior (including with her own daughter–by her own admission) and empowered him to put women is terrible situations. Let me be clear: Watson may not be willing to say it (legal reasons) but he went to these women with the intent of having a sexual encounter. He admitted to having sex with three of them, and the fact that he went to at least 40 different women indicates that this is some sort of fetish he is into. The problem is that this fetish doesn’t take into account the feelings or rights of the women being solicited. They are being abused, and while some are okay with it, some are not. He is clearly of the mindset that massages end with a ‘happy ending’ and that is not right.
So, we have established him as the bad guy. Now let’s acknowledge the culture that gave him that stupid idea.