Deshaun Watson was accused of more than 20 incidents of sexual assault or sexual harassment from women the quarterback interacted with dating back to 2019, prior to being traded from the Texans to the Browns. Since that time more accusers have come forward. At this point, the NFL’s investigation into the quarterback is still ongoing, and there’s seemingly no end in sight to its probe.
The allegations against Watson are now more than a year old, and are on the verge of spanning across two NFL seasons. Here is a full timeline of how claims against Watson unfolded, and continue to progress.
Warning: The following will detail allegations of sexual assault.
The first allegation against Watson
On March 16, 2021 Houston lawyer Tony Buzbee filed a civil suit on behalf of a massage therapist
who alleges that Watson sexually assaulted her during a session in March of 2020. The suit states that Watson touched the woman with his penis before asking for sex. The woman ended the session with Watson following the incident, and was subsequently called by other NFL players, who told the therapist that Watson recommended her.
The woman alleges that Watson later called her, and apologized for his actions.
The second allegation
On March 17, the following day, Buzbee announced that a second massage therapist was
also filing a suit against Watson over an alleged incident which took place in The Houstonian Hotel in August of 2020.
This new allegation stated that Watson met a massage therapist at the hotel and completely disrobed for the session, refusing to put his clothes back on. The second massage therapist alleged that Watson directed her to massage his penis, and when she didn’t he made an intentional movement which caused her to touch his penis.
In addition the lawyer also announced that seven more women were filing suit against Watson.
More accusers come forward
The following day, on March 18 the third and most serious suit against Watson was filed. A massage therapist alleged that Watson sexually assaulted her in an office building in December of 2020, forcing her to perform oral sex on him.
According to details from the suit filed
it’s alleged that the massage therapist, now living in Oregon was:
The suit also details trauma caused as a result of the incident. Following the third suit the NFL began to take action, assigning senior VP Lisa Friel as lead investigator into the incident. Friel most recently took a similar role for the league in 2019, investigating allegations against receiver Antonio Brown. However, details of the league’s “probe” into Watson were limited, and did not explain how it would be conducted, or whether Watson would be suspended from team activities pending the result of the investigation. That probe is still ongoing.