For months, the number of investigations and legal entanglements surrounding Deshaun Watson have grown. First with 22 civil lawsuits alleging sexual misconduct, then with subsequent probes launched by the Houston Police Department, Harris County prosecutor and NFL.
All the while a question orbited his football eligibility, pondering when (or if) the NFL would step in and place Watson on the commissioner’s exempt list, a move that would effectively put the Houston Texans quarterback on paid leave as the swath of investigations ran their course. To date that hasn’t happened, creating another question:
If the NFL could essentially shadow-ban Antonio Brown in 2019 as it conducted a probe into civil lawsuit allegations against the wideout, why wasn’t it setting Watson aside in 2021 under similar circumstances?
Watson’s attorney, Rusty Hardin, essentially provided the answer this week. And it has to do with the fact that the quarterback is the subject of a criminal investigation, which Brown was not in 2019.
