The Timeline Of Deshaun Watson Lawsuits

By Shannon Ferguson

Former Houston Texans Quarterback, Deshaun Watson made waves in the media early last year after being the alleged victim of over 22 active civil lawsuits, ten of which were sexual assault and harassment charges.

Due to the similar nature of the accusations and the respective timeline of when they were filed, Watson’s lawyer, Rusty Hardin, through written and verbal communication has mentioned that his client had done nothing wrong and the accusations were simply nothing more than a “money grab.”

The quarterback’s first lawsuit was filed in March 2021 by Ashley Solis, the accusation coming six months after Watson signed a contract extension worth over 160 million dollars over four years, giving him an annual salary of roughly 39 million dollars.

Solis’s accusation also came a little under two months after Deshaun Watson asked to be traded away from the Texans due to not being paid enough, completely disregarding the extension he signed months before that made him one of highest paid players in the league.

Watson’s lawsuits range from exposing himself while on massage tables to oral sex coercion.

On March 17, 2021 two other lawsuits were filed against Watson, making the quarterback’s total charge count three. Less than 24 hours after that on March 18, four additional charges were pressed against Watson.

After the situation was being talked about and dissected across all media platforms and outlets, within that same day, the Houston Texans released an official statement on their quarterback and the recent events, as well as the NFL opening an active investigation on Watson.

A little over 72 hours after the NFL started their investigation, on March 22, seven more lawsuits were filed against Watson. Making his official lawsuit count 14 less than two weeks after his initial accusation.

On April 7, 2021, after tacking on 21 lawsuits, all entailing sexual harrassment, Nike formally ended their endorsement deal with Watson, who had been affiliated with Nike since his Clemson days and been an official Nike sponsored athlete since 2017.

Two days later on April 9, 2022, two judges announced that all the women filing lawsuits against the quarterback must identify themselves to the public in order to follow through with their legal wishes. Consequently, one of the women dropped her charge against Watson after receiving the instruction.

This raised a lot of questions.

On May 21, text messages from Ashley Solis, the first woman to file a lawsuit against Watson, were obtained by Sports Illustrated where it showed her in contact with the Houston Texans law firm.

On July 25, Deshaun Watson returned back to the team to participate in training camp.

All the media brought wanted and unwanted attention to the team and organization, consequently, trade rumors started to arise.

By August 28, the Miami Dolphins were the team Watson was most likely to end up with. But with active lawsuits still against him, how could he participate in the pre season and the upcoming regular season?

By March of 2022, after undergoing acquittals, more lawsuits, and media slander, the Miami Dolphins recanted their trade offer and the quarterback was still staring at many years in prison along with a hard-earned football career ready to be thrown out the window at any second.

During a civil disposition on March 11, Watson invoked his Fifth Amendment right. At this time, Deshaun Watson was still looking at nine lawsuits against him.

Luckily for Watson, on that same day, the grand jury returned all nine lawsuits and said “no” to all of them after the prosecuting attorney and team tried to build a case against him.

The Harris County prosecutor quotes, “this concludes the criminal proceedings against him.” As of March 11 of this year, Deshaun Watson is a free man.