The sordid ongoing mess that is Deshaun Watson ended up going to the highest bidder, the Cleveland Browns, for the low, low price of $230 million — guaranteed.
But Watson almost went to the first bidder, then the only bidder, the Miami Dolphins.
We never knew how close that came to happening, until now.
The deal was 90.9 percent done, if you need a number.
It was in the middle of last season, with the NFL’s November trade deadline approaching. Despite the Dolphins’ public denials, Miami was the one team pushing hard behind the scenes to swing a trade with Houston for Watson, the quarterback’s myriad legal troubles be damned, the player’s attorney, Rusty Hardin, told Houston’s SportsRadio 610. And it was mutual. Watson let it be known he wanted the Dolphins.
“Miami was the outlier,” Hardin said. “The owner of Miami [Stephen Ross] says, ‘I’ll take my chances on what happens criminally, but I have to have all 22 cases settled and nondisclosure agreements or I won’t do it.” That was because Ross “didn’t want everybody talking about this during the season and after the season.”
Those would be the 22 women who had accused Watson of sexual misconduct related to massage therapy sessions in 2020 and into ‘21. (The number is now 24). No criminal charges have been brought, but civil cases are pending. Likely, too: NFL punishment including a possible lengthy suspension.
Hardin was able to negotiate NDAs with 20 of the 22 women, or 90.9 percent. Ross wouldn’t budge on needing all 22, and wasn’t bluffing. Miami withdrew its interest and went back to reiterating (albeit weakly) its faith in Tua Tagovailoa, the QB it was working in the shadows to betray.
Meantime Dolphins general manager Chris Grier was vehemently denying an apparently accurate report at the time about Miami’s insistence on those NDAs.
He called the report “absolutely and categorically false.” Said, “It pissed me off.”
There is a possibility Grier was not kept abreast of what Ross was doing, but that stretches credulity.
There also is a possibility Hardin lied in that radio interview, but what would be the motivation?
Frankly, the ability of lawyers and NFL executives to bend the truth to suit their own needs is not in the least bit of dispute.
Hardin, by the way, is the same guy who recently noted that “happy endings” during massages are not illegal so long as they are not paid specifically for.
“I’m absolutely going to use that comment,” Tony Buzbee, attorney for the women accusers, told ESPN. “It speaks volumes to how he, his team and his client think about the massage industry.”
The larger point here isn’t that Grier seems to have lied about the club seeking those NDAs. It is that this is just the latest development in what a colossal mess this Miami Dolphins regime led by Ross has made of this once-storied franchise in the past few years.
Oh, the outward face of it is fine. Trending upward, even.
Two straight winning seasons. The blockbuster Tyreek Hill trade. Major signings in free agency. A promising new coach in Mike McDaniel. It truly does seem the QB they so reluctantly believed in, Tagovailoa, does now have the weapons to be the best version of himself.
But as the promising new season nears, the ugly behind it is malignant.
It isn’t just the embarrassing stuff like the long-denied shadowy pursuit of Watson now being undeniable.
It isn’t just the clandestine attempt to woo Tom Brady even though, if proved, might have implicated Ross and Miami in tampering charges.
It is of course the Brian Flores lawsuit, inching through the legal morass and ticking like something that might detonate.
Flores, the head coach fired despite those consecutive winning seasons, claims in a sensational lawsuit that Ross bribed him to intentionally lose games in 2019 with an offer of a $100,000 bonus per loss, in order to secure the overall No. 1 draft pick and get Joe Burrow. (Miami ended up drafting fifth and taking Tagovailoa).
Ross indignantly and forcefully denied the accusation but Flores has doubled down. His lawsuit includes a memo about the allegations sent during the 2019 season to Dolphins executives including CEO Tom Garfinkel, senior vice president Brandon Shore and Grier.
The Ross-Flores relationship was irreparably doomed from that point, his firing a matter of time,
Except the relationship lives on in the lawsuit and all it might mean.
Whether Grier or the lawyer Hardin lied about those NDAs — that matters not at all.
But who is lying in this lawsuit — that means everything. And the idea of a compromise or settlement seems remote.
If Flores is found to have lied about Ross bribing him to intentionally lose it could mean a defamation of character suit brought by a billionaire owner against a disgraced head coach.
If Ross’ indignant denials are the lie and he did what Flores claims, the shamed owner of the Dolphins is out and so is everybody around him who was a party to the scandal as the shrapnel flies and the collateral damage spreads.
The legal system takes its time. It won’t be hurried.
But the case will be heard and who wins or loses will dwarf any result on the football field.
Meantime, as the scandalous lawsuit implicating the owner plays out, Dolfans have the luxury to act as if all is well, their biggest concern whether Tagovailoa has the arm strength to equal Hill’s speed.
