Deshaun Watson allegedly offered $100,000 to each defendant

HOUSTON — Deshaun Watson offered a $100,000 settlement amount to each of 22 women who filed civil lawsuits against him last spring, according to the latest lawsuit filed against him this week.

Attorney Tony Busby made this claim in Twenty-third civil action against Watson On Tuesday, in a footnote relating to a meeting between Watson’s defense attorney and Nia Smith, the Houston beauty expert who filed the latest lawsuit against the Cleveland Browns quarterback. In the lawsuit, Buzbee claimed that during a meeting in which Smith believed Watson’s attorneys were trying to “intimidate” her, they said they planned to “fight [civil] to the fullest extent.” Buzbee added a notation to this line, which alleged that Watson instead attempted to settle the claims out of court.

“Of course, we now know that Deshaun Watson offered each plaintiff $100,000 to settle their cases,” the blog post read. “[B]Not everyone will accept this amount, due to the aggressive non-disclosure agreement proposed by the Watson team.”

Watson’s attorney Rusty Hardin did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the allegation.

Professional football debate The first outlet to report the blogging was on Thursday. It was also previously reported that 18 of Watson’s first 22 defendants agreed to a global settlement, but negotiations eventually stalled when four women refused to participate.

Watson told reporters in late May that there are currently no settlement talks regarding any of his civil lawsuits, which allege a range of sexual misconduct or sexual assault. But multiple sources told Yahoo Sports that there was dialogue about the settlement between Watson and Busby’s attorneys at various points after the 22 initial lawsuits were filed. This included prior to the start of last season and in the run-up to the NFL trade deadline, when the Miami Dolphins expressed a desire to acquire Watson if he was able to obtain a global settlement with all of his accusers.

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That attempt failed, and paved the way for Watson’s ultimate trade with Brown After nearly five months.

At the NFL Owners Spring Meetings last month, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell He said the league’s investigation into Watson was “nearing the end” in determining whether QB had violated the league’s personal conduct policy.