Texans Sued for Enabling Deshaun Watson’s Alleged Misconduct

The number of plaintiffs in the Deshaun Watson case seems to grow by the week, but now there’s a new defendant, the Houston Texans.

Tony Buzbee, lead attorney for the two dozen women suing Watson for alleged sexual misconduct, announced on Monday that he is also filing suit against Watson’s former team, the Houston Texans. The suit alleges that the team was  “aware of Watson’s alleged behavior during massage therapy sessions and the individuals within the Texas organization knew or should have known of Watson’s conduct.”

“Today, we filed the first case of what will likely be many against the Houston Texans related to Deshaun Watson’s behavior,” Buzbee said. “Suffice it to say, the overwhelming evidence collected indicates that the Houston Texans enabled Watson’s behavior is incredibly damning.”

The lawsuit also accuses the Texans of having “rooms set up for [Watson] at the Houstonian Hotel, massage tables provided to him for private massage sessions, and an NDA provided to him from the head of Texans’ security.”

The NFL is reportedly seeking a one-year indefinite suspension for Watson. Meaning, the quarterback would be suspended for at least one season but the league would leave the door open to extending the suspension should additional cases against Watson be filed.

Cleveland Browns QB Deshaun Watson (Nick Cammett/Diamond Images via Getty)

A strong indication that there will indeed be more than the 24 cases already filed against Watson came on Monday in a portion of the filing against the Texans, in which Buzbee claims “at least 30″ women were victimized by Watson.

“It is now known that in many of Watson’s multiple massage interactions, more than massage therapy occurred — indeed, with at least thirty different women, the ‘more’ that occurred included unwanted sexual advances and outright sexual assault by Watson,” the filing stated. “Each of those thirty plus women, most of which are complete strangers to one another, experienced strikingly similar conduct from Watson.”

Watson has settled the suits with 20 of the 24 women who have filed against him.