Tony Buzbee fires back at Rusty Hardin’s claims on behalf of Deshaun Watson - NBC Sports

During his first press conference on behalf of Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson, attorney Rusty Hardin made a significant admission.

Hardin acknowledged that some of the massages Watson arranged eventually became consensual sexual encounters.

On Friday night, attorney Tony Buzbee, representative of the 22 women suing Watson in civil court, responded on social media.

“I respect attorney Rusty Hardin,” Buzbee said.

But today he conceded that his client gets two to three massages a week — that equates to more than a 150 massages yearly — outside the vast Texans organization that has trainers and massage therapists, etc.

Hardin, in his press conference, also stated that, from his client’s perspective, some or more of these massage interactions with my clients, both licensed and unlicensed therapists, became sexual because they were ‘consensual.’ NO.

“I can tell you from my clients’ perspectives THESE INTERACTIONS WERE NOT CONSENSUAL.

The public back and forth between Buzbee and Hardin undoubtedly will continue.

I’m not a lawyer, but from my perspective Rusty Hardin HURT his clients chances with a jury when he publicly admitted that his client has had consensual sexual relations with ANY massage therapist.

Deshaun loves massage therapists.

Tony Buzbee found a way to profit off of all of it.

Sadly, I believe Mr Watson may believe everything that happened was consensual.

Unfortunately for Deshaun, like many other sexual predators that think their victims “want it” or are “asking for it”, he is wrong.

I suspect Hardin has a bit of puke in his throat over what he is doing and knows full well that his client behaved badly and not all his interactions were consensual.

But I really like Watson and Watts.

Take note that Buzbee is now complimenting Hardin which may mean he is trying to avoid judicial sanctions for daring Hardin to file the motion to compel the plaintiffs to file under their own names or he still thinks a settlement is in play.

If Buzbee believes that his clients can persuade a Houston jury to find Watson liable, then hold them; but if Buzbee knows that his clients will be shaky under cross-examination, it may be time to fold them and claim a pyrrhic victory over Watson for the damage done to Watson’s reputation in social media.

Because of that reputational damage, though, Watson will be out, not to settle, but to claim his pound of flesh from all concerned.

He was hiring massage therapists on Instagram and wanted a happy ending, his lawyer even admitted it.