He's innocent until proven guilty as far as the justice system is concerned. Obviously I was setting up the hammer of the joke, though... you can consider me much more in the latter camp of my post.bjd5211 wrote: ↑Mon Apr 05, 2021 6:08 amSo which is it? Innocent until proven guilty, or it's "obvious" what has happened before anything has been proven?mild wrote: ↑Mon Apr 05, 2021 4:43 amYeah, I mean, it's really important to remember that he's innocent until proven guilty, and that this is really more of a He said, She said, She said, She said, She said, She said, She said, She said, She said, She said, She said, She said, She said, She said, She said, She said, She said, She said, She said, She said, She said, She said sort of a situation.The Godwin Complex wrote: ↑Sat Apr 03, 2021 8:25 pm I think this is an interesting time for this to be coming out about Watson. Right in the middle of a standoff between him and the Texans front office. Something here isn’t sitting right with me....
Come on guys. With this much smoke, it's pretty obvious there's fire. Let's be honest about what this is, and what it means in the year 2021.
When 21 seperate women all say the same thing about the same guy in the year 2021, then "innocent until proven guilty" isn't really the object in play. It's public perception, and with a younger generation coming through that outright doesn't stand for this stuff anymore - you can bet that any team that wants to make Watson the face of their franchise in the future... will be going through a very lengthy "image rehabilitation" process to make him an acceptable sell to the fanbase going forward. This will happen regardless of the outcomes of these lawsuits, because the damage to his rep has already been done.
This definitely does not preclude him from continuing to have a career - I'd call it almost a foregone conclusion that he will play games again one day. But the bloom is most definitely off the rose, and he plays the most visible (and therefore "marketable"... or perhaps "anti-marketable" now) position in the sport. Ask any Pittsburgh fan - they've all had to eat over a decade of "Ben Rapelisburger" jokes now, I'm sure they'll tell you how fun it's been to cheer for that guy going forward... and that was just one reasonably credible accusation, in 2009. This is 21 (so far) in the #MeToo era. It hits different.
Like it or not, Watson's career will not be the same now, going forward - and he very clearly has displayed a pattern of behaviour that indicates he's not quite right in the head. To me, that's the biggest question going forward - lesser men have been functionally destroyed by public character assassinations... and this is one of the most public ones I've ever seen, it will definitely f--- with Watson's head (how could it not). The reality is - he might never be the same after this (I know I wouldn't be). Whatever the case... I hope he gets the help he needs.