The Big Difference Between the Deshaun Watson and Robert Kraft Cases

The MMQB welcomes Jenny back to the show! A discussion of her latest investigative piece covering Watson's problematic behavior during massage therapy sessions.

Ken Blaze/USA TODAY Sports

Deshaun Watson continues to be the biggest NFL story in recent memory, and thanks to the continued, exceedingly thorough reporting of The New York Times’ Jenny Vrentas, it is not going to go away anytime soon. 

Included in this episode: addressing the rampant whataboutism when it comes to Watson and Robert Kraft, the Patriots owner who was charged with solicitation of a prostitute—charges were later dropped—in 2020, stemming from an alleged visit to a sex worker operating out of a massage parlor. 

The following transcript is an excerpt from The MMQB NFL Podcast. Listen to the full episode on podcast players everywhere or on SI.com.

Conor Orr: Jenny, it seems like there's this sort of groundswell of whataboutism any time that there's a story like this. And for some reason there seems to be this sort of foundation of Watson supporters who have said, what about this? What about that? One of the things that we've come across—and I'm sure that you've heard a great deal of now—is, well, what about Robert Kraft? And this seems like the same thing, and it's obviously not. And I'm just kinda curious, because I feel like I'm not doing a good enough job at it: How do we adequately draw the line here for folks to understand that these are two very different things that we're talking about here.

Jenny Vrentas: Yeah Conor, I think it's a great question. It's obviously something that has been brought up a lot. I think there is a distinction between what Kraft was alleged to have participated in and what Watson has been alleged to have engaged in. With Kraft, there was two misdemeanor counts of soliciting prostitution. So the allegation was that he went to a massage parlor that offered sex acts, that he paid for those sex acts and then receive them. Those charges were dropped and, the understanding I guess, was that the massage parlor was offering these things. The difference with Watson is that these women say these were professional massage appointments. They went in there expecting to give Deshaun Watson a professional massage, and he surprised them or shocked them by taking the massage in a direction that was sexual, by initiating some kind of sexual contact, by asking for some kind of sex acts. And that was not [the women's] intention. So of course, both of these things are in the criminal realm. Again, with Kraft the charges were dropped and Watson was not charged. But I think there is a clear distinction between the behavior that's been alleged here. Because in Watson's case, the 24 women who have filed civil suits have alleged non-consensual sexual conduct.

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