Lawsuit Reveals That Deshaun Watson Offered Plaintiffs $100,000 But Included an “Aggressive NDA”

Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson was hit with a 23rd lawsuit earlier this week and there was some interesting information contained in the second page of that lawsuit.  Nia Smith's lawsuit against Watson stated that there were $100,000 offers with each plaintiff to settle the lawsuits but that four of them refused due to an "aggressive nondisclosure agreement" that was included as part of the settlement.

Via Pro Football Talk:

Buried at the bottom of page 2 of the 23rd lawsuit filed against Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson is nonchalant bombshell.

Here’s the quote, from footnote 2 to the petition filed against Watson by Nia Smith: “Of course, we now know that Deshaun Watson offered each Plaintiff $100,000 to settle their cases, but not all would accept that amount, due to the aggressive nondisclosure agreement that Watson’s team proposed.”

This is an apparent reference to the effort to settle all cases at the behest of the Dolphins, which wanted all cases settled before it would trade for Watson. As PFT reported at the time, 18 of the 22 cases were ready to be settled. Four of the plaintiffs refused.

Based on the language in footnote 2 to the Smith lawsuit, the nondisclosure language derailed the settlement. Attorney Rusty Hardin recently explained in a podcast appearance with Gabe Feldman that the Dolphins wanted the settlements to include the NDA language.

I still can't wrap my head around the fact that teams don't care at all about Watson's lawsuits as long as they go away.  He could be suspended for who knows, maybe an entire season, and the Browns gave him a huge guaranteed deal and shit all over the only competent quarterback they've had in many years in the process.