Clay Travis says sports media is “struggling” with the Deshaun Watson case because “It doesn’t fit easy identity politics criteria.”
The 25-year-old Houston Texans quarterback faces sex assault allegations from multiple massage therapists who say he solicited them for sex on social media.
The OutKick founder says there’s a good reason why the media isn’t all over the Watson case.
“One reason that this story is receiving almost no sports media attention is because it doesn’t fit easy identity politics criteria,” Clay said during his radio show OutKick the Coverage on Monday.
“Because you have women who are mostly powerless, and mostly minorities that are usually considered to be victims in cases like these. But then the person who potentially took advantage of them is black in Deshaun Watson, who is typically considered to be a victim in sports media circles too.”
Travis continued:
“So what happens when two victim-laden ideologies collide? Your typically woke sports media doesn’t know how to cover it because they’re going to alienate one side of the equation, in the victimization pyramid, if they pick a side.”
Travis compared Watson’s case to former NFL quarterback Peyton Manning, who was accused of a mooning incident at the University of Tennessee — 20 years after the fact.
“Think about the way that Peyton Manning’s alleged mooning was covered by ESPN when it became a big story in wake of the Carolina Panthers losing to the Denver Broncos in the Super Bowl a few years ago. Cam Newton didn’t shake hands. He stormed out of his press conference. And a result, that imbecile Shaun King, social media woke warrior, decided to go back into Peyton Manning’s history and draw up 20-year-old allegations from when he was in college.”
At least 14 women have come forward with allegations of sexual misconduct against Watson.
Five more women have accused the Texans star of misconduct since the first lawsuit was filed in Harris County District Court last week.
The women said the incidents occurred in January and March of this year and around July and August of last year.
The lawsuits accuse Watson of being a sexual predator who victimized women by pretending to seek massage therapy sessions.
“Watson is in the sex trade. He needs to be stopped,” according to the lawsuit from the alleged Aug. 2 incident.
Watson vigorously denied any sort of misconduct. He explained that he contacted massage therapists via DMs on Instagram.com because his usual masseuse contacts were on lockdown due to the Covid.
In text messages obtained by an attorney for the plaintiffs, Watson apologized for asking a masseuse if she’s “comfortable with the glute area.”
