During Tuesday’s press conference, attorney Tony Buzbee shared a variety of information regarding the Deshaun Watson situation. One of the more notable things took aim at one of the 18 massage therapists who spoke out in support of Watson last week.
Buzbee read a statement provided by Jas Brooks that said: “I began providing massage therapy to Deshaun in 2018 and have massaged him at least 40 times since then. I worked with him once or twice a week during the season and as needed during the off season. Early on, he said he wanted me to focus on his hamstrings (he had a trainer that worked on his upper body) and just to work the lactic acid out of his legs. This included the groin, glutes and feet. He never asked me any questions and hardly ever spoke at all. In all that time, I never had a single uncomfortable or inappropriate experience with Deshaun.”
Buzbee claims that the massage therapist sent a direct message that reads as follows: “I told you I stopped working with [Deshaun Watson]. Because I was hearing too much stuff about him messing with other people. . . . He’s been doing a lot in the last three or four months. I even told his ass he needed to be careful because his names getting around. I just hope don’t nobody call me to question me.”
On Wednesday, Brooks took to her Instagram story to clear up any confusion.
It reads as:
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“Hey guys, I’m sure many of you are aware of the recent news regarding Deshaun Watson, an athlete I formerly worked with, and may have heard my name mentioned in evidence manipulated to be used against him. The following post serves as my statement regarding the allegations and misinformation that has been circulating around the media..
The message thread is a conversation between myself and one of my closest friends. I simply shared that I had already stopped working with Deshaun, for reasons unrelated to his current pending case(s), and that the last few months I had been hearing various things from another therapist who has also worked on him numerous times. However, none of those reasons included any of these accusations he’s facing now, as I had no knowledge of any of those allegations prior to the news break.
I do not know any of the victims personally, nor was the correspondence a shared conversation between a victim and myself. I am unsure how my text to a friend got taken out of context, sent around, and used for this situation. Buzbee is playing a very dirty game and manipulating words to work in the favor of his clients. This deceptive use of my unrelated conversation does not change the fact that I haven’t had a bad experience with Deshaun Watson. In my three years of working with him he has always been professional.
My reasons for ending our professional relationship were simply due to my personal preference of not liking to work behind other therapists—as many of us don’t. Additionally, I have other work and clients that took priority over my shared treatment of Watson, and thought it best his other therapists take over.
As far as the esthetician, there was an esthetician in September that posted Watson’s phone number on her public Instagram page. My warning to Deshaun was that he needs to be more careful with whom he works with because he doesn’t know everybody’s intentions and some people will use his name for publicity, just as they are now.”
