Page 24 - Florida Sentinel 4-15-22

Sports
No Trials For Civil Cases Deshaun Watson Will Be Held During 2022 Season
Tiger Woods’ Comeback At Masters Ends Following Incredible Display Of Grit And Determination
TIGER WOODS
The civil cases being lev- eled against Cleveland Browns quarterback De- shaun Watson will not go to trial during the upcoming NFL season.
Watson is facing civil suits from 22 different women accusing him of sex- ual misconduct. Watson's attorney and the attorney representing the plantiffs have agreed not to schedule trials on these cases from Au- gust 1, 2022 through March 1, 2023. The cases might not be resolved until at least next year, unless they are settled before then out of court.
DESHAUN WATSON
While those cases may not go to trial this year, two of the 22 women accusing Watson have now amended their lawsuits to add claims of negligence and gross neg-
ligence, saying Watson did- n't protect them while know- ing his intentions.
"So what they’re claiming here is that he was aware of his sexual proclivities, aware that this is something that he might do," explains legal pro- fessor Michael Gabelman. "And he failed to take steps to notify these women as he was seeking to get mas- sages."
Legally speaking, adding the claims allows the women to seek more damages for wrongdoing. It also allows attorneys to seek more evi- dence ahead of the trial.
2 More Coaches Join Lawsuit Against NFL Alleging Racial Discrimination
Tiger Woods finished his latest appearance at the Masters with a six-over 78 as he capped off his remarkable comeback at Augusta Na- tional after nearly 17 months away from golf.
The 15-time major winner stunned the golfing world ear- lier this week when he an- nounced that he would be making a dramatic return to the sport after suffering seri- ous leg injuries in a car crash in February 2021.
After shocking many by making the cut on Friday with some determined play, his in- juries and lack of match fit- ness seemed to catch up with him over the weekend.
He carded a six-over par 78 on Saturday, his worst score in a Masters round, and finished with the same score on Sunday to finish on 13- over.
While he might be well down on the leaderboard, overall it was a successful four days for the five-time Masters winner who showcased the spirit that’s made him so suc- cessful in his first competitive golf action in almost a year and a half.
Afterwards, Woods con- firmed he will play at the 150th Open Championship at St. Andrews, Scotland in July. Woods said he was still un- decided about playing in golf’s next major, the PGA Champi-
onship at Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Okla- homa, in May.
When he was asked if he thinks this week was one of the greatest achievements of his career, Woods said: “For not winning an event, yes.”
“To go from where I was to get to this point, I’ve had an incredible team that has helped me get to this point and incredible support from – as I alluded to in the press conference on Tuesday, the amount of texts and Face- Times and calls I got from players that are close to me throughout this entire time has meant a lot,” Woods ex- plained.
“Then to come here on these grounds and have the patrons – I played in a Covid year, and then I didn’t play last year. 2019 was the last time for me that I experienced having the patrons like this, and it’s exciting. It’s inspiring. It’s fun to hear the roars, to hear the hole-in-ones. I think Kitchen made one the other day. To hear that roar down there at the bottom on 16, just to hear that excitement of what this tournament brings out.
“We have just an amazing day today with now the wind is starting to pick up, it’s start- ing to swirl a little bit. I think it’s going to get tight, and it’s going to be fun to watch.”
Two Black coaches joined Brian Flores on Thursday in his lawsuit alleging racist hiring practices by the NFL when there are vacancies for coaches and general man- agers. The updated lawsuit in Manhattan federal court added coaches Steve Wilks and Ray Horton.
The lawsuit said Wilks was discriminated against by the Arizona Cardinals in 2018 when he was hired as a
RAY HORTON AND STEVE WILKS
“bridge coach” but was given
no meaningful chance to suc- ceed, while Horton was sub- jected to discriminatory treatment when he was given a sham interview for the Ten- nessee Titans head coach po- sition in January 2016.
Flores also criticized the NFL in the rewritten lawsuit for its response to the lawsuit he brought against it and its teams several weeks ago.
In a release from the law- suit's attorneys, Wilks said he hoped the lawsuit would help bring racial equality to the league. Arizona replaced Wilks with Kliff Kings- bury, a White man with no NFL coaching experience, and gave a White general manager an extension de- spite a drunk driving convic- tion.The lawsuit added the Houston Texans to the teams Flores has alleged discrimi- nated against him, saying the Texans engaged in “blatant retaliation” by removing him from consideration for its head coach vacancy after he sued the league.
“The decisions we made after the 2018 season were very difficult ones,” the Ari- zona Cardinals said in a state- ment. “But as we said at the time, they were entirely driven by what was in the best interests of our organiza- tion and necessary for team improvement. We are confi- dent that the facts reflect that and demonstrate that these allegations are untrue.”
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