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      in Tennis

      Where Is Peng Shuai? The Question the I.O.C. Is Too Weak To Ask.

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      Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai went missing after publicly accusing a former government official of sexual assault. Tennis stars, led by Naomi Osaka, and the WTA have all asked #whereispengshuai?Where is Peng Shuai?That’s the question the International Olympic Committee and its president, Thomas Bach, should be shouting right now — loud, demanding, and aimed squarely at the leadership in China, set to host the Beijing Games in February. But instead of firm demands, we’re hearing not much more than faint, servile whispers from Olympic leadership.Peng, 35, a Chinese tennis star and three-time Olympian, has been missing since Nov. 2, when she used social media to accuse Zhang Gaoli, 75, a former vice premier of China, of sexually assaulting her at his home three years ago. She also described having had an on-and-off consensual relationship with Zhang.Peng wrote that the assault occurred after Zhang invited her to play tennis at his home. “I was so scared that afternoon,” she noted. “I never gave consent, crying the entire time.”“I feel like a walking corpse,” she added.The message was quickly deleted from China’s government-controlled social media site.There have been no verifiable signs of Peng since — no videos or photographs to prove she is safe. Instead, all the outside world has seen is a stilted message, said to have been written by Peng and sent to the WTA, in response to its demand for an inquiry into her allegations. Peng’s supposed response, released by China’s state-owned broadcaster on Wednesday, immediately raised concerns.“Hello everyone this is Peng Shuai,” it read, before calling her accusation of sexual assault, made just weeks ago, untrue. “I’m not missing, nor am I unsafe. I’ve been resting at home and everything is fine. Thank you again for caring about me.”It reads like a message from a hostage, a natural concern given the Chinese government’s long history of using force and heavy-handed pressure to crush dissent and flatten those it deems guilty of going against the state.So, what has been the I.O.C.’s response to a potentially endangered Olympian? A neutered, obsequious statement.“We have seen the latest reports and are encouraged by assurances that she is safe,” read an official I.O.C. declaration on Thursday.What world of fantasy is the I.O.C. living in? Given China’s history, we can reasonably assume the latest missive supposedly written by Peng is a fraud. Peng dared to speak up with force and candor, but not the I.O.C., a Swiss-based organization with a history of cowing to dictators that goes back to Adolf Hitler and the 1936 Summer Games.After some criticism, the committee followed up with another statement, hinting its representatives were talking to the Chinese.“Experience shows that quiet diplomacy offers the best opportunity to find a solution for questions of such nature,” it said, offering no evidence of prior success. “This explains why the IOC will not comment any further at this stage.”Responding to a message purportedly written by Peng, the I.O.C. said in a statement, “We have seen the latest reports and are encouraged by assurances that she is safe.” Valery Gache/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesBach and the wide cast of leadership at the I.O.C. typically use every chance possible to claim the Olympic mission stands for humanity’s highest ideals. They say all Olympic athletes are part of a family. Peng was among those ranks in 2008, 2012 and 2016. Once an Olympian, they say, always an Olympian.That’s an admirable idea, but it gets tossed to the wayside when the stakes grow too high.Looming are Beijing’s Winter Games, fueled by huge fees for broadcasting rights and corporate sponsorships and the billions spent by the Chinese government in an effort to gain respect on the international stage.Do Bach and the I.O.C. have the guts to stand up for one of their own and call out the dictatorial host of its next showcase for a frightening human rights abuse?The answer, so far at least, is no.Contrary to the official I.O.C. statement, nothing is encouraging about this situation.Not if you know the long history of Chinese authoritarianism. Not if you know how it has been hammering at dissent and silencing anyone with enough clout to threaten national order — including prominent cultural and business figures like Jack Ma, founder of the internet firm Alibaba.Not if you know about how China has suppressed protest in Hong Kong and Tibet, or if you pay attention to the treatment of Muslim minorities — deemed genocide by the United Nations and dozens of nations, including the United States — despite Chinese denials.As predicted by critics, or anyone watching with even a bit of common sense, the I.O.C. finds itself compromised. That’s the cost of cozying up to authoritarian hosts like China, which held the Summer Games in 2008, and Russia, the site of the 2014 Winter Games.Compare the typical fecklessness of Bach and the I.O.C. with the uncompromising approach taken by the women’s pro tennis tour, which has been unafraid to stand up boldly for Peng, a former world No. 1 in doubles.“I have a hard time believing that Peng Shuai actually wrote the email we received or believe what is being attributed to her,” wrote Steve Simon, chief executive of the WTA Tour, in a statement. “Peng Shuai displayed incredible courage in describing an allegation of sexual assault against a former top official in the Chinese government.”Simon continued: “Peng Shuai must be allowed to speak freely, without coercion or intimidation from any source. Her allegation of sexual assault must be respected, investigated with full transparency and without censorship.The voices of women need to be heard and respected, not censored nor dictated to.”That’s putting people over profit. That’s guts. Professional tennis in China is a lucrative, fast-growing market. The men’s and women’s tours hold high-profile tournaments there, and the WTA Finals are slated for Shenzhen in 2022.Given the way female tennis players have long led on matters of human rights, it is no surprise that Billie Jean King, Serena Williams, Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova have stood strongly for Peng. And it is no surprise younger stars have followed suit, led by Naomi Osaka, the torch bearer in the Tokyo Games this past summer, who has added her significant stature to the chorus asking “Where is Peng Shuai?”But Bach and the I.O.C., peddlers of Olympic mythology, have yet to join that chorus. Peng Shuai is part of the Olympic family, but the I.O.C. overlords lack the spine to stand up for one of their own. More

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      in Tennis

      China's Peng Shuai Makes #MeToo Claim Against Zhang Gaoli

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      Peng Shuai’s accusation against Zhang Gaoli takes the country’s budding #MeToo movement to the top echelons of the Communist Party for the first time.Peng Shuai, the professional tennis star, publicly accused a former vice premier of China of sexual assault, igniting an online firestorm of attention to a #MeToo allegation that for the first time touched the pinnacles of Communist Party power.Ms. Peng made the allegation in a post on Tuesday night on her verified account on Weibo, China’s version of Twitter. In it, she described an assault that began an on-and-off consensual relationship with Zhang Gaoli, who from 2012 to 2017 served on the party’s Politburo Standing Committee, the top ruling body in China.The post was removed within minutes, but the allegations swirled through the country’s heavily controlled internet, fueled by the fame of the accuser and the accused. That kept the censors inside China’s Great Firewall scrambling.Searches of her name and even the word “tennis” appeared to be blocked, reflecting the extraordinary sensitivity within China of discussing misconduct by party leaders.“The impact of #MeToo has been accumulating for three years,” Lü Pin, an activist who founded the now-banned Chinese online forum Feminist Voices, said in a telephone interview from New Jersey, where she now lives. “When the first women began talking about their experiences three years ago, no one could have imagined that it would reach this high level.”Ms. Peng’s accusations could not be corroborated. In her post, she acknowledged that she would be unable to produce evidence of her accusation, suggesting at one point that Mr. Zhang had expressed worries that she might record their encounters.She could not be reached for comment. The State Council, China’s governing body, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.The authorities have charged government officials with sexual misconduct before, often in conjunction with corruption investigations. Never before, though, has an accusation of sexual misconduct been leveled publicly against as senior a political leader as Mr. Zhang.“These allegations are not shocking in substance but are shocking in the target,” Bill Bishop, the founder of Sinocism, a newsletter on Chinese affairs, wrote.Zhang Gaoli, the former vice premier, in 2014. As a member of the Communist Party’s Politburo Standing Committee, Mr. Zhang was once one of the most powerful people in the country.Kim Kyung-Hoon/ReutersAn economist by education, Mr. Zhang, now 75, rose through the ranks of the party and government. He served as governor of Shandong, the coastal province, and then as party secretary in Tianjin, the provincial-level port city on the Bohai Sea. As vice premier from 2013 to 2018, he was one of seven members of the Politburo Standing Committee, headed then, as now, by China’s leader, Xi Jinping.“I know that for someone of your eminence, Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli, you’ve said that you’re not afraid,” Ms. Peng wrote in her post, “but even if it’s just me, like an egg hitting a rock, or a moth to the flame, courting self-destruction, I’ll tell the truth about you.”Women in media, at universities and in the private sector in China have all come forward with accusations of sexual assault and harassment — only to face pushback in the courts and censorship online.In China, many women say, there remains an ingrained patriarchal tradition of using positions in business or government to gain sexual favors from subordinates or other women. In 2016, the country’s top prosecuting agency listed the exchange of “power for sex recklessly” as one of six traits of senior officials accused of corruption.The accuser in another high-profile harassment case, Zhou Xiaoxuan, posted a note expressing sympathy for Ms. Peng, illustrating how widely the accusation became known despite the censorship. “I hope she’s safe and sound,” she wrote.Ms. Zhou, who in 2018 accused a prominent television anchor of sexual harassment four years earlier, emerged as a trailblazer of China’s fledgling #MeToo movement and also a victim of the social and legal challenges women who come forward face. In September, a court in Beijing ruled that she had “tendered insufficient evidence” to prove her case against the anchor, Zhu Jun, who has sued her for slander.Mr. Zhang retired in 2018, when, according to Ms. Peng’s account, the two resumed a relationship that had begun when he served in Tianjin, which would have been between 2007 and 2012. She said he had first assaulted her after inviting her to play tennis with him and his wife. “I never consented that afternoon, crying all the time,” she wrote, not specifying when exactly the assault occurred.At the time she was soaring through a professional career that would propel her to a No. 1 ranking in doubles with the Women’s Tennis Association in 2014 and as high as 14th as a singles player.With her partner, Hsieh Su-wei of Taiwan, she won the doubles championship at Wimbledon in 2013 and again at the French Open in 2014. That year, playing singles, she reached the semifinals of the U.S. Open. She remains ranked 189th in singles and 248th in doubles, last playing at the Qatar Total Open in February 2020, according to the association.She was one of the athletes who broke out of the country’s sports system, which mandates that most train under state coaches and give most of their earnings, even from endorsements, back to the state. She was one of the first to reach an agreement to allow her to train and travel by herself and keep a larger share of the earnings.Her post continued to circulate in screen shots and other messages even after it was deleted, a testament to the resonance accusations like hers has in Chinese society.“The censorship is not working,” Ms. Lü, the activist, said. She added that while it was important that people were discussing the issue, “changing policy is the most difficult part.”Chris Buckley More

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      in Soccer

      N.W.S.L. Players Protest Abuse Scandal as League Returns to Field

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      In their first matches since confronting the accusations that have shaken their league, women’s soccer players stopped play to make a point.In North Carolina, soccer players from both teams sprinted to midfield to be part of a silent protest of the abuse scandal that has shaken their league. In Portland, Ore., the home team’s players took the field in shirts bearing the slogan “No More Silence” and demanded — and received — the suspension of a prominent team executive.And at Carli Lloyd’s homecoming game just outside Philadelphia, the retiring United States national team star set aside the celebrations of her long career to note a moment that, she said, was much bigger than herself.“This is something you cannot ignore,” Lloyd said after her Gotham F.C. team played the Washington Spirit to a scoreless draw in Chester, Pa.Wednesday night marked the first tentative steps back onto the field for the National Women’s Soccer League only days after it brought its entire operation to a halt as it confronted accusations of coaches who abused players, team executives who did not stop it, and a league that failed to protect its most valuable assets: its athletes.The Gotham-Washington game was one of three played in the league on Wednesday, the first night of action since the league canceled its entire schedule over the weekend and announced that its commissioner, Lisa Baird, had resigned.In Cary, N.C., the North Carolina Courage, whose coach was fired last week after he was accused of sexual coercion by at least two former players, beat Racing Louisville, which fired its coach in August “for cause” after a separate case of misconduct. And in Oregon, the Portland Thorns’ players released a list of demands before their game against the Houston Dash that included the immediate suspension of their own team’s general manager.In all three matches, the teams stopped play in the sixth minute and players stood arm in arm at midfield — a symbolic pause, they said, that represented the six years it took for a group of former colleagues who had filed abuse complaints to be heard. The protests brought together national team stars like Lloyd, Lindsey Horan and Crystal Dunn, dozens of lesser known pros who make up the league’s rank and file and, in Portland at least, even the match officials.For Lloyd, who acknowledged she has been adept at blocking out the crowds, the noises, the off-the-field distractions, this was a night to focus on the collective over the individual.“This is a huge wake-up call,” she said.Her statement and other brief comments by players around the league made direct references to Sinead Farrelly and Mana Shim, the two N.W.S.L. players whose searing accusations of being sexually abused by Paul Riley, who coached the North Carolina Courage to league championships in 2018 and 2019, ignited the recent reckoning in the sport.Many of soccer’s biggest and most outspoken stars, like Megan Rapinoe and Alex Morgan, have weighed in over the last week, and pointedly criticized the league, its officials and even their own teams for knowing about complaints and failing to protect the players.But Lloyd has long been much more reticent to speak out on social issues. So hearing her speak so candidly, and on a night arranged to celebrate her personally, underscored the shared sense of anger and solidarity roiling the N.W.S.L.Fans in Chester, Pa., and other cities showed their support for the players through signs and standing ovations.Charles Fox/The Philadelphia Inquirer, via Associated Press“This is a reset,” Lloyd said in her postgame news conference, and an opportunity “to have policies in place to vet ownership” and coaches. And after “one of the worst weeks this league has ever seen,” she added, “I’m really proud of everyone, even on the Spirit, coming out playing despite what’s been going on.”Before the game, the Gotham players and staff left a handwritten note in the locker room of the Washington Spirit. The note read, “To our friends at the Spirit. Off the field we support you. On the field let’s play. Sending our love to you.”The anger of frustration of players, though, was evident on an emotional night. During a Zoom news conference with reporters after the game, one of Lloyd’s Gotham teammates, Imani Dorsey, pounded the podium when she said: “We are grinding every single day. We just get the wind knocked out of us every single week. It’s heartbreaking. It’s devastating. We’re trying our best every day and it doesn’t feel like the league is doing that.”When asked what she thought about fans who have said they would boycott N.W.S.L. games, Dorsey said: “Any fan that I would say is feeling failed, or don’t have faith in the league, I’d say: Put your faith in the players association and the players. We want this league to be better.”Yet the tumult shows no signs of abating.On Tuesday, Washington Spirit’s chief executive, Steve Baldwin, announced that he would step down after bowing to pressure from Spirit players who criticized him for presiding over a toxic and abusive workplace under the team’s former coach, Richie Burke, who was fired last week. But the Spirit players dismissed Baldwin’s move as mere posturing, and demanded that he sell his share to one of the team’s co-owners, Y. Michele Kang.In Portland, the Thorns players demanded the immediate suspension of their general manager, Gavin Wilkinson. Wilkinson had presided over the team in 2015, when an internal investigation had substantiated claims of abuse against Riley so serious that the team dismissed him. Within months, Riley was coaching a different team in the league.Late Wednesday, the Thorns announced that Wilkinson had been placed on administrative leave. But players and fans quickly noted that his removal did not affect his similar role with the Thorns’ sister club, the Portland Timbers of Major League Soccer.The N.W.S.L. players association, meanwhile, released its own list of demands before Wednesday’s games, including investigations of every club, immediate suspensions for league and team executives accused of failing to protect players, access to previous investigative reports, and a voice in the league’s search for a new commissioner.“We are not bringing the N.W.S.L. down” in demanding action and investigations, Houston Dash defender Katie Naughton said in a brief statement after her team’s game in Portland. “We are rebuilding it into what we know it can and should be.“We believe in our bones that we can do this.” More

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      in Football

      Will Deshaun Watson Play Football This Season?

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      Twenty-two women have filed civil lawsuits in Texas accusing the quarterback of a pattern of coercive and lewd behavior.Houston Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson is the subject of 22 civil suits filed in March and April which accuse him of coercive and lewd sexual behavior, with two that allege sexual assault. He has not been charged criminally and his lawyer has denied the accusations. Here’s where the cases stand.Here’s what you need to know:Who is Deshaun Watson?What is Watson being accused of?How has Watson responded?Will Watson face criminal charges?Will the N.F.L. take any action?Will Watson play football this season?How have Watson’s sponsors responded?Who is Deshaun Watson?Deshaun Watson, 25, is a star quarterback for the Houston Texans, one of the best in the N.F.L. at his position.In September 2020, he signed a four-year contract extension worth nearly $111 million guaranteed, tying him to the Texans through 2025. But Watson, disenchanted by the team’s poor personnel moves and failure to uphold a pledge to include him in the search process for a new coach and general manager, requested a trade. Watson has a no-trade clause in his contract that allows him to choose his next destination. The Texans, hopeful of repairing the rift, emphasized in January that they had no intention of trading him.With Watson insistent and the Texans eager to move on, and if another team offers the package of draft picks the front office seeks — whether that happens before Watson’s status is resolved or not — Houston is likely to deal him.Over the last year and a half, Watson grew into a leading voice among Black players who have protested racial injustice and police brutality. During the 2020 off-season, he took part in a player-led video that urged the N.F.L. to support protests by players, and after the police in Minneapolis killed George Floyd, Watson marched with his family — Floyd grew up in Houston — in a downtown protest.What is Watson being accused of?Twenty-two women have accused Watson of assault in civil lawsuits filed in Harris County, Texas. The lawyer representing them, Tony Buzbee, said the women have largely echoed one another’s claims of sexual misconduct and coercive behavior against Watson.Although the 22 suits filed to date share many similarities, only two include claims of sexual assault: Watson was said in both cases to have pressured women to perform oral sex during massages and was accused in one of also having grabbed a woman’s buttocks and vagina. The civil suits claim that Watson engaged in a pattern of lewd behavior with women hired to provide personal services, coercing them to touch him in a sexual manner, exposing himself to women he had hired for massages, or moving his body in ways that forced them to touch his penis. The incidents cited in the suits were said to have occurred from March 2020 to March 2021.Two of Watson’s accusers publicly identified themselves on April 6, giving statements that described their alleged encounters. Ashley Solis, the first of the 22 women to file suit, read from a statement at a news conference held at Buzbee’s office. Another woman, Lauren Baxley, provided a letter she addressed to Watson that was read by one of Buzbee’s associates.Watson’s lawyers filed a motion on April 8 asking the court to compel the plaintiffs to reveal their identities, citing the use of pseudonyms in civil suits as a violation of Texas state law. They condemned Buzbee for “conducting discovery by Facebook and trial by press conference” and for “asking the public to act as judge and jury.”Twenty-one women added their names to the suits, which were consolidated for a judge’s review. One accuser dropped her suit out of privacy and safety concerns, and one new case was added, bringing the total number of active civil suits against Watson to 22.At least one other massage therapist publicly accused Watson of similar behavior but had not hired Buzbee to represent her. She told Sports Illustrated in March that she was considering legal action.Meredith J. Duncan, who teaches tort law and criminal law at the University of Houston Law Center, defined civil assault as intentionally or knowingly touching someone in a way that a reasonable person would regard as offensive.“It just so happens in this case, the civil assault involves his genitals,” Duncan said. “But forcing another person to perform a sexual act, that’s a more aggravated form of sexual assault.”Most of the incidents are said to have taken place in Texas, but according to the complaints, two are said to have occurred in Georgia, where Watson is from, and in California and Arizona, during his visits there. All of the lawsuits were filed in Harris County, Texas, because that is where Watson lives and works.How has Watson responded?Watson hasn’t commented publicly since the night of March 16, when the first complaint was filed. He said on Twitter that he had “never treated any woman with anything other than the utmost respect” and that he had rejected “a baseless six-figure settlement demand” made by Buzbee before the first suit was filed. Watson’s agent, David Mulugheta, publicly defended his client in social media posts on March 19.Rusty Hardin, who represents Watson, issued a statement on March 19 calling the allegations against his client “meritless” and released a more detailed statement on March 23, in which he refuted the veracity of all the claims and described the first of two allegations of sexual assault as a blackmail attempt.In another statement, issued on March 31, Hardin highlighted firsthand testimonials of 18 massage therapists who said they had worked with Watson over the past five years without experiencing any of the behavior described by the plaintiffs in the lawsuits.At a news conference on April 9, Hardin acknowledged that Watson took part in sexual acts with some of the women, but claimed they were all consensual.“Never at any time, under any circumstances, did this young man engage in anything that was not mutually desired,” Hardin said.Buzbee, in a statement released on April 13, denied that argument.“Mr. Watson may now claim he had consent to do what he did to these victims, but let’s be clear — in their minds he didn’t have consent, PERIOD,” the statement said.Will Watson face criminal charges?The Houston Police Department has spoken to at least 10 women, according to records obtained by The New York Times, from April 2 to May 20 of this year. The F.B.I. is investigating the case, according to Hardin and Buzbee. Watson has spoken to the F.B.I., and Hardin has said agents are investigating one of Buzbee’s clients for extortion, while Buzbee has said they are investigating Watson’s conduct.The status of the criminal investigations into Watson’s conduct is unclear.Watson has not talked with police investigators, Hardin told The Times on Sept. 3. “The police have made no attempt to reach out to Deshaun, and we don’t expect law enforcement to do so until they complete an investigation,” Hardin said.He added that he would be surprised if the police investigation concluded before October.Will the N.F.L. take any action?The league opened an investigation into Watson’s conduct on March 18. In a letter addressed to Buzbee, Lisa Friel, a special counsel for investigations at the N.F.L., requested the cooperation of the accusers, and as of mid-August, according to Sports Illustrated, 10 of the 22 accusers had spoken with their investigators. Hardin reiterated in August that the league had not yet spoken with Watson.A league spokesman said the matter was under review in relation to the N.F.L.’s personal conduct policy. That policy governs off-field behavior involving players and coaches.In a statement on April 2, after the Houston Police Department announced its investigation, the league said it was “continuing to monitor all developments in the matter which remains under review of the Personal Conduct Policy.”The N.F.L.’s investigative unit conducts a probe separate from law enforcement’s, and follows a different set of protocols. Since the league does not have subpoena power, witnesses are not required to cooperate with their investigation. The N.F.L. approaches each interview as if it is the league’s only opportunity to glean information, a method accusers told Sports Illustrated did not reflect trauma-informed practices.The N.F.L. hasn’t placed Watson on the commissioner’s exempt list, a paid suspension for players being investigated by the league for conduct violations, in part because he hasn’t been formally charged by prosecutors. But criminal charges are not a prerequisite, and Commissioner Roger Goodell has the latitude to place someone on the exempt list if he believes the personal conduct policy has been breached.The Texans said in a March 18 statement that they would “continue to take this and all matters involving anyone within the Houston Texans organization seriously” and that the team would not comment further until the league’s investigation had ended, a process with no public timeline. In his first public comment on the matter, the Texans’ chief executive, Cal McNair, wrote in an April email to season ticket-holders that the organization took the allegations “very seriously” and would cooperate fully with the Houston Police Department and N.F.L. investigations.“While we await the conclusion of these investigations, we express our strong stance against any form of sexual assault,” McNair said.Will Watson play football this season?With his football and legal status in limbo, the N.F.L. in July permitted Watson to practice during training camp without restriction, and if he had not shown up he would have incurred a $50,000 fine for each missed day. Watson did not play in any of Houston’s three preseason games.The Texans decided to keep him on the 53-man roster, but have addressed Watson’s continued presence in vague terms, saying they will make the best decision for the organization. On Sept. 6, Coach David Culley announced Tyrod Taylor as the team’s starting quarterback.Watson, though, doesn’t want to play again for the Texans, and they don’t want him to play for them. Unless a team demonstrates a willingness to absorb the risk of acquiring Watson, it is all but certain he will not take a snap this season.How have Watson’s sponsors responded?Nike suspended its contract with Watson on April 7, the day after two of the accusers gave public statements describing their allegations. “We are deeply concerned by the disturbing allegations and have suspended Deshaun Watson. We will continue to closely monitor the situation,” the company said in a statement.Watson’s deal with Apple’s Beats by Dre reportedly was not renewed. Many of his other sponsorships, which included Rolex and several Texas-area businesses, were allowed to expire.Who is Tony Buzbee?Tony Buzbee is a Houston plaintiffs lawyer who has worked on personal injury cases for years but is perhaps best known for his involvement in mass tort and class-action cases, including the litigation after Hurricane Ike and the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico a decade ago. He doesn’t appear to have represented many women in cases involving sexual assault.A former marine, Buzbee flaunts his outsize personality and wealth on social media. The first two words on the website for Buzbee’s law firm are “Just Win,” and he has a tattoo of a shark on his right forearm.Although he has said he does not support the Texans, Buzbee, a Texas A&M graduate, in 2014 put up 10 billboards urging the team’s now-deceased owner, Bob McNair, to draft Johnny Manziel, an Aggies quarterback; McNair didn’t take his advice. Buzbee lives on the same tony Houston street as Cal McNair, but said in a news conference that he did not know McNair. Buzbee also unsuccessfully ran for mayor of Houston in 2019.Who is Rusty Hardin?A former Texas state prosecutor who became a defense lawyer, Hardin has represented numerous prominent clients, from star athletes to the accounting firm Arthur Andersen in the Enron scandal. He also worked in the independent counsel’s office in the Whitewater investigation during the Clinton administration.Among the athletes he has defended are the pitcher Roger Clemens, against perjury charges in 2012; the N.F.L. running back Adrian Peterson, who was accused of felony child abuse in 2014; and the N.B.A. star James Harden, who was accused in 2017 of paying four people to attack and rob Moses Malone Jr., the son of the Hall of Fame N.B.A. player. More

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      in Football

      Deshaun Watson's Awkward First Day at Training Camp

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      The quarterback remains the subject of 22 civil lawsuits accusing him of sexual misconduct. But you wouldn’t have known that as training camp opened Wednesday.HOUSTON — At 9:26 a.m. Wednesday, the man who doesn’t want to play for the Houston Texans — and whom the Houston Texans don’t want to play for them — jogged onto the practice field wearing a team-issued hoodie and team-issued pants, and no one seemed to care.There were no fans present to boo or cheer Deshaun Watson, and if his teammates or coaches were delighted or disturbed by his presence, as he remains in both legal and football limbo with 22 pending lawsuits against him accusing him of sexual misconduct, this was neither the setting nor the time, of course, to make those feelings known. He has repeatedly denied all the claims against him.This was a holy day on the N.F.L. calendar, the first day of training camp, when franchises are duty-bound to savor the return of football, and to peddle optimism and discuss The Team, not address off-field matters.“I felt the buzz,” said Coach David Culley, who was hired in January.Even if the Texans didn’t notice the cognitive dissonance between reality and the optimism they were propagating, it was striking.The players are excited. The team is excited. The organization is excited. Everyone is excited, including Watson, who has a standing request to be traded to another team. He spent most of the second half of practice Wednesday doing things that quarterbacks of his caliber — he last year led the league in passing — generally do at this time of year.Donning a No. 23 red no-contact jersey over his usual No. 4, he played scout-team defense, lining up as a safety in two-deep coverage. He caught a swing pass out of the backfield. He stood with his hands behind his back, or folded across his chest, as the Texans’ other three quarterbacks — Tyrod Taylor, Jeff Driskel and Davis Mills — participated in 11-on-11 drills.“He’s been just like everybody else,” Culley said, referring to Watson. “He’s been strictly a pro in everything that we do.”Deploying Watson in these roles is all part of the Texans’ plan, Culley said. This is training camp, and Watson needs to learn a new offense that he will likely never operate. These summer practices are just a ramp-up period, and the Texans don’t want to get into a situation where he overexerts himself, which is thoughtful on their part. He did, after all, tear a knee ligament in practice in 2017, and another freak injury could burden the Texans with his $10.54 million contract. These are similar drills to what Watson was doing then, but it’s not like players ever get hurt twice. Not when they don’t want to play for the team, and the team doesn’t want them, either.“Guys throw too much, guys’ arms get sore,” Culley said. “And we want to make sure none of those things happen.”The N.F.L. has permitted Watson to participate unrestricted in all club activities as their investigation into his conduct remains open.Justin Rex/Associated PressThe Texans did not immediately comply with Watson’s trade request several months ago, and then in March and April came the deluge of lawsuits: 23 in all (22 are active). According to ESPN, at least 10 criminal complaints have been filed with the Houston Police Department. The lawsuits and complaints accused Watson of a pattern of lewd behavior with women hired to provide personal services, such as massages.As the cases mounted, he didn’t attend the Texans’ off-season program. Watson’s only apparent incentive for reporting to the team Wednesday was so that he didn’t get fined $50,000 for missing days. Once the Texans’ franchise quarterback, he didn’t take first- or second- or third-team reps.Watson was not made available to the news media Wednesday.“It really hasn’t been a distraction,” said Nick Caserio, the team’s general manager, “and I don’t think it will be a distraction.”“It was no surprise,” Culley said of Watson’s decision to report, “so just business as usual.”That’s what everyone in football allowed Wednesday to be, a normal day. The N.F.L. hasn’t placed Watson on the commissioner’s exempt list, a paid suspension for players being investigated by the league for conduct violations. So he joined the quarterbacks in the front row of the stretching period, and he ran through ball security drills, and he bent on one knee, helmet on the ground, his hoodie pulled tight, with no one around him. The N.F.L. has not yet interviewed many relevant parties in the civil cases, and as the league continues to investigate Watson, it has permitted him to participate unrestricted in all club activities.“Every team is dealing with different things, obviously, around the league,” Caserio said, “so we’re no different.”Not at all, which explains why some players were so happy to discuss Watson’s situation.“I’m not answering those questions,” receiver Brandin Cooks said.“I don’t want to really speak much on it because it’s not my situation,” running back David Johnson said.“We’re excited to have him, but it’s up to the team and the coaches,” safety A.J. Moore said.The Texans are respectful of everybody and everything that’s involved, but they will do what’s in the best interest of their organization, because that is what Caserio said the franchise would do. All the Texans can do, really, is control their effort and their attitude and their preparation — not much beyond that. There’s nothing else the Texans could have said or done Wednesday, because a misstep might affect Watson’s trade value, and it’s pretty safe to assume that victims of sexual assault would agree that’s the most important thing.“Institutions replicate themselves,” said René Redwood, a consultant for inclusion and equality who has advised the league on issues of race and abuse. “A body in motion will remain in motion until disturbed by an outside force.”The Texans open the season Sept. 12 against Jacksonville, and it’s impossible, just impossible, to predict whether Watson will be the team’s starter that day. Houston has six weeks to figure out what’s best for the team after a first day of training camp that wasn’t at all weird or awkward or unsettling in the least. More

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      in Football

      Barkevious Mingo, N.F.L. Veteran, Charged With Child Sex Crime

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      Texas police arrested Mingo as part of their investigation into an act alleged to have taken place in 2019.Barkevious Mingo, an eight-year N.F.L. veteran, was arrested in Arlington, Texas, on Thursday night and charged with indecency involving sexual contact with a minor, a felony.On the advice of his lawyer, Mingo turned himself in to the police and was released after paying a $25,000 bond. The police did not release any additional information because of the age of the victim and the nature of the allegation, which was said to have taken place in 2019.Lukas Garcia, Mingo’s lawyer, called the allegations “completely baseless,” adding: “Mingo is the victim of a false claim, and we believe this is motivated by money or some other ulterior motive. We are confident when the truth comes to light, my client will be fully exonerated.”On Saturday night, the Falcons said they were aware of the allegations against Mingo and were gathering more information on the incident. Several hours later, the team announced that it had released Mingo but did not specify what prompted the decision.Mingo’s release, though, came just hours after Sports Illustrated published details of the allegations contained in a search warrant issued to the Arlington Police Department.According to the warrant, the alleged incident took place over the Fourth of July weekend in 2019 when Mingo was said to have invited a teenage family member and his male friend, another teenager, to visit the Six Flags Over Texas amusement park in Arlington and K1 Speed, a go-kart complex. They ate dinner at a steakhouse and Mingo paid for everything. Mingo also bought the boys sports gear that they had chosen on Nike.com.On the night of July 4, the boys returned to a local hotel where Mingo was staying. The warrant states that Mingo made sexual advances at the boy while he was sleeping. Mingo then became more aggressive, trying to remove the boy’s underwear and having intercourse with him.The boy’s mother filed a complaint to the police in January 2021, and the case was assigned to a detective with the Arlington Police Department Crimes Against Children Unit. The police obtained a warrant in February 2021, and obtained Nike sales records from July 4, 2019.According to the application for the search warrant, the police sought evidence to corroborate the victim’s statements: “Furthermore it is known to [the detective] … that purchasing gifts for children is a known ‘grooming’ behavior in child sexual abuse cases.”Mingo had signed a one-year deal with the Falcons in March. Drafted sixth overall by the Cleveland Browns in 2013, Mingo has also played with the New England Patriots, Indianapolis Colts, Seattle Seahawks, Houston Texans and Chicago Bears.Mingo, 30, was born in Florida and played college football at L.S.U.Alyssa Lukpat contributed reporting. More

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      in Basket

      Blazers’ Billups Hire Draws Attention to Sexual Assault Accusation

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      Chauncey Billups was announced as Portland’s head coach on Tuesday as a team executive dodged and deflected questions about a 1997 sexual assault accusation against Billups.At a news conference on Tuesday, the top basketball executive for the Portland Trail Blazers dodged or deflected questions about a 1997 sexual assault accusation against Chauncey Billups, whom he was announcing as the team’s new head coach. A public relations official for Portland cut off a questioner entirely, and the executive, Neil Olshey, would not elaborate on an independent investigation into the incident he said the team had commissioned.Billups’s hire has elicited criticism both from within and outside Portland’s fan base because of the accusation, which was made during Billups’s 1997-98 rookie season as a player with the Boston Celtics.Olshey, the Blazers’ president of basketball operations, introduced Billups on Tuesday and said that he had “been successful at everything he’s done in his life, on and off the court.”He also said that the Blazers “took the allegations very seriously” and that “other N.B.A. organizations, business partners, television networks, regional networks have all enthusiastically in the past and present offered Chauncey high-profile positions within their organizations.” Billups is currently finishing his first season as an assistant coach with the Los Angeles Clippers, who are in the Western Conference finals, and he was previously an analyst for ESPN.Olshey said the team-initiated investigation was done with Billups’s support. “The findings of that incident corroborated Chauncey’s recollection of the events that nothing non-consensual happened,” he said. “We stand by Chauncey. Everyone in the organization.”Neil Olshey, right, Portland’s president of basketball operations, said the team commissioned an independent investigation of the sexual assault accusation against Billups, left.Craig Mitchelldyer/Associated PressWhen asked by a reporter to give more details on the investigation, Olshey declined.“So that’s proprietary, Sean,” Olshey said, referring to the N.B.A. reporter Sean Highkin. “So you’re just going to have to take our word that we hired an experienced firm that ran an investigation that gave us the results we’ve already discussed.”Jason Quick, a reporter for The Athletic, followed up later to ask Billups about the impact the incident had on him, after Billups had said that “not a day that goes by that I don’t think about how every decision that we make could have a profound impact on a person’s life.” Olshey took a sip of bottled water and appeared to glance at a public relations official for the organization, who then cut off Quick, though Billups appeared willing to respond.“Jason, we appreciate your question,” the official said. “We’ve addressed this. It’s been asked and answered. Happy to move on to the next question here.”The 1997 accusation came from a woman who said in a lawsuit that on the night of Nov. 9, following an evening at a Boston comedy club, she was raped by Billups, Ron Mercer and Michael Irvin — who is of no relation to the former N.F.L. player — at Antoine Walker’s home. Walker and Mercer were Billups’s teammates in Boston, while Irvin was Walker’s roommate. No criminal charges were filed. Billups and Mercer settled with the woman for an undisclosed amount in 2000, and Walker also settled a lawsuit with the woman soon after. Billups denied any nonconsensual contact, but said he had sex with her.The lawsuit did not affect Billups’s career prospects. It rarely came up, if at all. He played 17 years in the N.B.A., made five All-Star teams and won the N.B.A. finals Most Valuable Player Award in 2004.“I learned at a very young age as a player, and not only a player, but a young man, a young adult that every decision has consequences,” Billups said on Tuesday, in addressing the accusation, “and that’s led to some really, really healthy but tough conversations that I’ve had to have with my wife, who was my girlfriend at the time in 1997, and my daughters about what actually happened and about what they may have to read about me in the news.”Damian Lillard, Portland’s star guard, publicly lobbied for the team to hire Jason Kidd as its coach and spoke highly of Billups. He has since said he did not know about the accusation against Billups.Troy Wayrynen/USA Today Sports, via ReutersThe hiring of Billups immediately spurred a backlash, with the Trail Blazers being accused of glossing over the assault accusation at the expense of more experienced candidates like Becky Hammon, the seven-year San Antonio Spurs assistant who was a finalist for the job. Olshey said more than 20 candidates were considered for the role. Billups’s only coaching experience is this season with the Clippers.The Billups hiring also has brought criticism on the franchise’s biggest star, Damian Lillard, who spoke glowingly about Billups and publicly lobbied for the team to hire the former point guard Jason Kidd, who was recently hired as the coach of the Dallas Mavericks after working this season as an assistant coach for the Los Angeles Lakers. In 2001, Kidd pleaded guilty to spousal abuse against his then-wife, Joumana Kidd.On Twitter, Lillard addressed some of the criticism for supporting Kidd and Billups, saying: “Really? I was asked what coaches I like of the names I ‘heard’ and I named them. Sorry I wasn’t aware of their history I didn’t read the news when I was 7-8 yrs old. I don’t support Those things … but if this the route y’all wana come at me… say less.”At the news conference, Olshey said that Lillard had been “involved in the process” for hiring a new coach and that he attended some of the video conference interviews. According to Olshey, Lillard also spoke to Billups directly before the hire.“We have different sectors in this organization,” Olshey said. “And, you know, Dame represents the player sector, and we took his input in the process. We value it. It’s important to us to kind of know where he stands. But at the end of the day, this is an organizational decision and the organization believes that Chauncey is the best person to be our head coach.” More

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      in Soccer

      Nike Says It Ended Deal With Neymar Amid Investigation of Sexual Abuse

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      Nike said that Neymar, the soccer superstar, had refused to cooperate with an investigation into “credible allegations of wrongdoing” made by one of the company’s employees.Nike ended its sponsorship agreement with the Brazilian soccer superstar Neymar last year after he refused to participate in an investigation of an accusation that he had sexually assaulted a Nike employee, the company confirmed Thursday night.Nike said its investigation did not reach a conclusion as to whether an assault had occurred, which was why it made no public statement at the time.“No single set of facts emerged that would enable us to speak substantively on the matter,” Nike said in a statement. “It would be inappropriate for Nike to make an accusatory statement without being able to provide supporting facts. Nike ended its relationship with the athlete because he refused to cooperate in a good faith investigation of credible allegations of wrongdoing by an employee.”The accusation of assault was first reported by The Wall Street Journal on Thursday night. Nike’s statement obtained by The New York Times matched comments made to The Journal by Hilary Krane, Nike’s general counsel.A spokeswoman for Neymar, 29, did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but denied the accusation to The Journal.Nike first signed Neymar to a sponsorship agreement in 2005, when he was just 13 years old and playing for the youth team of Santos F.C., one of the biggest clubs in Brazil. The company continued sponsoring Neymar after he moved to F.C. Barcelona and then to Paris St.-Germain, establishing himself as one of the world’s best and most popular players. But he switched allegiances to Puma in 2020, without an explanation for leaving Nike before his contract had expired.In 2018, a longtime employee filed a complaint to Nike, according to The Journal, which cited documents it reviewed and unnamed people familiar with the investigation. According to The Journal, the complaint said that during a marketing tour in the United States in June 2016, the woman helped Neymar, who appeared to be drunk, into his hotel room after midnight. While there, Neymar tried to force the woman to perform oral sex and blocked her from leaving the room, the complaint said, according to The Journal.The woman asked Nike about the status of her complaint in 2019, The Journal reported. The company, which believed the woman had not wanted it to take any action on it, according to Nike’s statement, hired an outside law firm to perform an investigation. While representatives for Neymar denied the accusation to the law firm, according to the Journal, he refused to personally be interviewed, prompting the termination of his sponsorship agreement.Around the same time in 2019, Neymar was accused of raping a Brazilian model, Najila Trindade, whom he had flown to Paris. He said they had consensual sex, and he published a number of explicit messages he had exchanged with Trindade on social media, resulting in a backlash against Neymar and many of his sponsors.No charges were filed against Neymar in the case, and the Brazilian authorities eventually charged Trindade, who publicly identified herself as Neymar’s accuser, with slander, extortion and fraud. The first two charges were dropped, and Trindade was acquitted of fraud. More