Kelly Stauffiger is a licensed massage therapist in the Buffalo area, her job for the past 15 years. She’s also had a contract with the Buffalo Bills for five NFL seasons, so she’s been closely following the news of the 22 women who have filed civil lawsuits accusing Deshaun Watson of sexual assault and misconduct during massage appointments. When she read the third lawsuit, the one that said the Houston Texans quarterback forced the massage therapist to perform oral sex, Kelly felt nauseous.
“I got sick after that,” she said. “I thought about the situation she was in, how she could be forced to perform oral sex, how she blacked out and then defecated on herself. That must have been so traumatic.”
The accusations against Watson have brought a spotlight onto the profession of massage therapy and its intersection with the world of professional sports, shoving onto the front of newspapers and websites a profession rarely mentioned in the sports pages or on sports talk radio. How do athletes and professional sports teams establish relationships with massage therapists? What resources do massage therapists have to protect themselves when they are propositioned for sex? And why would an NFL quarterback need or want to work with several dozen massage therapists?
Defector spoke to two NFL athletic trainers, licensed massage therapists who work with NFL players, and current and former NFL players to find out how teams and players use massage therapy, and what it’s like to be a massage therapist working with athletes. They described massage therapy as a key part of recovery for many NFL players, and the massage therapists who spoke to Defector said they were always treated professionally by pro athletes. Two of the NFL players who spoke said the number of massage therapists sought out by Watson, according to the lawsuits, did seem high to them.
And to the massage therapists, the scenario of a client assuming they would perform sex acts felt all too familiar.
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Most NFL teams contract several licensed massage therapists to work on players during the season at the team facility. The therapists come in typically two days per week (sometimes more, depending on the training staff and budget): usually on Mondays, for post-game recovery, and Fridays, to get their bodies ready for the next game.
Massage therapy is a popular modality for recovery among professional athletes, and with limited downtime at the facility during a game week, there isn’t enough time for every player to get the treatment they need during the hours that the massage therapists work in the building. It’s normal for players to schedule one of the team’s contracted massage therapists to come to their home, or to schedule another therapist unaffiliated with the team. Both Stauffiger and Masako Jones, one of the 18 massage therapists who issued a statement in support of Watson, said that word-of-mouth referrals from their teammates are the most common way NFL players find a therapist.
Another female massage therapist, who has 13 years of experience contracting with a non-Texans NFL team, said she’s had to increase the amount of therapists she hires for the team because massage therapy has become a necessary part of recovery and injury prevention. Defector is keeping her name and team anonymous because she didn’t want to jeopardize her contract.
There are 22 women suing Watson, all represented by lawyer Tony Buzbee; five more reached out to Buzbee, but Buzbee said at a press conference there was not enough to bring lawsuits; one woman filed a lawsuit but declined to pursue it when the court said she had to use her real name; and one woman spoke with Sports Illustrated about her experience with Watson. There are also 18 women who provided statements supporting Watson, and five or six more therapists that the Texans hired. That’s more than 50 different massage therapists who said they have worked on Watson since he became a Texan in 2017.
Defector asked current and former players about their own massage therapy routines.
One current player, a cornerback, said he sees two different massage therapists during the season and gets three to four massages per week. In the offseason, he doesn’t get any massages. Another current player, a defensive tackle, said he gets two massages per week, and that he uses references to thoroughly vet the massage therapists that he hires to make sure they’re current in the latest technology of sports recovery, and to be certain they aren’t more interested in making money off him than doing good work.
One former player, a linebacker who retired in the last five years, said he got one massage per week during the season. He said most of his teammates had one per week, usually on Monday or Tuesday, and the two teams he played for only contracted a massage therapist if players asked, so most guys ended up finding their own in town who had worked on other players.
“Every player I know would find someone that is good and stick with them,” he said. “They would actually get possessive of other players stealing their time slots. I have never heard of anyone ever using 40 different people. I would bet a 15-year veteran that got massages weekly didn’t see half of the therapists Deshaun did.”