This is a question that was posed to and answered by Mike Florio:
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From @Organism_46B:
If the Texans had traded Watson before all the allegations against him came out, what would have happened? Would the team that got him be able to rescind the trade somehow? Is there language put into terms of the deal automatically to cover this kind of thing?
If the Texans and another team had finalized and formalized a trade for quarterback
Deshaun Watson, the new team would have had no recourse against the Texans. The deal would have been done.
Could the teams have included conditions based on number of games played, number of games suspended, placement on paid leave, etc? Yes. But there would have been no reason to consider such conditions before news of the allegations emerged. The trade would have happened, and the new team would have been stuck.
In this specific case, the first word of the initial lawsuit emerged the night before the commencement of the new league year. If the Texans had a tentative deal in place to trade Watson, the new team could have declined to conclude the deal based on the news of the filing of a civil complaint.
The NFL uses a very simple and mechanical trade process. The two teams agree to terms, the two teams independently communicate those terms to the league office, the league office approves the trade (as it almost always does), and the trade becomes official, whether it’s player(s) for player(s), player(s) for pick(s), or pick(s) for pick(s). If a Watson trade had concluded before news of the off-field issue had emerged, the new team would have been standing in the shoes of the Texans."
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Unfortunately, Florio left out the actual scenario of a Watson trade prior to the March 17 League start............the Texans knew of a situation with Watson by Dec. If that were not revealed to the proposed trade team and NFL, the trade would not have been validated on March 17.