Nothing will get his name out of the mud with a certain set of people. Not even if the Erica herself went on Oprah and admitted she made it up. Look at the fallout of the Maryland thing, even though it’s now obvious it was invented people are still saying that doesn’t prove that there isn’t a rape culture on campus. People will not give up their preferred narrative - in spite of contrary evidence. He also did a fair amount of self-inflicted harm to his endorsement value with the other shenanigans.
As for the money, it’s unlikely he actually even tries to collect and if he and his team have half a brain they’ll immediately announce the charity it’s going to. Then make the donation regardless of whether or not he ever collects a dime. The counterclaim is a tactical legal move.
Well, that’s about what I expected to have happen. It’s not over (since her and Winston’s suit/counter-suit is still pending), but it’s the start of the end for FSU. The real end will be when the ACC creates a network with ESPN and they discover that they have more important things to report on.
Through all of this, I feel really badly for the girl. I think she got really bad advice from people she trusted that had an agenda that didn’t include her and whatever happened to her (or didn’t), the money she’s getting isn’t going to make her feel better about things.*
FWIW, I’m a huge FSU fan. And I said from the git-go on this that if she was raped Winston should be held accountable. However, based on what I have read/heard, her story started unraveling immediately after the accusations were made public. Is Winston an angel? Absolutely not. He’s was/is an idiot who made a number of really poor choices during his brief college career. Is a rapist? No idea. And at this point, I don’t know how anyone (other than her and Winston) could say with ANY degree of certainty either way. Did FSU fuck up? Without question. Hopefully we’ll get better. I’d like to think so.