At least not without looking like outright deniers. It's now absolute fact that he's been lying about this, all while knowing what he admitted to in 2005.

Before this came out you could defend him by just saying "he just settled because he didn't want to go through with the case, all the women are making it up" but that is completely gone now.

More importantly, there are tons of people who acted indifferent to the situation. The people who were quick to forget about the allegations after he settled until Hanibal Burress brought it up again.

(And please don't come with a TOKPR saying that none of the current outrage had to do with Burress because everyone was aware of the allegations. A good chunk of people straight up FORGOT about it because they viewed Cos as the perfect dad, until Burress brought it up.)