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Years ago, before he carried Clemson back to national prominence and became the face of college football, before the talk of being the No. 1 overall pick in the 2017 NFL draft, Deshaun Watson was a frightened 15-year-old sitting next to his mother in a cold hospital room.
Deann Watson showed up that night because she thought she had strep throat. She was diagnosed with stage 4 tongue cancer.
The woman who had raised her four children alone in government housing in Gainesville, Georgia, until just two years earlier soon had her tongue removed and replaced with tissue from her breast. She lost 200 pounds. She had to learn to speak all over again.
For the rest of her life, she will be fed through tubes, and only those close to her can understand her unique speech.
"My inspiration," Deshaun Watson says.
It's no wonder then, that when Clemson's All-American quarterback was asked during a wide-ranging interview with Bleacher Report to describe his mother in five words, there was little hesitation in the response.
"The greatest woman on earth," he said.
The same woman who gave Clemson its greatest player ever gave college football a unique ambassador not afraid to tackle controversial subjects. From stereotypes about black quarterbacks to social justice issues to dealing with newfound celebrity status, Watson addresses it all.
Matt Hayes: The greatest woman on earth? When you get married, will your mother still be the greatest woman on earth?
Deshaun Watson: Of course. No one can beat Momma. She made me the person I am today. The way I think and act and move and talk and speak. It's all because of her. She made sure that I was straight and that Clemson wasn't getting a guy to go mess up or hurt their program.
Hayes: What Clemson got was the face of college football. Has that sunk in yet? Is that something you could've imagined when you were younger?
Watson: It absolutely is. Believe it or not, it's what I wanted from when I was a kid playing the game. I watched Tim Tebow and how he played and how he carried himself and the good that he did for the game on and off the field. I knew that's what I wanted to do. I'm really comfortable with it; I enjoy it and everything that comes with it.
Hayes: Being the face of the game means talking about important issues. Some professional athletes have publicly spoken out on racial profiling with police. As an African-American man, have you ever endured that?
Chris Carlson/Associated Press
Watson: I really can't speak much on that because I haven't had any experience. It just hasn't happened to me. I try to do the right things. I was always raised that if you do the right thing and obey the law, you won't have problems. I really believe that. But that's just me; that's what I've tried to do because that's how my mother raised me.
She always told us, how do you want people to see you? Do you want them to see your true character, or something else? Coach [Dabo] Swinney always says character is the way you act when no one is watching. I try to act as a man of character if no one is watching or if the world is watching. I'm not saying [racial profiling] doesn't happen; I'm saying I haven't experienced it. I try to do the right thing.
She always told us, how do you want people to see you? Do you want them to see your true character, or something else? Coach [Dabo] Swinney always says character is the way you act when no one is watching. I try to act as a man of character if no one is watching or if the world is watching. I'm not saying [racial profiling] doesn't happen; I'm saying I haven't experienced it. I try to do the right thing.
Hayes: Recent problems at a few programs—Baylor, Tennessee, Ole Miss—have been big offseason stories in college football. Do you worry that people see these stories and all athletes are unfairly lumped together?
Watson: What happened at Baylor was disturbing. I really feel for those women. You just hate to see that. It's a lack of leadership, I think. As far as all players [being unfairly connected], people have their own opinions, and they're usually from the outside looking in. I don't listen to someone who is on the outside of what we're dealing with every day on the inside.
I would tell them every program is different. If your program has a great leader, you'll get great things. If you don't have a great leader and people aren't on the same page, you have a lot of different people doing a lot of different things. That's where trouble starts.
