Death Of Father, Former Teammate Weighed On Browns' Deshaun Watson In Week 1

The Cleveland Browns signal caller was sacked six times in 33-17 blow out loss to Cowboys

Sep 8, 2024; Cleveland, Ohio, USA; Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson (4) walks off the field after the game against the Dallas Cowboys at Huntington Bank Field. Mandatory Credit: Ken Blaze-Imagn Images / Ken Blaze-Imagn Images

Week 1 of the NFL season breeds new hopes and new possibilities for players around the league. It's what generally makes this time a year a special one for those who are part of the NFL machine and the millions of fans who consume it.

However, for Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson, the beginning of a new NFL season came with some very different emotions following a pair of personal losses.

"At the end of the day, football is definitely something that you got to take very, very seriously and it’s our job, it’s our career, but you know, there are other things that are bigger than this," Watson said following the teams 33-17, Week 1 loss to the Dallas Cowboys. "I lost my dad Friday. I lost my brother, my teammate yesterday, Diondre Overton, only 26 years old. So, yeah, I mean, it’s been a long week ... it wasn’t even really about football."

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In a 2017 conversation with the Houston Chronicle, Watson opened up about the estranged relationship he had with his biological father Don Richardson. At that point Watson mentioned he had only spent time with his father "about five times," growing up in Gainesville, Ga. In that same piece the Clemson product praised his mother, Deann Watson, who basically served as both parents to him growing up. Despite those circumstances, the loss of his dad still resonated with him this week.

As did the loss of Overton, who was a college teammate of Watson's at Clemson in 2016. The 26-year-old was found dead by police at a residence in Greensboro, N.C., around 2:30 a.m. on Saturday after calls of a noise disturbance, which cited gunshots being fired. Upon their arrival on the scene officers found Overton had been shot and attempted to provide medical aid. They ultimately pronounced the former CFL wideout dead.

Watson revealed that the Browns brass gave him an opportunity to go home and take some time if he wanted it, but he chose to stick around and continue preparing for the start of the season with his teammates.

Facing the emotions of all that, Watson tried his compartmentalize things in time for Sunday. It didn't help that the Browns was dominated in just about every phase of the game by Dallas. Nor did it help that Watson was sacked six times and hit a total of 17 times by a fierce Cowboys defense. By the end of a trying week, Watson was clearly beaten emotionally and physically.

“Yeah, I try my best to just, you know, try at least for at least three hours to separate the two," Watson said. "But again, I’m not going to use that as an excuse for why we played bad. But, yeah, it was definitely a lot of, you know, a heavy heart these last couple of days. But again, like, I don’t want to use that as an excuse of why we lost.”