\n
DESHAUN WATSON \u201916<\/b><\/p>\n
Telling His Story<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div> By\u00a0Sara Ann Hutto ’17 Watson\u2019s new book reflects on his journey from growing up in Gainesville to becoming the starting quarterback for the Houston Texans<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div> 815. It\u2019s the number Deshaun Watson writes on his wristband in permanent marker before every football game. It\u2019s the number of his old address in Gainesville, Georgia: 815 Harrison Square. Watson\u2019s new book reflects on his journey from growing up in Gainesville to becoming the starting quarterback for the Houston Texans<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":22800,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,8],"tags":[661,681,968,1185,1282],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-22799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumniprofiles","category-my-clemson","tag-clemson-athletics","tag-clemson-football","tag-deshaun-watson","tag-fall-2020-alumni-profiles","tag-football"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2020\/10\/Deshaun-Watson.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22799"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22799\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22799"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=22799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n<\/b>Photo by\u00a0Bryce France
\n<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>
\n
\n
\n
\n
\nIf you know Clemson Football, you know Deshaun Watson, the quarterback who led the Tigers to back-to-back College Football Playoff National Championship games and clinched the title his junior year in 2017. Who can forget that last-minute fourth-quarter drive that resulted in a legendary pass from Watson to Hunter Renfrow in the endzone for the win?
\nBut not everyone knows the whole story of Deshaun Watson, including the story of 815 Harrison Square. For him, the address means more than growing up in a government housing complex. It means creating dozens of imaginary teams on NCAA Football on his first PlayStation; it means pretending to be JJ Redick, former guard at Duke, on the pickup basketball court; and it means committing to Clemson at the young age of 16. It means his mother\u2019s triumph over tongue cancer.
\nThis year, Watson took the opportunity to tell his story in his own words, writing his first book, Pass It On<\/em>, which was released in September.
\n\u201cI feel like a lot of people know where I\u2019m from, but they don\u2019t understand what I had to get through to be able to make it to who I am today,\u201d Watson says. \u201cI was the chosen one. I was blessed. It was amazing when I got drafted and even when I got a scholarship to Clemson. No one in my neighborhood even thought about that; we were just hoping that we\u2019d graduate from high school.\u201d
\nBut Pass it On<\/i> is about more than Watson\u2019s past and his rise to the NFL. It\u2019s also about courage, seizing opportunities and leadership. In his book, Watson describes himself as a \u201cservant leader.\u201d Rather than leading for power or personal gain, he leads with his teammates in mind, their health and their success. \u201cMy mom always taught me to be that way because she was that way,\u201d he says. \u201cShe always made sure that everyone around her was great before she was, and the blessings came.\u201d
\nFor Watson, servant leadership applies on and off the field. This summer, he had the chance to voice his support for the recent name change of the University\u2019s honors college and sign a petition organized by the student body.
\n\u201cWith everything going on now and with students on campus getting their voices heard, it was a perfect opportunity,\u201d Watson says. \u201cThe board was behind us; I felt like for them to change it that fast, they were on board for a long time. That just shows you that the University was looking the right way.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>
\n