Deshaun Watson came out of the tunnel at NRG Stadium in Houston—in uniform for a regular-season game for the first time in 700 days—and stopped near the corner of the end zone. He looked down at the navy paint at his feet, cracked his neck, made the sign of the cross, looked up and pointed to the sky, pounded his chest twice and jogged up the Browns’ sideline.
By then the boos were raining down—before a smattering of cheers, coming from the few in the stands, evened the sound out. It was a little less than an hour before kickoff.
Watson continued up the field toward center Hjalte Froholdt, slapping hands with his teammate. As he set up to take a snap, he spotted the owners of the two teams 10 yards away. So he veered over to give his old boss, Houston’s Cal McNair, a handshake and half hug, while nodding and acknowledging his current boss, Cleveland’s Jimmy Haslam, and retreating back to Froholdt to warm up.
But what was most notable, and maybe symbolic of this weird Sunday, was what happened just to Haslam’s left. There stood McNair’s wife, Hannah. She was wearing purple shoes, as part of the NFL’s My Cause My Cleats campaign, emblazoned with the logos of the Houston Area Women’s Center, a facility serving local victims of sexual and domestic violence. She also wore a purple dress, as a sign of solidarity with those women.
As Watson approached her husband, she subtly turned her back to the quarterback. My understanding is it was not by accident.
When I asked the McNairs about Watson later, both politely declined comment. But Hannah had made her point. She’d delivered the visual that will stick with me most from the afternoon during which the embattled star, accused by more than two dozen women of sexual harassment and sexual assault, and coming off an 11-game suspension, returned to the NFL.
Some in attendance at the half-empty stadium came to try to make a point, as Hannah McNair did. Others, from Houston and Cleveland, came to show support for Watson, believing, with the legal process complete, he should be able to move on. Many more, it seemed, were just there for a football game, and not as morality play. And Watson was there to play football.
How did he play? Well, he and the Browns got out of here with a 27–14 win. But that’s just a small part of a complex story that played out Sunday in Houston.
