Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson played Sunday’s season opener with a heavy heart, but he dismissed any notion that recent losses in his personal life affected him on the field.
In the days leading up to Sunday’s 33-17 home loss to the Dallas Cowboys, Watson’s father, Don Richardson, and a college teammate of his, Diondre Overton, both passed away.
“Yeah, I tried my best to just, try for at least three hours to separate the two,” Watson said Monday of coping with the losses while focusing on football. “But again, I’m not going to use that as an excuse of why we played bad.
“But yeah, it was definitely a lot of, you know, a heavy heart these last couple days. But again, I don’t want to use that as an excuse for why we lost.”
Watson confirmed after the game that Richardson had died Friday. Watson did not have a close relationship with his father and was raised by a single mother, according to a 2017 interview he did with the Houston Chronicle.
Watson was close with former teammate Overton, a wide receiver at Clemson from 2016-19. He won two national titles with the Tigers, and he overlapped with Watson overlapped in their 2016 national championship season.
Overton died in a shooting in North Carolina on Saturday. Police pronounced him dead at the scene after attempting medical assistance. Overton was 26.
Watson completed 24 of 45 passes for 169 yards, with one touchdown and two interceptions, in the loss to Dallas. He took six sacks and 11 additional quarterback hits.
Browns running back Jerome Ford called Watson a warrior and said the team remained behind him.
“I don’t think anybody has lost confidence in this building,” Ford said. “And we’re going to continue to put our faith in him and he’ll be able to show everybody that he can still do it and it’s coming soon.”
–Field Level Media