TAMPA, Fla. — Deshaun Watson wanted to be first.
We’re not talking about anything he’s done on the football field.
The Clemson quarterback may be going for a national championship Monday night, but he’s already scored one of the biggest victories of his life.
In just three years, Watson became the first member of his family to graduate from a four-year college. He walked across the stage a couple of weeks ago, wearing a cap and tassel rather than a helmet, to claim his degree in communications.
“No one can take that away from me,” Watson said. “I put the time and the work in, and knowledge is something you can’t take away from a person.”
For all the well-documented abuses in college athletics, from players getting someone else to do their schoolwork to the massive academic fraud carried out by North Carolina, there are plenty of guys who do things the right way.
Many of them will be on the field in Tampa, suiting up for both teams.
