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.
