The latest ESPN Cover Story featuring Houston Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson debuted today across the network’s digital, linear and social platforms. ESPN Cover Story is the sports fan’s monthly ticket to the biggest stories on the most captivating athletes – told with inside access, bold reporting and unforgettable visuals.

Texans QB Deshaun Watson is 24, reserved, and a dutiful curator of his image. As recently as January, Watson told The Undefeated, “I don’t talk politics or religion,” but by June he was marching through the streets of Houston with George Floyd’s family and fighting the powers at Clemson University, his alma mater, to have a famous slave owner’s name removed from a building. What changed? The conversation changed. He changed. Watson is challenging the strictures that have historically inhibited Black quarterbacks in the NFL, but it would be wrong to insist he found his voice. He simply stopped suppressing it. “I kind of broke through that barrier,” he says. 

For the latest ESPN Cover Story, Watson talks to Tim Keown about his complicated decision to speak up. 

Read ESPN Cover Story: Deshaun Watson here.

Watch ESPN Cover Story: Deshaun Watson here.

The ESPN Cover Story: Deshaun Watson video feature will air across SportsCenter throughout the day, along with a full digital package on the ESPN app and original storytelling across social. 

More information on ESPN Cover Story can be found here.

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