Deshaun Watson pays forward Warrick Dunn’s Habitat for Humanity gift

For the first decade of his life, former Clemson quarterback Deshaun Watson lived in public housing, a far cry from the nice new abode he lived in during high school. Before the bright lights of Clemson and the allure of the NFL draft, life started for him on the south side of Gainesville, Georgia.

But Watson’s childhood took a turn when his mother applied for and received a brand-new Habitat for Humanity house for herself and four children.

For over a decade, former Atlanta Falcons RB Warrick Dunn has made it a mission to help needy families get homes through Habitat for Humanity. Dunn’s foundation would furnish the home for the Watsons and give the family all the possessions it needed:

The family hadn’t planned to stay that first night in their new home, but now there was food and furniture and a life they were eager to start. They spent most of that night just wandering from room to room, doubling back for a second and third look at each gift they’d been given. And when the excitement finally dissipated, Watson fell asleep in the middle room along the front of the house on a bed purchased by an NFL star.

Watson said the home gave him a chance to get out of difficult surroundings and start moving toward the goal of being in the NFL.

He achieved many goals at Clemson, but an annual team philanthropy project returned him to his Habitat for Humanity roots. The Tigers have been volunteering as a team to build houses with the organization since 2012. The project obviously had special meaning for Watson.

Among the trophies Watson’s received throughout his Clemson career, perhaps none has had the unique presentation of the Lowe’s AFCA Good Works Team award he got in October of 2016. He was surprised at a team Habitat build in front of the whole squad, his mother, and the family receiving the house.

“Thanks everyone for this opportunity for us to be able to come out here and help a family out, just like myself and my story with me and my mom,” Watson said. “Having an opportunity to move out of the government homes and into a Habitat house, to be able to start a foundation for our family, being able to achieve my dreams and goals in my life.”

Watson was too young at the time to do the heavy lifting on the build of his own home. But his mother put in over 200 hours of volunteer work. Now he’s an active part of Habitat builds, and he’s paying it forward just like those who did the same for him as a child.