This story appears in the January 16, 2017, issue of Sports Illustrated. To subscribe, click here.
After putting Clemson in position to win the championship that had eluded the school since 1981, Deshaun Watson sat on a black folding chair near the Tigers’ bench and watched the victory come apart. The junior quarterback and two-time Heisman Trophy finalist stared at a big screen and gnawed his mouthpiece as Alabama, the unbeaten and unyielding goliath, began stampeding downfield. Moments earlier, with 4:38 left in the fourth quarter, Watson had driven the Tigers to their first lead of a national title game, in which they’d mostly been smothered.