After a 19-month absence from football, Deshaun Watson started an N.F.L. preseason game on Friday night.
Before the game began, the Cleveland Browns quarterback did something else that had been nearly as long coming: He apologized for the first time since more than two dozen women said he sexually assaulted or harassed them in massage appointments.
As Watson took the field, met by boos from the sparse crowd at Jacksonville’s TIAA Bank Field, a league adviser was continuing to weigh his eligibility for the upcoming regular season.
He was suspended last week for six games by a third-party disciplinary officer, a decision the N.