Desmond Watson is pro football’s next very big thing: a 6ft 6in, 464lb defensive tackle who is poised to become the heaviest player ever selected at the NFL draft, which takes place later this month. “He’s a unicorn,” his coach at Florida, Billy Napier, said last month. “You’ll go the rest of your career, and you’ll never be around a guy that’s that stature.
A native of Plant City, Florida, the state’s strawberry capital, Watson was the Gators’ big man on campus, a larger-than-life folk hero to match the school’s 7ft 9in basketball prospect.