The journey of Christian Watson through the eyes of his mom

By Christa Watson

Christa Watson is Green Bay Packers receiver Christian Watson’s mother. She’s also an executive in the hospitality and event industry in Tampa having raised three kids, including Christian, with an NFL player as a father. But that didn’t lead to a glamorous life. It was a grind to chase that dream for Christa and Christian’s father, Tim. This is just part of Christa’s story in her own words.

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Christian was never not going to play in the NFL.

Maybe Kansas City Chiefs legend Derrick Thomas knew that when he introduced me to his teammate Tim Watson, Christian’s father. Tim played for the Chiefs when I met him and actually started his career with the Green Bay Packers. And while I knew from experience life for most players in the NFL was hardly the glamorous existence it’s made out to be, I always made sure Christian and his brother Tre’s dreams of playing the game their father loved could be a reality, even if it ultimately broke their hearts the same way it did their father’s. I have to be their rock, their home base.

When I met Tim, I was living in Kansas City going to school as a 19-year-old. Yes, a future Hall of Fame player introduced us—Derrick remembered me from Carmine’s in Tampa where I was a bartender and server. But we had sixth-round draft pick finances. We had to work for everything we had. When he left the Chiefs for the Giants, we rented month-to-month and didn’t know where we’d be from year-to-year. We had no house, no support structure.

Tim left for Barcelona to play in the World League right after I found out I was pregnant with Christian’s older brother Tre. Where do I go? What do I do? I’m a pregnant wife whose husband is going to Barcelona. With no cell phones and long-distance calling, we had to save our money just to talk for 30 minutes on Sunday and Wednesday.

We had no home base.

I was young. I didn’t know how scary what I was doing was, but I was just … doing it.

We decided to build a home in Phoenix. But while it was being built, I had nowhere to stay and Tim was gone. His teammate with the Giants, Phillipi Sparks and his wife, opened their home to us while they were in New Jersey and let me stay there (You may know his daughter, Jordin Sparks). Meanwhile, I would only get to talk to Tim when he could get a chance to call me from his coach’s office. We didn’t have the money for him to take trips back and forth.

Our daughter Lexi followed Tre, and Tim returned to Phoenix to play in the Arena League with the Rattlers. His NFL dream was over. When we found out Christian was going to be born, I faced a difficult realization in my life: I was 22 with two kids, one on the way, I owned two tanning salons, and had a husband who didn’t know where his career was going.

We finally had a home base but the foundation of our family wasn’t always steady.

I watched the game break up with Tim before he was ready, a psychological blow that followed him his whole life. I think it still does. That’s the real shit that affects families, that affected us.

All of this rushed through my head as I waited for Christian to enter the world.

A mom will always support her children. I love football. I wanted them to be happy, but knowing that there was a slim chance they’d make it, seeing what it did to Tim, there was a time I didn’t want that life for my kids. Didn’t want that struggle, that heartbreak.

But it was all Tre and Christian ever wanted to be and somehow, against all odds, they both became professional football players. As a parent, you’re the first person to make your child believe in anything, and most importantly to believe in themselves. That meant I had to believe too.

When they told me they wanted the chase pro football I made sure they always felt supported, but also understood what was required. They had to be putting the required energy into achieving that goal, which meant school too. It meant studying and workouts and practice and homework.

And while I’d had my misgivings about NFL life, I knew I had to support my kids. I had to ensure the foundation of our family was strong.

Christian was in elementary school when his dad and I got divorced. And I know it took a toll on him to have his dad live in a different state, to not see him as often as he wants. Tim is remarried now and in a better place. And I’m glad our family, all of us, are better now.

In the meantime, I was Team Mom. I cooked pregame meal and postgame meals. Our house was the meeting place. We might as well have had a locker room at the house we had so many football players over. To them, I was “Mama Watson.” In high school, I had to make Christian 6-8 peanut butter sandwiches to help him try to put on weight and I always made his lunches, never school lunch.

His recruitment was slower than his brother’s. It took North Dakota State’s receivers coach Atif Austin taking an interest in Christian to get him an offer before his senior year. He could have gone to a bigger school; there was interest from bigger programs after his high school career took off, but I instilled in him the idea that once you commit to something, you have to be a man of your word. Don’t commit until you’re certain.

He knew NDSU was where he wanted to be and he kept his promise to them.

Still, I struggled watching him not get the attention I knew he deserved, and not just because I’m his mom. I was thinking, “How can you overlook everything you see on the field? How can you overlook that he’s faster than everyone?”

To watch people overlook him who are supposed to be the experts, I knew they had to see that he’s doing things that they didn’t see other people doing in this grade, or at this school, or in this county, or in this state, so why is this the situation?

You’re seeing it now. The touchdown against the Eagles? Maybe he almost hit 21 MPH, but I’m telling you, he has two more gears he can get to. He was jogging by the end.

Of course, it didn’t start out that way between missing reps in training camp and the drop in Week 1. There are always going to be fans and there are going to be critics. Supporting Christian also means being willing to call out the garbage I see on social media.

My filter is surrounded by, “What’s the right thing to do?” If you have a platform, you should say something that makes things better. What got me was I literally had people telling me that his life didn’t matter. I saw first-hand what I already knew, when you get a fanbase you get a haterbase too.

I spoke up when I felt compelled to say “Do you know this is someone’s child? This is someone’s son. This is someone’s brother. This is someone’s loved one.” This is the same community of people who save rent money to come to games, who show up hours before and form this incredible community to support their favorite team. If you can do all those good things and you can support people you don’t even know, connect with me for a minute and understand that I’m his mom.

For me to watch this play slowed down in slow motion and wonder if his neck is broken against the Bills, understand how that feels for me. I’m Christian’s mom. I’m Tre’s mom. I’m Lexi’s mom. I’m a professional in the world of what I do. I would never say things that would embarrass them or dishonor them on social media.

My speaking out was for a purpose to say “Hey connect with me for a minute. He’s my kid. He’s not just a Green Bay Packer. He’s someone behind that helmet. I hope he wins you money. He’s not made of glass or soft as Charmin. He dropped a ball, a ball he should have caught.”

He knows he can count on me to support him while speaking my mind. I hope he knows he can count on me for so much more than that.

I’ll always be his home base.