PHOENIX — So many nights, the lights stayed on. So many times, there were more things to say than time to share it.
Clemson defensive tackles Carlos Watkins and D.J. Reader understood what few did, empathizing too well with what they wished they didn’t know:
Life is unfair. Good things don’t always happen to good people. Tomorrow isn’t promised.
They discussed pain and positivity, as roommates who wanted to heal, as teammates who hoped to share so much more.
“We each went through that loss, with Carlos losing his best friend and me with the loss of my dad,” Reader told The Post at Saturday’s College Football Playoff media day. “We just spent a lot of time talking together. We really helped each other through those times and talked about having times like these.”
Watkins, a North Carolina native, was home on Sept. 21, 2013, a sophomore heading to a barbecue with his cousin, Tajae McMullens, and his best friend, Dache Gossett, when a rainy day and a slippery road made the uneventful day tragically unforgettable.
Their Dodge Durango hydroplaned into a telephone pole, which crashed through the car and onto Watkins’ lap. Gossett was killed, while a panicked Watkins and his cousin were trapped inside the vehicle for nearly two hours, as rescuers tried to remove them.
Watkins, a 295-pound defensive tackle, suffered multiple injuries, including blood clots in his legs, which hospitalized him for three days, but was told his large frame helped prevent more serious harm.
“I saw how easily things can be taken from you,” Watkins said. “That was really the first real adversity I ever had and it changed my whole outlook on life. You can’t take anything for granted.”
Watkins needed a walker to get around, with Reader chauffeuring him wherever else he needed to go. Watkins missed the rest of the season and received a medical redshirt before returning the following year, but was still reeling from the physical and emotional toll of the tragedy.
“Carlos played last year, but I didn’t think he was back,” Clemson associate head coach/defensive tackles Dan Brooks said. “Nobody knows what it’s like to go through all of that. His friend died in the car with him. He thought he was gonna die. It takes a long time to come back from that, but he’s now where we thought he would be. He’s been great.”
Though Watkins became an instrumental part of the Tigers’ revamped defensive line this season, the coaching staff was unsure whether Reader ever would be back on the field.
The senior defensive tackle took a leave of absence from the team in August, feeling mentally unprepared to play, struggling with his father’s death from kidney failure the previous June.
“I just didn’t want it to get worse than what it was and I didn’t want to be fearful about that,” Reader said. “It’s a game, it’s not life. This is something that could mess with me for life if I don’t take care of it and I needed to do that.”
Reader was exceptionally close to his father and was home-schooled by him as a child, acquiring his humor and blunt honesty. Growing up, his father allowed several of his friends to live with them when they had nowhere else to go, and when David Sr. got sick, Reader offered one of his kidneys.
His father refused.
“He told me right away he wouldn’t let me do that,” Reader said.
It was tough, Reader said, watching from home and working out alone as Clemson won its first six games of the season, but he never felt far from the team, constantly receiving texts from teammates and coaches.
In touch most often was Watkins, his “brother,” his “twin,” his roommate of three years who never forgot how much Reader had helped him, as willing to listen as start a diversionary video game marathon.
“He really looked out for me and I tried to do the same thing,” Watkins said. “He’s like a brother to me. It was a tough time for him to go through and I just tried to keep things positive.”
Reader returned, soon earned a starting spot and then was voted a captain by the team. He combined with Watkins for six tackles and 1.5 sacks in the semifinal win over Oklahoma.
They will walk onto the field together one more time Monday against Alabama, helping each other one more time.
“We always talked about this, from when we first got here that we’re gonna play together in the national championship,” Reader said. “This is where we wanted to be.”