Watt makes good on a gamble
believed in him and his c azy d eams. Except his d eams don’t seem so c azy anymo e.
It was thei belief in him thatmade him wo k ha d. He’ll tell you they a e the eason he ea ned a schola ship toWisconsin, became one of the p og am’s most beloved playe s, tu ned into a fi st- ound d aft pick fo the Texans and is cu - ently the best defensive playe in the NFL.
Watt wo ks eve y day to epay them and p ove he is wo thy of thei faith in him.
THErE al eady is amyth ci culating aboutWatt, who is 23 and in his second NFL season, and how hemade it to the big time. It goes like this: Watt d opped out of Cent alMichigan, left behind a full schola ship and wo ked at a Pizza Hut in Pewaukee. The e, he ealized he wanted to be a football playe and not a Pizza Hut delive y man. One day he delive ed a pizza and a boy answe ed the doo pe plexed about why a football sta was delive ing his pizza.
In his ca , Watt c ied and vowed to tu n his life a ound.
That sto y is like a Taylo Swift song. Catchy, sweet and only loosely based on eality.
The t uth is mo e complex but no less evealing. To unde stand it equi es unde standing his childhood.
“It was awesome,” Watt said. “It was ou backya d and then the e we e th ee backya ds behind it. The e we e no t ees o anything, so it was p etty much just one big backya d. So we would have football games ac oss the length of th ee ya ds.”
He could un ove to his best f iend Kyle’s house, knock on his patio doo and ask if Kyle could come out and play. Watt, hismiddle b othe De ek and thei youngest b othe T. J. all played togethe with the neighbo - hood kids as thei mothe Connie watched out the kitchen window.
Back then, Watt idolized the Pewaukee High School qua te back.
“I thought the high school qua te back was g eate than B ett Fav e, g eate than any playe who eve lived,” Watt said. “I thought he was the coolest man in the enti e wo ld.”
IN fou th g ade, he toldM s. Keefe, his teache , “I want to be a Badge . And I eally want to be in the NFL.”
She told him he could do all those things if he wo ked ha d, and he neve fo got he advice. Judy Keefe was an anomaly among the people who hea d about his goals.
“I lea ned quickly that people don’t take d eams like that se iously,” Watt said.
Watt was sc awny in high school, but it would only be amatte of time befo e he matched the la ge f ames of his fathe and uncles. People could tell by the size of his feet and hands.
“Eve ybody would tell us he’s going to be a huge kid,” said JohnWatt, his fathe .
Added ConnieWatt: “When he g ows into his feet, that was always the te m.”
In the meantime, J. J. was the backup qua te back at PewaukeeHigh School, having lost the sta ting job because he couldn’t th ow a bubble pass.
Du ingWatt’s junio yea , Clay Ive son became the head football coach and hadWatt play defensive end fo the fi st time. Ive - sonwas only 27 at the time and a little unsu e of his instinctwhen hewatched Watt on film. He tu ned to a defensive coach, Mike Leche , fo confi mation.
“I said, ‘ Mike, am I seeing what I think I’mseeing?’ ” Ive son said. “This kid’s good, isn’t he?”
Afte high school, Watt ea ned a football schola - ship to Cent alMichigan, but he left afte a yea to pu sue his d eam of playing fo theWisconsin Badge s.
He walked on and asked his pa ents to pay fo one yea of tuition — he hated asking them fo that— and p omised them he would ea n a schola ship.
They we e happy to as long as he was willing to wo k ha d. They we e willing to pay fo his college education even if he neve got that schola - ship. But if he wanted to get a scoote , like all the othe football playe s at Wisconsin, he would have to get a job and ea n the money to buy it. Watt was glad to help.
Delive ing pizzas paid well. He made enough money fo that scoote and mo e. But the job at Pizza Hut isn’t what d ove him to succeed.
“Seeing howmuch faith my pa ents put in me, knowingwhat it took fo me to leave a schola ship, leave aMAC ( Mid- Ame - ican Confe ence) championship team and take a gamble, Iwould look like a fool if Iwas w ong,” Watt said. “And I don’t like looking like a fool.”
FOr six months, Watt took classes at a local community college, delive ed pizzas and kept in shape.
He wo ked out fou days a week with B ad A nett, the t aine who helpedWatt g ow into his body sta ting in high school. The fi st time A nett wo ked withWatt at his Next Level t aining facility was Jan. 31, 2006, whenWatt was a high school junio and weighed 207 pounds. He now packs 295 pounds on his 6- 5 f ame.
AsWatt p epa ed fo Wisconsin, A nett demanded even mo e.
“That six months was one of the biggest six months ofmy life because almost eve ybody was tellingme it wasn’t going to wo k,” Watt said. “It was just such a good feeling to go to the gymand know that I was wo king my tail off to makemy d eam come t ue.
“rega dless of what anybody else said. rega dless of whethe people thought it was logical o not, whethe people thought it was the ight decision o not. Me andmy t aine wo king ou ( butt) off eve y single day towa d one goal.”
At PizzaHut, Wattwas the fastest delive y d ive and most dependable. He took p ide in that. Only weathe de ailed him. One day, Watt t ied to delive a pizza in a snowsto m and got stuck afte sliding down a snow bank.
He called a tow t uck, which also got stuck. The towing company called a second t uck, and it got stuck. Finally, he called his mom, who picked him up. The whole o deal made him hung y, so he ate the o de of pizza and wings while he waited fo help.
“He claims hewas in the snowso long that he had to eat the food in the e to stay alive,” said Tony G ant, Watt’s sto e manage at the time. “But he wasn’t in the e that long.”
Then the e is the nowfamous time he delive ed pizza to the young boy who wonde ed why J. J. Watt was at his doo .
“The e’s the epo t that I c ied. I neve c ied,” Watt said. “What was going th oughmy mind was, this kid once sawme as the g eatest, someone he looked up to. When I saw the look on his face, that fo that split second he didn’t see me as that anymo e, that hu t. … It didn’t changemy life o makemewant to go back and be a football playe . But it e- instilled the d ive in me to become g eat again, to become that kid’s ole model again.”
WATT kept his wo d to his pa ents by ea ning a schola ship befo e he played a single down fo the Badge s.
He made game- changing plays on command eve y timeWisconsin defensive line coach Cha - lie Pa t idge asked fo them. He even did it once when a teammate jokingly told him to go block an ext a point against No thweste n.
“The thing about J. J. is he’s at his st ongest when othe people a e at thei weakest,” Badge s coach B et Bielema said.
A look of p ide flashed ac ossWatt’s face when he hea d what his fo me coach had said about it. He had t ained his body to be that way.
That’s whyWatt awakened at 9 a. m. Tuesday, fou hou s afte etu ning f om the Texans’ t ip to New Yo k to play the
Jets on “Mon ay Night Football.”
He went to Reliant Sta ium an starte lifting weights about 12 hours after that game en e . He grew u learning to work while e eryone else reste . He ex ects that will hel kee him from wearing own at the en of the season likemany NFL layers o.
Wisconsin beat Northwestern 70- 23 in his last game at Cam Ran all Sta iuminMa ison. Near the en of the game, Watt begge Bielema to let him back onto the fiel for one last lay.
Bielema agree , an Watt res on e by making a tackle for loss on the lay. As he got u from the groun , something ha ene that still gi es him goose bum s.
The crow began chanting his name.
“I just looke aroun , ” Watt sai . “I just stoo there an looke aroun an looke at the whole sta ium. It was so surreal. It was so … this isn’t real life. This is what you ream about. This is e - erything that you ream about as a ki . You ream about sta iums chanting your name, making the last lay, all this, an it was ha ening to me.”
GRANdpAWatt’s right sus en er is re an ha “pirates an Ba gers” emblazone on it. The left one says “Gran a.” His aughter- in- lawha those ma e for him before J. J. was rafte . J. J.’ s brother derek lays atWisconsin, an T. J. has committe to lay there aswell.
Watt’s gran father was one of the biggest an lou est fans of the pewaukee pirates until his health ma e it ifficult for him to kee that u . He use to ri e J. J. an his brothers to ractice an watch them. E en in the rain, he woul ri e his car u a roa only hewas allowe to use an turn his lights on towatch.
Because of skin cancer, Gran aWatt has to kee his hea co ere , so he wears a Texans 2011 i ision cham ionshi hat. The el erWatt use to be a Green Bay packers fan.
You won’t fin Watt’s jersey hanging rominently aroun town.
The high school is fiel recor hol ers. Watt is liste as the out oor shot- ut recor hol er at 59 feet, 111/4 inches.
Throughout his journey, Watt ha lenty of etractors, but he ne er face them alone. Su - ort came from pewaukee — his gran father, his arents, his brothers, his together a packers shirt an a Ba gers shirt for the occasion.
“It changes thingswhen your best frien is on the team,” sai E an Conley, Watt’s close frien an a freshman coach at pewaukeeHigh School. “The packers are not going to go un efeate . If one of their losses is to the Texans, I can han le that.”
InWisconsin, the only thing bigger than the Ba gers are the packers. One ofWatt’s former classmates sai he was rooting for the packers but felt sorry for Green Bay quarterback Aaron Ro gers. Another sai shewas a huge fan of packers linebacker Clay Matthews an ho e Matthews an Watt coul both get some sacks.
Watt has secure 25 tickets for the game an lanne to ha e 10 eo le staying at his home in pearlan . While there, they will get their fill of cookies since the Girl Scouts in Watt’s neighborhoo ha e isco ere the big Texans efensi e en , with his soft heart, is an easy mark.
“I can’t say no,” Watt sai . “The little girls come u to me, they knock on my oor an say woul you like to buy some Girl Scout cookies? I’msitting there, I’man NFL layer. I makemillions of ollars. I’mnot going to tell this little girl that I can’t s en $ 10 on a box of cookies.”
TWELvE hun re miles from the serenity of his hometown, Watt fin s eace by the ool at his home. He likes to sit there an listen.
“I listen to the quiet,” Watt sai .
On the fiel , Watt is brash an bol . He will yell at an o osing quarterback after batting own yet another ass that he shoul n’t ha e ex ecte to throw the ball o erWatt’s hea .
Off the fiel , he still can’t belie e how his life has change .
His fifth- gra e self coul n’t imagine a life like this. An he lo es that ki s want to be like him. One stu ent inMrs. Keefe’s class recently shocke his mother by eating egetables. When she aske why hewas eating egetables, the boy re lie , “J. J. sai we ha e to eat egetables.”
He gets a kick out of the 75,000 Facebook followers he has gaine since the season starte . Or the hun re s of marriage ro osals he has gotten just sinceMon ay night’s ictory o er the Jets. Or e en the men who write to say that ifWatt wants to go on a atewith their wi es, they woul be OK with that.
Lea ing the house to go to the grocery store means being re are for autogra h an hoto requests.
“Howmuch lo e the city is showingme after booingme last year is awesome,” Watt sai . “It’s so cool.”
He hasn’t forgotten the boos from the night he was rafte .
“A lot of them wante Nick Fairley, a lot of them wante prince Amukamara,” Watt sai . “There were a lot of eo le saying I was just a big white guy, that the team was taking a high- character guy, not the best football layer.”
Watt has a com uter file of a i eo that shows fans at Reliant Sta ium booing as the Texans selecte him on raft ay. The i eo also has inter iews with some of those fans. One sai he was canceling his season tickets. Another sai it was a waste ick.
But the last fan inter iewe felt ifferently. That erson sai he lo e the ick an thatWatt woul lea the Texans to a Su er Bowl.
“Ifmy ream comes true an we win a Su er Bowl here, I want to fin that guy,” Watt sai . “An I want to shake that guy’s han ( an ) say, ‘ Thank you for belie ing in me, an you were right.’ ”