A LASTING LEGACY.
With Watt’s departure, star leaves legacy on and off the field
It was just a line on the NFL’s transaction report a little after 3 p.m. under the category of “terminations of vested veterans” — Watt, J.J., DE. But for a region, the league’s jargon marked the end of a 10year career in Houston as notable for its acts on the field as off.
Watt, who will be 32 when the next football season kicks off, wanted a chance to compete for the Super Bowl ring that had eluded him in Houston.
The Texans, a team in transition (or turmoil) with a new general manager, a new coach and a disgruntled quarterback, agreed to let the face of the franchise for the last decade become a free agent.
“It was a decision we mutually agreed upon that was best for him and best for the Texans,” Texans chairman and CEO Cal McNair said. “It is bittersweet, and we’ll move forward. J.J. will always be a
Houston Texan.”
Watt’s departure is the latest for a region that in the last month has said goodbye to the Astros’ George Springer and the Rockets’ James Harden. But losing stars is nothing new for a city that has had to say goodbye to the likes of Nolan Ryan, Earl Campbell and Hakeem Olajuwon over the years.
“I came here 10 years ago as a kid from Wisconsin who had never really been to Texas before,” Watt said in an emotional video released on social media. “And now I can’t imagine my life without Texas in it.
“The way you guys have treated me besides draft night, I mean you guys booed me on draft night, but every day after that you treated me like family and I truly feel like you’re my family. Since that day, I have tried to do everything in my power to work and earn your respect and try to make you proud on and off the field. You guys have given me everything I need and more, and I can only hope that you feel like I’ve given you everything I have.”
Watt is one of three players to be named the NFL’s Defensive Player of the Year three times, and he was named the league’s Walter Payton Man of the Year after his foundation raised over $41 million for relief efforts after Hurricane Harvey in 2017 and helped build more than 1,100 new homes and provide more than 239 million meals.
“The city of Houston has been unbelievable to me,” Watt said. “It’s where I met my wife (former Dash soccer player Kealia Ohai). It’s where I met my lifelong friends and my teammates. I’ve had incredible coaches and training camp and equipment staff and cafeteria workers and the weight room staff and the front office people and people on the streets and people in restaurants and people in grocery stores and showing up at my house — the connection is special, and I will never take that for granted because I know how rare it is.”
Watt’s separation from the Texans, instead of a nasty divorce, was an amicable, respectful parting of the ways. McNair said the Texans and Watt had several conversations about his future since the end of a frustrating 4-12 season. Because the Texans granted his request in February, Watt now has a head start on free agency and can sign with another NFL team immediately.
Since entering the NFL in 2011, Watt leads the league in tackles for losses, quarterback hits and multisack games and ranks second during that span with 101 sacks. He’s the fourth-fastest player in NFL history to hit the century mark for sacks, doing so in 120 career games.
The Texans drafted Watt with the 11th pick — a selection that was met with some boos at the team’s draft party that night.
“J.J. was awfully good, and we knew it,” said Wade Phillips, who was the team’s defensive coordinator at the time. “Nobody knew him in the draft. Everybody wanted somebody else. He’s obviously a Hall of Fame player, a great player and arguably the best player in Texans history, and I think that legacy will live on for a long time.”
At 6-foot-5 and 288 pounds, Watt played the game with a rare aggressiveness, strength, leverage, mobility and technique. Whether it was his trademark bull-rush, rip move, swim move, spin move or speed rush, Watt confounded blockers with his superiority as an athlete and a tactician who used his mind as much as his body to dominate offenses.
After watching quarterback Tom Brady earn his seventh Super Bowl at age 43 with Tampa Bay after winning six titles with New England, Watt is eager to prove he still has a lot of fuel left in his tank.
“I watched a lot of J.J.’s game and he still looks like a really good player,” Phillips said. “Sometimes, a great player moves on from another team a la Tom Brady and does pretty well.”
Despite enduring a pair of back surgeries for a herniated disk in 2016, a gruesome broken leg in 2017 and a torn pectoral in 2019, Watt endured the pain and kept coming back strong. He refused to relent when his future was clouded by major injuries and surgeries to repair the significant damage inflicted on his body on the field.
“He’s one of the best players in NFL history,” McNair said. “He’s just meant so much to us, it’s hard to put into a sentence or two because he’s meant a lot to us personally and the team and the city and the people of Houston, and he has a huge legacy and it will carry on here for many years. This is bye for now, but not bye for good.”
As excellent as Watt was on the field, he was just as valuable off the field. In addition to his foundation’s work after Hurricane Harvey, it also has helped provide more than $6 million to schools and organizations across the nation that have insufficient funding for athletic programs and afterschool activities.
“His commitment to the city is evident from Harvey and not just raising money,” Mayor Sylvester Turner said. “Picking up the phone and calling kids with cancer — this is what he does and who he is. It’s almost without words to describe the impact, not just as it relates to the team, but as it relates to the city.”
Watt built an extremely strong bond with the McNair family, who brought the NFL back to Houston.
“Simply put, there has been no person in the past decade who has made a greater impact on the Texans organization than J.J. Watt,” Texans co-founder and senior chair Janice S. McNair said. “To me, what best represents J.J.’s connection to Houston is his tradition of playing catch with the fans before every home game.
“The number of people who wear No. 99 jerseys with smiles on their faces totally encapsulated J.J.’s passion for bonding with Texans fans at every possible opportunity. His commitment to the community is unlike any player in NFL history. We are forever grateful to J.J. and his family.”
Added Cal McNair: “Mom is the biggest fan of the team of course, the biggest fan of J.J. It’s emotional. It’s emotional for her.”
Wherever Watt goes, this marks the end of his rich tenure in Houston.
“I’m excited and looking forward to a new opportunity and I’ve been working extremely hard, but at the same time, it is always tough to move on,” Watt said. “I just want you guys to know that I love you, I appreciate you, I appreciate the McNair family for drafting me and giving me my first opportunity in the NFL. Thank you, Houston. I love you.”
“His commitment to the community is unlike any player in NFL history.” Texans co-founder and senior chair Janice McNair