J.J. Watt says he thought about retirement but also vows to come back stronger
We’ve almost gotten to the point where we forget that the Houston Texans are playing without their best player this season, and they sure could have used J.J. Watt Monday night against the Oakland Raiders even if defense wasn’t the biggest issue in the 27-20 loss.
You haven’t forgotten about Watt, have you? Sure, the TV ads have waned to a crawl this season, as the three-time Defensive Player of the Year has gone into semi-reclusion the past few months following his season-ending surgery on his balky back.
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But Watt re-emerged on Tuesday with a candid look over at The Players’ Tribune at his life since then and the travails he’s endured in the calendar year. The piece is titled, “Am I Done?” which spells out the fact that he — and others — wondered if his brilliant NFL career might actually be over in its assumed prime.
A key passage:
Some people started to wonder if I was done.
There was a time when I genuinely wondered, “Am I done?”
I didn’t feel like myself. I had never even had one major surgery before, much less three in one year. To have the game taken away from me three times — each time left to wonder if I would ever be the same again — that was hard. That was the first time the word retirement had ever crept into my head.
With football having been taken away from him (temporarily), Watt said that his time this season has felt like a “mini-retirement.” But lest you think he’s done at age 27, Watt reassures himself and his fans that he believes he has football left in him.
After taking us on a journey of his youth football days and just how much he loves the game, Watt closes with a promise you can bet he’ll follow through on.
The kid in me is back.
Am I done?
Hell no.
I’m just getting started.
And there you have it: the full J.J. Watt experience in 15 words.
Are we being slightly cynical? Oh, sure. And we suspect J.J. will be able to have fun at his own expense one day, like Tom Brady recently did with his tongue-in-cheek deflate-gate commercial. We can picture Watt rescuing baby lambs from burning buildings in what would be the greatest “what I did during my downtime” ad campaign of all time. It would be glorious and brilliantly self-deprecating and a perfect way to re-launch his career.
Sometimes we feel the player who #humblebrags he has “traveled the world, starred in commercials, and eaten dinners with presidents” could use a dose of humor and humility. But it also doesn’t negate the fact that those things are true and that he also happens to be a generational talent to whom all others who play defensive line in the NFL are compared.
Let’s be clear: We believe Watt when he says he hit bottom during his extensive and miserable rehab; this is not a cry-wolf type deal. But is it exactly the type of thing we expect him to talk about in great detail? Absolutely.
Watt is a fantastic football player, generous with his time and quite charming. We miss 98 percent of him, and we’re looking forward to his return. The NFL most certainly needs more of him. And his piece reminded us exactly of what we’ve missed this season with Watt on the shelf.
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Eric Edholm is a writer for Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at edholm@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!
