J.J. Watt says Steelers are like the Kardashians, and he has an inside source
Houston Texans defensive end J.J. Watt loves drama as much as the next person. And although he may not have time for reality television during the regular season, with his brother T.J. playing for a rival team, he has plenty of time to catch up on the latest gossip.
Watt spelled that out in a recent interview on “Late Night with Seth Meyers” before he delivers a commencement speech at his alma mater, Wisconsin.
Meyers is a well-known Pittsburgh Steelers fan — he grew up in New Hampshire, but his dad is a Yinzer — and wanted to get the inside scoop. While J.J.’s brother T.J. is not nearly as well-known as his five-time All-Pro brother, he’s become a key cog in the Pittsburgh Steelers defense with 13 sacks and a Pro Bowl berth this year.
“It does seem very dramatic,” Watt said. “It’s like somebody that’s watching ‘The Kardashians,’ and I can call one of the Kardashians. I’ll call my brother, see everything that’s on TV, and then say, ‘OK, what’s the real story?’ And it’s pretty wild.”
The Steelers have weathered all kinds of controversies this season and ultimately came up one win short of the postseason. The list of bizarre incidents goes on, although it’s hard to fit everything on one page.
Star running back Le’Veon Bell held out all season after the team did not offer him an acceptable extension, and his offensive linemen called him out for it. Wide receiver Antonio Brown may or may not have sat out the final week on purpose, leading to owner Art Rooney II saying that it is “hard to envision” him return next year. Even quarterback Ben Roethlisberger held his own “After The Final Rose” reunion show by airing grievances in a radio interview following the season.
Unfortunately for viewers, Meyers did not press Watt to say any more — he likely wouldn’t have added much anyway — but we’ll have to just dream up the rest of the details.
Watt isn’t the first to make the Kardashians reference
Just a few weeks before Watt appeared on “Late Night,” Steelers tight end Jesse James made the same comparison. James is set to hit free agency, so maybe he felt more free to speak openly with the season over.
“Ah man, we are — Kardashians. We have, I mean, we’re something,” James said. “It’s Le’Veon Bell issues, you have more stuff popping up weekly, Jeremy Fowler’s reporting stuff about Le’Veon every other week. There’s just people calling people out.
“We were in the front of the ticker on ESPN too much for just reasons that weren’t related to football and not for us playing great ball. It was more distractions.”
Pardon the mixed metaphor, but perhaps James thought that some of the Steelers weren’t there talking to the reporters for the right reasons.
Which Steelers are which Kardashians, anyway?
With all this talk about the Steelers being like the reality TV family, this brings up an important question: which football players most closely match which Kardashians?
Fortunately, Yahoo’s Cassandra Negley put together a comprehensive list for even the least active “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” viewer.
Some may more obvious with Rooney as the matriarch Kris and Roethlisberger as the eminently visible Kim. But, of course, someone has to be Khloé Kardashian, and someone has to be Travis Scott.
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