If you’ve watched Pittsburgh Steelers’ linebacker T.J. Watt over the years, you know that the star pass rusher loves to punch at the football in an effort to try and create a turnover.
With the Seattle Seahawks driving down the field in the third quarter and into the red zone, Watt went for multiple punches on Seattle running back Alex Collins, drawing an unnecessary roughness penalty that caused a bit of a skirmish near the goal line.
After the win over the Seahawks in overtime, Watt addressed the unnecessary roughness penalty, stating that punching at the football is something he does every week, and that there was no malicious intent behind the punches thrown at the football.
“I just said [to the officials] I punched every week,” Watt said to reporters, via Steelers.com. “If you watch the film, and I know they do, it’s nothing malicious, I didn’t intend to punch him in the face or in the arm at all. I’m striking at the football and I just told them it’s something that I do on a regular basis. It’s not something that I’m trying to affect the player in any way. I’m just simply trying to get the football out.”
Watt’s comments should go without stating, considering it’s what he does every week in every instance he gets. Players across the league do it consistently as well as it’s a new-age way to try and knock the football out and create turnovers. Instead, Watt was flagged on the play and caused some ruckus near the goal line with a couple of Seahawks players, leading to some words overall.
There was certainly no malicious intent behind it, and it’s worth noting that Seattle running back Alex Collins took no exception to it either.
That said, there remains the possibility that Watt could receive a FedEx envelope this week from the league for the penalty.
