Who you are on the field doesn’t have to be who you are off of it. That might hold true for a lot of players, but certainly not everybody. T.J. Watt is a bit of an intense person generally, but Pittsburgh Steelers newcomer Myles Jack learned firsthand this year how different the weekday Watt is from Sunday T.J., something he explained to Aditi Kinkhabwala during an interview on 93.7 The Fan yesterday.
“T.J. will snap. He normally keeps it cool during the week. On Sunday though, he’s a different person”, he said. “I’ll look at Dev[in Bush] and I’ll be like, ‘Dev, is this how he always acts? He’s like, ‘No. On Sunday he’s T.J. During the week he’s Trent, but on Sunday he’s T.J.’. I’m like, okay”.
Trent Jordan Watt is a fun-loving family man, even if he is still competitive. T.J. is apparently a bit out of his mind. The youngest Watt brother has that switch that he can turn on to get amped up for games that allows him to compete at the highest level. Just don’t call him Trent, Jack says, unless you’re real close. “I leave him alone”, he told Kinkhabwala, when it comes to messing with him.
Obviously, this hasn’t been the typical T.J. season, most of which up to this point was wiped out due to injuries. He missed seven weeks after suffering a pectoral injury and a knee injury in week one. Even now he’s playing through a bruised rib, head coach Mike Tomlin saying yesterday that he’s “pretty banged up”.
He has just 1.5 sacks on the year, one of which came back in week one before he was hurt, with 22 tackles (three for loss) as well as two interceptions, four passes defensed, and a forced fumble. But thost aren’t T.J. numbers, not ones we’ve become accustomed to, even considering he’s only played five games.
It would be a different story if he were actually able to play healthy, but he’s still making a big difference. We can’t ignore the fact that they are 4-1 in the games in which he’s played, even if it isn’t free from coincidence. But he brings a level of confidence and energy that can’t be replaced—on the field or even before the game, say Jack described his pre-game huddle breakdowns in contrast to Cameron Heyward’s.
“Cam is more articulate. T.J. is like a mosh pit, Metallica, like ‘Let’s go’”, he said. “If you’re not ready to go out there, do not lead this locker room”. You know what else is probably like a mosh pit? Being a right tackle trying to block him.
