With former Houston Texans and Arizona Cardinals defensive end J.J. Watt retiring from the NFL this offseason, the pipe dream of pairing the future Hall of Fame pass rusher with his brother T.J. and Derek on the Pittsburgh Steelers is pretty much dead. However, while he may not be donning the black and gold as a player anytime soon, Watt told Dan Katz and PFTCommenter on Barstool Sports’ Pardon My Take podcast that he’s going to be a Steelers fan going forward.
“Absolutely. I’m a huge Steelers fan,” Watt said on the podcast. “I’m all-in on the Steelers.”
Watt and his brothers grew up as Packers fans, which is natural given they grew up in Wisconsin, but it’s not a surprise that family is going to supersede J.J.‘s childhood fandom. While I’m sure Arizona, Houston and even probably Green Bay will always have a special place in J.J.’s heart, blood is thicker than water and as long as Derek and T.J. are in Pittsburgh, it’s assured that J.J. and the rest of the Watt family will be rooting for the Steelers.
While J.J Watt. is an all-time great, T.J. Watt has done a great job following in his older brother’s footsteps, as he already has won an NFL Defensive Player of the Year award and is among the Steelers’ all-time sack leaders. As long as he can stay healthy, there’s little doubt that he can continue building his resume in recent years to hopefully eventually join his brother as a likely Hall of Famer.
While J.J. never experienced much playoff success as a player, hopefully, his brothers will experience some more in the coming years with Pittsburgh. Neither of them have a playoff win yet as a member of the Steelers, but this is a team built to win now, and they should be a playoff team next year. While adding J.J. as a fan isn’t as nice as adding him as a player would be, the Steelers have a bright future ahead. With quarterback Kenny Pickett and a young offense that includes running back Najee Harris and wide receivers George Pickens and Diontae Johnson, along with T.J. Watt, Minkah Fitzpatrick, Alex Highsmith, and Cameron Heyward on the defensive side of the ball, Steelers fans should be seeing a lot of good football in upcoming years.
