Arizona Cardinals DE J.J. Watt opened up in a press conference with reporters on Wednesday after his announcement to retire sent shockwaves through the league.
TEMPE — Arizona Cardinals defensive end J.J. Watt has two more games left in the tank.
Yesterday, Watt shook the world of professional football with a tweet that announced he had played the final home game of his career, one that spans 12 years and is full of accomplishments that will allow him to enter the halls of Canton, OH when eligible.
With 9.5 sacks this season, Watt has seen some of his best football played in years. Conversations began on how much Watt would command on the open market, should he want to leave Arizona.
As it turns out, he’s leaving the game of football altogether.
“I’m playing good football, knowing that I could still play and knowing that hopefully people remember me playing football, then to go out, limping out and being forced out and knowing that I probably should have done it earlier … Like I’m young. I don’t want that to get lost,” Watt told reporters at the team’s practice facility on Wednesday.
“Like I’m 33-years-old. I feel like I’m young. I have a whole life in front of me. I feel great. My body feels great. I’m really just looking forward to the future, whatever that may be.”
Watt’s press conference was indeed full of laughs, true to the character of Watt both as a person and player. He told stories of a teammate Facetiming him right after getting out of wisdom tooth removal speaking incoherently and managed to slip a few curse words (because why not, right?) during his time at the microphone.
Yet retirement is a serious decision, one that Watt didn’t take lightly.
“I’ve added some incredible new pieces to my life, my wife and my son, that certainly take a lot of my focus and my energy. But the wins and the losses of every single week and the energy and force that I’ve put into every week and the preparation has never changed. And I think that’s honestly part of the reason that it’s time to walk away because I don’t want all my energy to go to that anymore,” said Watt.
“I’m ready to not commit all my energy to that. I’m ready to watch my son grow up and ready to spend more time with my wife. I’m ready for a new challenge, whatever that challenge may be I’m looking forward to see what else is out there.”
Watt will go down as one of the best defensive players of all-time. He’s just one of three players ever to win the league’s Defensive Player of the Year Award on three different occasions.
In spite of his dominance, which initially sprouted in Houston before making its way to the desert, injuries managed to derail at least some of his greatness.
“I have obviously gone through some injuries over my career. And that’s extremely frustrating, because I know what I’m capable of, and I know who I can be and who I should be as a player. There’s been years I haven’t been able to display that and I haven’t been able to be that player, and that hurt, there was no question about it,” Watt said.
“Being able to play good ball, being able to leave good memories and being able to have some good film to show my son, that was definitely important to me. So I think that’s also part of the reason that despite playing decent ball right now it’s a good time to walk away.”
For any successful person, the path to the top was accompanied by plenty of people and helping hands along the way.
Watt’s journey is no different.
“The thing I don’t want to get lost in that I’ve never did it alone. I mean, I’ve had so many incredible people help me. My parents always say it, it’s an old adage: it takes a village to raise a child. It surely has taken many villages to raise me and to help me become who I am and to do the things that I’ve done,” he said.
