Green Light with Chris Long - JJ Watt! Life after Football, Soccer Team Ownership, Rushing the QB, Most Proud NFL Moment & Fatherhood

Episode Date: June 27, 2023

(1:56) - JJ Watt on Retirement, Fatherhood, NFL Memories, Wisconsin Commencement Speech & Potential Weed Party (35:17) - Ownership of the Premier Team Burnley, Relegation & DO's & DONT'S of the Premier League (57:26) - Favoritism Amongst the Watt Brothers, Pass Rush Techniques, Pro Bowl Stories & Memories from the Houston Texans with DeAndre Hopkins, DeMeco Ryans & Andre Johnson (1:07:50) - Advice for Will Anderson, Time in Arizona & Proudest Moment from his NFL Career Have some interesting takes, some codebreaks or just want to talk to the Green Light Crew? We want to hear from you. Call into the Green Light Hotline and give us your hottest takes, your biggest gripes and general thoughts. Day and night, this hotline is open. Green Light Hotline: ‪[phone]‬ Send any Talent Search submissions to: [e-mail] Include any video of your talents, takes and bits as well as a little bit about yourself. Love hearing from the Green Light fans. Also, check out our paddling partners at paddleva.com to get your canoes, kayaks and paddleboards so you're set to hit the river this summer. Green Light Spotify Music: https://open.spotify.com/user/951jyryv2nu6l4iqz9p81him9?si=17c560d10ff04a9b   Spotify Layup Line: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1olmCMKGMEyWwOKaT1Aah3?si=675d445ddb824c42   Green Light Tube YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/GreenLightTube1   Green Light with Chris Long: Subscribe and enjoy weekly content including podcasts, documentaries, live chats, celebrity interviews and more including hot news items, trending discussions from the NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA, NCAA are just a small part of what we will be sharing with you. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Greenlight podcast will see clearly now with Oakley jumping into the podcast game. Head to Oakley.com for the greatest shades in the game. Oakley even offers Prism Lens technology. What the hell is that you ask? It's a proprietary technology to Oakley and available for everyday settings as well. Want to know more? Head on over to oakley.com and do your own research. And while you're there, get yourself a pair of everyday glasses.

That'll be sure to change your look for the better. When you wear Oakley, there really is more than meets the eye. Don't trust me. Try for yourself. I've worn a lot of sunglasses brands in my life, and I can assure you, Oakley is not only the best looking, but the best quality out there. Head on over to Oakley.com, O-A-K-L-E-Y for more information today. Welcome to the Greenlight podcast. Chris Kyle, JJ Watt, just a couple former football players. That's right, former because J-J-Watt is still retired. maybe he won't be by the end of this podcast. Chris was asking JJ about retirement,

what life is like now that he's not training for the NFL, and JJ's ownership of the Premier League team Burnley. Kyle asked JJ about the Pro Bowl, why he felt like he needed to work so hard, about fatherhood and finding new meaning now that he is a son. We had a wonderful conversation. Make sure you check it out on YouTube too. After you listen to this, jump over to YouTube, like, subscribe,

smash that like button. And have a good time with this interview just like we did. We'll be back Thursday. Y'all enjoy. We got JJ Watt today. Who's awesome? Who was great. You know, at different points in my career, I think it was just like he was so Captain America that people were like, hey, fuck this guy.

He can't be that cool. I think after talking to him for an hour, I would have loved to play with the guy. And I also think he seems like he's in a really good place. You know, to stick the landing on a career like that, you know, with everything he's done and walk off under his own power and do it at the right. time. I still think he's coming back. But like that's impressive. And he's impressive. Hats off to him. Physically. Yeah, he's like, I'm not working out. I'm just doing. What the fuck are you doing there, bud? What are those traps? Why does my neck and my right shoulder make a right angle? Yeah. And you, you know, guys built like a V. Yeah, he looks awesome. So,

uh, here's JJ Watt. So when I retired, I didn't want to do shit. I didn't want to talk to anybody. I just wanted to like, you know, like ride off into the sunset quietly. And now, J.J. Watt is getting a bunch of people like me hitting him up being like, yo, you come on my podcast. Talk to us. Talk to us, please. And he did it. He said he's coming on. So we got J.J. Watt on. A guy played a bunch and certainly respected the hell out of from a distance. Love watching him play. And now he's on the other side with us, Kyle. Yeah. And he's got a great smile. Look at him. I saw him playing some golf this past week. Retirement looks good on here. He's an inner sports owner. There's a lot going on in this guy's life. What's up, JJ? How you doing, ma'am?

Oh, I'm great. I'm just glad to be here. I'm glad to be here. I got plenty of time. Don't worry. Nothing to do. So we're good. Hell yeah. Well, he just put a little baby down, I think. So dad life is in full swing. Retirement, dad life coming at you at the same time. How much did how much did dad life and like getting married and having a kid? Because I can remember when I had my first son, like everything shifted for me. In football, it's not like it became less important. I was still going to do all. all the things that I had to do, but you knew hierarchically, like, this was not as meaningful as what just happened. And I wonder how much, like, starting a family factored into what you're doing now, which is not playing football.

Yeah, I agree with you 100% there. It's, you can still put in the same time and energy and effort, but it's, it's not the singular most important thing in your life anymore. It definitely played a factor. I wouldn't say it was the largest factor, but it definitely played a factor. I wanted him to see me play. So even though he'll never, ever remember it,

I wanted to have those photos. I think it was really cool for me to have him on the field for two games this year. But in terms of actual retirement, it was much more physical and mental than anything else. You know, I mean, you guys know better than anybody how much it takes mentally and physically to prepare every season, especially as you get later and later in your career. Can I still do it? Absolutely. Do I have to work

significantly harder to get my body ready every day, every week, every year? Yes. And that's kind of the part that I didn't want to have to do anymore. And that's really hard to imagine for me looking at you and the body of work and what you were was a tremendously gifted and even harder working player. and for you to say that you'd have to work exponentially harder to have that level of success, it just, I can't even fathom that because I remember in 2013 and 14 at the Pro Bowl, we're all drinking beers at the pool. You've got your cleats. We just finished practice.

You're going from the hotel room, and you tell me if I'm wrong, to the field, to go get in some drills, to go get in some lifting. That's what separated you as a man and a player. And for you to have that realization like, fuck, I got to work even harder. That must be really difficult. Yeah, and those are some of the things that I look back on, and I really do wonder to myself and I have conversations as should I have loosened up a little bit more and relaxed a little bit more,

and maybe it would have helped me, you know, injury-wise, who knows? Or the other side of me always says maybe that is the reason I was what I was at my best and, you know, bad luck and things just happened. But trust me, there's certainly times where I'm like, you could have loosened up and had a beer with the guys, man. You don't have to be such a hard ass all the time. Yeah, did you feel like you didn't have enough fun? I mean, like, you know, sometimes I felt like I had too much fun

and I could have had less fun, but you're looking at it from the other side of things. I do think that there are definitely times where I could have loosened up some more, especially in the offseason and things. But, again, I go back, because I do this with the injuries as well. I mean, part of, I've said before, you know, part of the thing with the injuries is you put so much weight in the bar, you do so many workouts, you're doing two a day, you're trying to be the absolute best you can be. And for a while, that got me to the top of the game.

It also probably contributed to my fall from there because of the injuries. But at what point in that trajectory would I have said, okay, now is the time to stop because I was on, like I was going up and up and up. So if you would have told me in 2015, hey, maybe it's time to slow it down. But I'm on my way to my third defensive player of the year. I'm like, why would I slow it down? all working. You know, it's really hard to have that conversation with yourself in the middle of it all. I do that with my brother right now because he's crushing and he's playing incredible football

and I'm trying to tell him, hey, slow it down. And obviously he had the peck injury this past season. So he got a little glimpse of that. And I'm trying to give him that insight and say, hey, just don't make the same mistakes I did. Being healthy is significantly more important than that extra five pounds on your bench press. I don't know if you identify with this, but I remember I was I was a real hard worker. Like, you know, I always did extra. I loved working out. I did it all year.

I took it seriously. But towards the end of my career, it was like I had to learn to work smarter. And that was something that I was never good at. Like, if you told me work as hard as you possibly can for three hours, I can do that. The thing that I struggle with was, okay, now you got to go to this specialist, do this little toe workout. You got to pick up marbles with your feet. You got to work on your proprioception. you got to do this prehab.

That's when things become taxing for me. And like towards the end of my career, that was what I could no longer do. The things that got me to year six when I was real good, it wasn't getting me there anymore because I started hurting myself training. You know, you start overtraining for your age. I don't know if you identify with a little bit of that,

like, man, there's a lot of my nuisance I got to do now. Oh, that's part of the reason for the retirement, man. It's like you've got to do all these little ankle mobilities and these band drills before you go out just to one. form up and you have to do all these things in the off season to make sure your hips are firing properly. And it was just so many additional little exercises. And I was like, I'm sick of it. Like, I don't want to do, I don't want to do this anymore additionally.

And it's funny because that's part of the conversations I have is myself now when I'm doing my workouts. I'm retired. So I'm like, okay, I don't need to do all the extra, you know, rotator cuff work. But should I be? Like, I don't, I'm trying to figure out like what workouts I'm supposed to do. I think you should because we play softball now, like just like men's league softball. And I'm not drinking beer. I'm not like out there like pulling a muscle because I'm dehydrated.

I literally went down to get a ground ball in the second and last game and pulled my hamstring. I remember that. Wait, like Rob Nankovic explained this to me. Like my first year out in retirement, he was like, how are you doing with it? I go, I'm having the best year of my life. And he's like, just wait until a year three and four when nobody gives a fuck about you. And your body starts falling apart. and it gets boring.

So, like, yeah, I do think the pre-hab is important in retirement because I get hurt doing little shit now. I'm 38 years old. But imagine that, though. But you're doing pre-hab and everything for an NFL career where you're getting paid millions of dollars, and I'm sick of it. Now I'm going to do prehab for nothing.

With no incentive. Yeah. No incentive. You really learn, like, how hard a worker you are in fucking in retirement, because you're just like... I'm such a legacy sack of shit, Jay. Jay, the only thing that keeps me mobile and strong at this point is my 14 and a half month old that I got to get down and get low, sink my hips, you know, and the best genetics in Alpmorel County. So the kid, the kid thing has really sparked a new version of myself, which I like.

What have you enjoyed from being a dad and which avenues have opened up in your personality? I agree with you. I think my flexibility has massively increased with my son because you have to get into these squat positions. You have to be able to lift. It means like 25 pounds. got to be able to lift positions i've never lifted like it's that's definitely improved um but other in that man it is it is just knowing a like a love and a feeling that you've never known before and also at the very same time knowing like an exhaustion and just like getting to the very end of

your wits that you never knew before but all in this mix of just incredible joy and happiness and watching him learn and experience the world and like he just he just learned how to stand up and watching him stand up and like see him figure it out and like see him wobble and fall and then see him try again and wobble and stand like it's the greatest coolest thing in the world and realizing that you get to help educate him on how the world works and what like what grass is like just watching him to feel grass it's the coolest thing ever and the other side we want to educate you on what grass is they help us stay here for a second yeah because I heard JJ say we'll get to this but yeah here we go this is when the podcast

start oh yeah no but oh yeah grass kyle stop playing dumb you drug addict what do you mean by that so so when you said earlier that you know like i didn't know if i wanted to you know my kid to see me play football and that sort of thing like i intentionally because i you know my dad played 13 years and i was born in the in the middle of his career he said this to me i'm you i missed out on certain things being a dad with you chris because i could not come home and get the football off me. You know, like when you come home, you played on a lot of teams where things were tough, you know, losses, injuries, playing hurt. It's hard to come home and switch that off. So I do think, like, what you're doing is there's no right way to do it,

but I think there's a really good angle to that. And it's also cool, like, Wayland came home one day for school. He's seven years old. And he's like, dad, were you a famous football player? And I'm like, well, not quite famous, but like, yeah, I played. Like, it's fun to see him kind of learn about it. Yeah. That way, you know, so I do think it's going to be fun to see your kids grow up, you know, as they do over the years and realize how great you were. You know, like, after the fact. That's kind of a cool thing.

I'm curious. Like, have you, like, have you used that at all? Like, I was joking the other day, but they were like, your son's not going to really have ever seen you play that he remembers. and I was like, yeah, but that first time that he pops off and tries to talk back to me, I'm going to just show him a YouTube clip of me making a sack with my helmet off. Put the tape on. I'll be dressed. Throw that tape up.

That was the same effect that our dad had on us when we didn't. I was not born in the middle of dad's career. So my first understanding of dad was like YouTube as a youngster, I would watch old footage. And I'd be like, well, fuck, I'm not messing with this guy. Yeah, I got the flat top walking right in the door. So that will happen. after individual like all ornery and shit but um yeah was the aphib was the aphib thing like i knew you play with a lot of injuries and our boy bow allen who uh who had to fill your shoes at

wisconsin now he podcast with a son he had a fib and i remember how terrifying it was for him and like your whole ordeal i remember how like emotional that was for you was that was that as much of a catalyst as as the injuries in a way to think of that about like you're not Superman dude like you know this shit is dangerous and there's also other risks involved yeah i knew i was retiring before that point but it certainly didn't didn't slow the retirement process down at all i mean it was a fib and i'm sure you're talking to bow or anybody a lot it's crazy to me how many people have had it now that i've obviously learned about it but when you don't know anything about it and it happens to you and they're explaining it to you

it is extremely scary and it is extremely emotional it's you just I didn't know a single thing about it and they were explaining to me that we're going to have to stop your heart and restart it like you hear that and you're like so I'm dying and then and then they explain it they explain how common it is they explain how easy it is to you know move it forward and what happens if it happens again etc and you calm down a bit but for that 48 hours it was it was terrifying and I've said it before, but it's, we were literally looking at ultrasounds of my son and being so happy and crying and excited. And then a couple days later, we were looking at ultrasound of my heart and they were showing me why I was beating wrong and why they were going to have to shock me

to start it again. And it just, I wasn't ready for all that in the middle of the season. And it was, it was emotional. And then they shocked it back in a place and they're like, okay, you can go practice tomorrow if you want. And just went back to practice. It was pretty, It was crazy. It was just a way. I was like, I was jog out. It's probably easier than a dislocated pinky, honestly. I wouldn't want to practice for a week or two. If you like, if you watched my that game against the Panthers, like I checked my pulse probably 600 times during the game just because like it's the scariest thing ever. And I knew exactly what it felt like. So when I check my pulse, I can tell if it's in or out. And the whole game, it was just in between plays checking pulse.

Like it was crazy. And nobody knows their body better than you. So you would be like, Like, am I in the red right now? We're hyper aware of our bodies, too. Am I in the red? Am I okay? Yeah. Well, I had a coach. A coach is the one who actually, like, I'm, same way I'm hyper aware of my body, I'm also

very confident and also very like, you know, I can tough through anything. So the day that it happened, I started to feel it in a team meeting. And I was like, oh, man, I'm feeling a little, like, lightheaded, a little weird. But I didn't think anything of it. And my chest was a little fluttery. So I stood up to leave the team meeting and walk out. out and I kind of like stumbled and I grabbed the railing and our assistant D-Line coach Rusty looked at me. He's like, hey man, are you all right? And I was like, I don't know, man. I just got a little lightheaded. And so I went to the D-Line meeting, sat through the meeting, stood up after that meeting. It was a little lightheaded. And he was like, you should probably go look at that looked at. So I went in our training room and had our trainer look at my EKJ or look at my pulse. He looked at and he was like, yeah, you should go see a doctor. And he sent me to the team doctor, the doctor said, yeah, you need to go to a cardiologist. I went to a cardiologist. Cardiologist said,

yeah, you need to go to an electrophysician. So I went through five doctors in about two hours, all thanks to the team coach saying, just saying like, hey, you might want to get that looked at. Because if I didn't, I probably wouldn't. Thank God for that. I probably would have tough it out. Yeah, exactly. And I still don't know what would have happened. They were like, you could try to play. You just would be really tired. But apparently it's safe. I don't know. It's crazy, man. And you feel good now. Some coaches like you at 70 percent is better. It's better. than them at 100%. Yeah, we can

get a lot of course goes. 200 beats per minute, we can get a hat trick. Yeah, yeah. I have a, like my watch has an EKG thing on it.

So I can, I can do an EKG on my, on my wrist at any time just to make sure. What do you use, what do you use on your wrist for, is it like a, it's an Apple watch. My,

my, I got, my Apple sent me one and my brother. It was really cool, actually. The day after it all happened, my brother, like,

he and his wife knew that Apple had this feature. where you can do an EKG on your wrist for people with AFIB. So Derek and his wife sent me an Apple Watch, and it'll tell you if you're an AFIB at any time. Sounds like something you would do for me, maybe. Yeah, potentially. Hey, JJ, the question I think everybody, when you first retired,

I was number one, mission accomplished, playing at a high level. Like, that was the first thing that resonated with me, like as a player trying to say, hey, this is when I'm going to go out, planning it. It's a really hard thing. It's kind of like planning your funeral or something like, how do you do this? You fucking, you played great. Like when you were healthy in Arizona, you were still, I was always blown away by how you

could still rush the edge. You know, like you've always been really good at the top of the rush, your ankle flexion. I'm jealous, the length, I'm jealous. And it just, like, you continued to play well. But you nailed it. You went out on top. You listened to your body. We had Colt McCoy on.

Colts spilled the beans on your letters. Tell me about the letter process, you know, you writing to yourself so that you remembered like kind of a time capsule of how you felt. Yeah, I didn't want to, I know how everybody feels. Once the season rolls around,

everybody wants to play football again. Like you see the game on TV. You start watching, you're like, I can do this. Like, are you kidding me? I had a little bit of it at free agency time. when you start to see some of the contracts rolling in here like are you kidding me like are you guards are getting what i've been on the couch for four years and i'm like damn this guy had four sacks last year you get 10 mil god i mean i'm not being a hater but yeah yeah so uh i knew that

was going to come around so so like in the off season even i started doing that and writing things down to remind myself like hey this is what you felt like in the middle of june when you're training and you had you just had a squat workout followed by a sprint workout and your knees feel like shit. You're not going to want to do this again. And then I did it in training camp when I'm sitting in a hotel lobby waiting to go into a special team's meeting so I can watch Field Go Block. Nothing against Field Goal Block, but 12 years in, I got it.

If there's anybody who doesn't need coaching on Field Gohawblock, it's you, JJ. Just skip the fucking meeting, bro. Go get anklework. It's unbelievable. Take three steps and put your hands up. Got it, coach. I got it. Jump.

Jump. Yeah. So I wrote that down. And then you get into the season and, you know, we had a rough season, obviously. And, you know, you go like, whatever it was, one and four or something. And you're like, I just got the shit beat out of me for 60 minutes straight. We're one and four. Morale is low.

Remember this. This is the Monday that you don't want to go through again. So I just wrote a lot of stuff like that down. But I also captured a ton. It actually helped. I like the people that produce hard knocks. They're incredible people. They really are great.

I do not like having hard knocks around 14. Like I just don't. But for this, it was really cool to have them because now I have my entire final season basically captured and they caught the retirement. They got my moments with COA with my wife. So I was very grateful for that. And that was really special. And they gave me all the raw footage. And now I have that for the rest of my life.

I want to show COA what that was like. That's something I wish that like, you know, I'm not like, I'm no JJ Y. I'm no Chris Long. but I wish I could go back and call the video guys and be like, can I have this, you know, I want this game. I want them all on DVDs, you know what I mean? You can get them. You can get them, God.

Yeah, you can. They'll do it. It takes them a little bit, but they definitely do it. I'm going to be like, there was this one day we were doing inside run and me and Akeem Hicks were killing each other. I want that to show my kids. I want to show my kids that, actually. So are you really done, man, because I know you're going to say, yeah, I'm done. Okay, but like maybe blink twice or something because you still were so damn good.

I feel like, you know, if anybody deserves a year with a winner, it's you. I know how this goes. I almost came back the next year and I wasn't you. You know, like I was in Jim Schwartz's office for two hours, ready to sign. I left. I said, fuck this shit. Kind of like your letters. I was like, I forgot what a meeting with Jim Schwartz feels like.

Yeah, yeah. You know, and I went home. But, like, the itch is going to be there, man. What happens when somebody calls you next fall? And you haven't officially done your papers. You haven't done a press conference. I'm on to you. But I, like, you know this better than anybody, both you guys.

I am not training to play NFL football. So, like, you can call all you want, but I'm going to show up. You want me to play? What? I haven't, I'm doing, I'm doing vanity workouts right now. I'm doing workouts and look good when I. go to the beach. Travis Kelsey

stuff. You could be out there doing Kelsey work. You're not fit to take on, like, run gas. I'm not going to go bull rushed

Trent Williams right now. Like, I'm not doing that. Like, like, that's, no, so yeah,

people can follow. If there was a guy who could, it would be you. It would be you. If they, you'd be the guy that could do it. If they want to throw out

$20 million for one game, I'll show up. No problem. I'll suit it up for one game, 20 million. We'll help with the finder's fee on that. Another, another perk of

retirement um and you touched on this not us is you want to try weed one day drugs okay so this is the part of the podcast where you can ask us anything about the plant uh what are you what are you concerned about what are you worried about how do you how will you prefer to smoke weed will it be i heard there might be a party will we be invited to this party uh it's it's all works a door disgust well i i'd love to just hear all all of that from you guys I'm fascinated by it. I mean, obviously, I've got plenty of friends and never teammates. No, no teammates have never done it.

But I'm just fascinated here. You want to get a clean experience. If you've never done it before, you want to have the taste in its pure form. And I would say you probably want to go with a water pipe, like a bong, for lack of a better term, because you can really taste the different strains. The water will filter it. And if you get something that makes a lot of bubbles, it'll be a nice, clean, smooth hit. Don't start with a blunt.

don't start with a joint. That seems like difficult way to start. That seems like you're like asking me to go like deep compartment. You're a Wisconsin guy. You jump into ice lakes and you know drill holes in the ice. Like just jump in, baby. The water's not that cold. You just cut the tree down.

No, I would, I think don't listen to Kyle. Not the first time I've said this. But you know, JJ, if you, if you, first off, I don't want JJ Watt walking around like a tweaker with all this parapher hell yeah they'll call you j j pot they called me they called me chris bong and there were all these they were all these memes of me with all my you know stoner eyes and a big bong like i say the first thing you need to do is grab an edible that works too 10 milligrams okay don't go heavy just an edible just a taste it's the purest best buzz there is it feels like if you got hurt and they gave you a pain killer but you're actually having fun and you're not you know destroying your body you're not destroying your body you're not

destroying your body. It's social. It's a body buzz. Go play golf. Go out on the golf course. It's great to watch a movie. It's great to be outside. Sativa, Indica, what are we talking?

I've been... Daytime. I know the terminology. Again, you're going to give him a Sativa and he's going to get all paranoid. Well, I'm just saying it hits everybody different, JJ. But like for in large parts, sativa is like the sun's out, guns out weed. And then the Indica is your nighttime. You know what I'm saying?

So give him a hybrid that's Indica leaning. Yeah, there you go. You know what you said about having to like relax and, you know, like, you know, like, you wish you to like chill it out a little bit. If you work this into your rotation, you will fucking relax, man. You will, you'll be a relaxed guy. I'm telling you, there's something too. How often, like, how often you guys do? Obviously parents and everything.

I mean, I have no experience. Yeah. How does this work? Post 7 p.m. probably after the baby goes down. Yeah, you try to, you try to make rules for yourself like after dinner or that sort of thing. I'm a nightly because I got to have it for sleep. Like when I was in the league, I don't know if you guys used to get like scripts for Lunesta or Ambien real easy.

But, you know, I used to be on the sleeping pills, the whole thing. And then about halfway through my career, we had access to good weed. And we'd go out to Seattle for a game or something like that. And I'd take home a care package. And it changed the whole thing. Like it was a performance enhancer for me in a way. I can see how it would definitely do that. I guess this is this I'm going to sound like an idiot this is going to go no you're not there are no

no safe space no like like I know I know a little bit about it obviously because I also don't want to get anybody else but I guess the rules have changed but like so you just stopped for a month before yeah you stop for a month oh linemen stopped for two months because of our but did you notice he's asking this question because he's thinking about these are smart questions he's thinking where does he have to stop being in one year no I just you just said you just said you brought brought it back on a team flight. So I'm like, well, how does that work? Well, how that works?

There's a once, it's called the annual SOA test, which happens. Actually, the testing begins on 420. April 20th is when the window begins. And the end of the testing windows, the end of training camp. So you know that if you stop late spring, the latest you're going to start against the end of camp. Yes. So you basically stop for a month. Some guys will be stupid.

They'll push it. But they just raise the threshold that you need to, actually pop for a test. So guys now could probably smoke, you know, even closer to- some of these DBs are probably a week. But you know what? We'll just, we'll see you at the party, JJ. I mean, like, you know, it sounds

like a good time. We'll bring some goodies. We'll let you, we'll let you go down this road. I'll be 500 pounds if I smoked, man. That's probably one of the main reasons I know. I would eat so much. No, the first rule of fight club is this is don't get high downstairs in the kitchen. If you have two floors on your house. Yeah, you won't go down.

9 p.m. if you're going to smoke, like go upstairs to the balcony. Like go where you're going to feel too lazy to walk down. I've been using the Dixie Cup as like I pour the pretzels into the Dixie Cup and then that's all I have as opposed to just bring in the bag. My wife's like, where the fuck did the pretzels go? Okay, so enough on weed. I know that you were a commencement speaker at Wisconsin.

We just had Anders home on the show from Workaholics. Do you like that show? Have you seen that show? I have not seen it. I know that. I know that's a badger. He's a badger. He's a badger. He's a badger. You did the commencement speech. Russell's done the commencement speech. How was that? And are you going to get your degree? Because I did mine at Virginia and I don't have my degree and I felt like a fucking, I felt like an outsider in that room full of very smart people. How was it? And are you going back to class? Oh, I'm not going back to class. You kidding me? It was

great experience. It was a great experience. The only, so I've done a few. Down in Texas I have two doctorates, two honorary doctorates. I just say honorary very fast. I have two doctorates. And they gave me those for speaking at graduation, which was great.

And I came back to Wisconsin and did the commencement and received nothing. So I was a little I didn't get anything either. About that. That's bullshit, dude. But it was a great experience.

I mean, I say this a lot. I grew up in Wisconsin. I grew up playing hockey. And they had this thing when I was a kid where the badgers would come to local arenas and you could skate with the hockey team. So I'd be like five, six years old skating with the badgers. And it was a cool thing. I have a picture of it up on my wall with the autographs from the players.

And so for me to go from that to giving the commencement speech in Camp Randall Stadium, like it just literally blew my mind when I did. It was the cool, as craziest thing ever for me. But a funny story from that was I was talking to the university and I really wanted to do something special and cool. There's commencement speeches all the time. There's some great ones. There's some terrible ones. But for the most part, nobody really remembers their commencement speech.

So I was trying to find a way to make mine memorable. And I was talking to the university and I was like, this is what I want to do. Spotted Cow is the best beer in Wisconsin. It's incredible. I want to put a spotted cow under every single seat in the stadium. I'll pay for it all. I'll pay for the labor to put it under the seats. But at the end of my commencement speech,

I'm going to say, and now to congratulate you, just reach under your seat and have a cold one on me. And they were like, and they were like, yeah, we can't do that legally. We cannot.

I thought you did it. So I tried. That's a great idea, though. Oh, so then I tried, I was like, well, what if I tape underneath there a gift certificate

for one beer down at the terrace, which is like where everybody would go after graduation. I was like, I'll give them one spotted car at the terrace. And they're like, we just can't associate alcohol with our graduation. So it ruined my idea, but I thought that would have been such a badass idea. I thought that was like an alcoholic school. Yeah, you guys party well. You guys are good partiers in Wisconsin. Yeah, they put up that like nationwide graphic where it's like the most bars per capita. And like it's like darker blue is more bars and lighter blue is like black. It's just pitch.

Yeah. That was a great idea, man. I wish they did that. You know, the thing that struck me about, you know, you in the news lately hasn't been as much of retirement. You talked about hockey just a second ago. It's the soccer. You got the hat on.

I've been rocking the kits. I'll tell you why I've been rocking the kits. You know, if you retire, you might develop, you know, if you keep doing vanity work, you might find yourself with some man boobs. You never know. Like, you know, like, middle-aged white guys. You never know. And these kits are great.

They keep everything in. They're comfortable. They're cool. They're sweat wicking. They also make, they're good conversation pieces. Unless somebody's like, hey, what team is that? B.O. sticks to him, though.

B.O. does stick to them a little bit. Do you have a favorite kit in soccer? I know you're like a Chelsea fan or were, and now you're an owner of, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So do you have a favorite kit, not including the team that you own? Okay, not including a team that I own. That sounds cool to say when you said it. There's a team down in Latin America, and I, gosh, I wish I had it.

But they, I believe it's called Madero or Madero. And they had this kit that was, it was all white with like gold. It was the globe, but it was, this is a stupid second. I'm just trying to describe a soccer kit. Yeah, but it's okay. You're an owner. My wife's is a great one. In Chicago, they have, I think they have one of the coolest color schemes.

The Chicago flag is an incredible flag. I didn't even know if cities had flags. It's really, yes. The Chicago's city flag is incredible. And the women's team, the Chicago Red Stars, basically made their entire identity around the Chicago flag. So it's a really cool kit with the Chicago flag mixing with the light blue and the red. I love that. Cash app.

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I'll pop through there sometimes. On AMP, you can interact with us really easily. There's a call-in button. We invite call-ins all the time you can talk directly to us, ask us questions, ask us our favorite music, we might even play some. There's also a live chat during the show. If you have a question about a topic we're talking about, fired off in the chat, we'll answer. We're going to be, we're going to be doing what we've been doing all fall every Thursday of 430 on amp. Check us out. Okay, so what's it like owning a team? Like, how did that come about? I know obviously

your wife plays soccer. She's a great player. You guys are sporty. you're a Chelsea fan, but I love seeing you over there, like living the experience. What was that like? And how did it come about for you? Yeah, it's been going on for a few years now. I've been interested in the Premier League since 2011. But the last three or so years, I've known, obviously, my retirement was coming at some point. And I'm very interested in it.

And I wanted to be a minority owner in some capacity. I've looked in America. I've looked at the NWSL, the MLS, I've looked over in Europe in different leagues and the primary league. And it was always about finding the right opportunity where you could actually do something, where you could actually get involved or you could actually help make a difference, not just be that 0.0001% and not even get a ticket to a game. So everything kind of aligned up where once somebody introduced me to Burnley, we went down

the line of doing due diligence and every box started to get checked and checked and checked. I just fell in love with the place. It's a really small town. It's been through some tough times in adversity, but they love their club. They love their team. And I've been over there a few times. I just booked our trip for the first two games

of this upcoming Premier League season. And we're all in, man. We love it. Is there like an NFL comp for this franchise? Because I know they got great history, that sort of thing, the ups and downs, but a rabid fan base. Yeah, I would say, I mean,

in terms of like the city, and the fans and the vibe of it, I would say it's like a Buffalo, a Cleveland, a Green Bay where it's like a really small up northern town where you're going to have some rougher weather, you're going to have, it's not the richest place. You know, you're not going to catch too many people

vacationing there, but they love their team, man. They just love their team. And they haven't had the success of like a Green Bay Packers, per se. But they're, if you're looking for like an underdog to support and a team that's going to, Our first game of this upcoming season is against Man City, the richest and best team in the world at the moment. And we are newly promoted, and we're going to have to give every single thing that we've got to play a great game.

But there's no doubt there's a David and Goliath feature there. I feel like relegation would keep what happened in Houston or almost happened in Houston, thanks to Lovie Smith. It didn't happen. I think relegation in the NFL would take care of a lot of that tanking sort of thing. Can you imagine it? I mean, that's the most exciting thing. That's why I love the Premier League. That's why everybody is so addicted to it because there is a real and true consequence to losing and winning,

which is that's what sport is built on. And we've kind of taken it away a little bit over here, which is why the valuations are the way they are in America. But imagine if the bottom three teams in the NFL just got dropped down. in the top three colleges got brought up or something. It'd be insane. We'd really get to find out if Alabama could be. There were points in our careers where we'd all be playing D-10.

Oh, I would have been playing D-D. We'd be in the, we'd be battling it out in the fucking D-2 ring. I would have been there. Last game of the season. Yeah. Last game of the season. Do you guys want to be playing in the way? Third and 18 again.

Or do you want to be playing at Missouri State? What do you want to do you do? Yeah. All kind of Missouri State, unless we're going to sign a bunch of new guys. If we're going down to Tuscaloosa, it looks like a fun time. When you go over there, are there dues and don'ts, like code breaks for like fans, soccer fans? Like, how do you come across cool there and how do you come across like a fucking noob?

A hundred percent there are. A hundred percent. It's all about respecting and honoring their tradition. They're very, very proud of the history. Our club was founded in 1882. So, I mean, that is an insane 140 years of history. So if you say soccer, that's a no-no. If you say, so they pronounce it Premier League.

If you say Premier League, that's a no-no. The Premiership, the Premier League. If you, you know, it's just kind of the way you talk about the game. And if you have a knowledge-based, if you're able to speak knowledgeably about it, and especially about them personally, Burnley's a town where it's really cool. They are proud of their town and they just want you to. to have a good time. Every single person I come in contact with in Burnley, they say, are you enjoying

your time here? Are you enjoying Burnley? Are you finding us nice? Like, they just want to make sure that you feel welcome and love. Sounds like the Midwest. Yeah, exactly. Like, what can I get you? If your tire blows, they're going to help you fix it.

Can you help me? You bet you. It's not like Manchester. Manchester is like the New York City or something or some big city. Manchester wants nothing to do. I feel like they can sniff out stolen valor and fans too. like if I were to just get a jersey and a kit and show up to a football match. Like me.

Like me. Like you're a fraud. We'll get you guys. We'll get you guys. Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. Don't worry.

I'm going to, yeah, because I'm only podcasting. I'll label it so you know which team it is while you're wearing it. So you can tell you. Okay. Good. Yeah.

Yeah. That's good. Because this thing here, it's like, yeah, I play for DHL. I'm so excited to announce our new sponsor, Oakley.

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Moving on to football, man. The first question that is a burning question for me, especially with the backdrop of me and Kyle and us doing this podcast and us playing the NFL is, out of you and your two brothers, when you go home, who's the favorite? Who gets the favoritism in your family? Where do you rank among,

the watt brothers when it comes to mom and dad yeah so derrick had a dog before any of us and he had two kids before any of us so he kind of like jumped out and got that so my parents obviously spent a lot of time with his boys so i think that he probably wins it there um tj has that youngest brother like gotten into some mischief and like he's kind of like but he's also the sweet youngest brother who gets you know the all the breaks like if he's the youngest brother that's just kind of the way that it goes yeah um and i probably get some favoritism because i'm the oldest but i would say if i think it's really tough i mean derrick with the two kids is really tough i'm trying to catch up i got one now and cole is very cute so we're we're trying but i think move close to them that's the key move

close to them me and kyle had this contest to see you could live closer to my parents no and i'm you know You're like five minutes further. Yeah. We live like 10 minutes from my parents, so it's great. You know, we get the grandparent. Now that I say no to them hanging out with my kid every day, you know, it's like every day. How often are they babysitting? They don't baby.

We don't do the babysit thing. We do the babysitting thing thing. Yeah. Our kid's not old enough for us to be like, take our, take the baby. We did the babysitting thing right away. I think we were at like Bonaroo and we were like, here, we'll be back in four days. The baby's going to poop into this diaper and, you know, sometimes the baby cries. Like, it was a young baby.

Yeah. You know? That's wild. You guys are wild. But to answer the question, it's Kyle on our side, JJ. And we were just talking about this offline. Everybody in the studio agrees with this except for Kyle. And you know what?

It's complicated. It's complicated. If it's complicated, it's true. Okay. Maybe I am the favorite. But dad in particular and I, and as it pertains to JJ, dad and I's relationship changed a lot when I played because he knew D. Lyman so well.

and he could watch film of guys and know who they are, not only on the field but off the field. He knows how they behave. And you've spent time with my dad. He's a bright guy, and he knows ball as good as any of us. He's also comparing a little bit in, like, the way that he could rush inside.

And when I had to play guard and JJ was out at end, it wasn't like I was preparing for my three technique the whole game. I had to prepare for him to reduce. I had to prepare for the spinner looks with you and Merciless, walking around pre-snap. Clowny, what's Clowny doing? of the deep. When I got in the league, I want you to know that you were the most hated guy

in every offensive room. Everybody hated JJ Watt. And as I got older, I realized that they hate us because they ain't us is a real thing. Everybody wanted to be able to block you or be able to beat you, but you always made guys look silly, whether it was winning at the top of a rush with a sack or winning after a failed bowl with your hands up and you swat the ball, pick it, pick six. Very frustrated. I want you to know that the hatred that you experienced from O. Lyman was actually our form of respect. And dad's role in this to go full circle, he was the only one that could really go inside the mind of a JJ Watt before he could put me into what you were thinking before the games happened. He'd be like, you're going to see this based on what you guys have put on film.

Expect this. So was he harder on you or was he harder on Chris? He was harder on Chris because he was harder on Chris because he played the position. but I think he was just informative for me. I do think the first born wears the parents out to the point that by the time middle child comes along, like he's got it easy. And also him and my dad are like the same person.

Me and my dad are different enough to where, you know, like he's not going to always identify with me. Kyle and him, it's like looking in a fucking mirror. Which can be tough sometimes to hang out. But this is the question I had about JJ and like you talk about preparing for JJ. What was your job in the Houston defense?

Because I used to watch you and be like, Like, I want to play in that. I want to be JJ Watt. This guy, he's up and down the line. It looks like if he wants to go to the A, he's go to the A. If he wants to go to the B. Like, how much freedom did you have? Because that made things really difficult, I think, for other people trying to prep for you.

Well, I can tell you, the place you want to play is in a Wade Phillips defense then. Because Wade Phillips is the best. I mean, you just look at the players that he's coached over his career and what he's been able to do. And, I mean, you look at Aaron Donald obviously played in his defense for a few years. there as well. And he did a very, very similar thing. We both played that four technique in base, and then we would either play a three or five. He would go basically anywhere on third down. And I think that's what Wade is really, really good at. He plays a lot of man coverage. He has a lot of guys tightened up behind you so that you get that extra quarter second,

that extra half second. But he also lets you roam free up front. And he'll send five a lot of times so that you do catch more one-on-ones than you normally would. And he's just, he lets you play and after you prove to him that you're capable of doing it then he gives you the freedom and he'll put you over the right guys he'll get you in the right situations to try and create those one-on-one matchups and i don't think that myself ad or anybody who's ever played for wade would would say we did it by ourselves we did it because we had a great coach that also put us in great position when you were stunting and you know like from a four-eye and you had to either cross-face or or pop back into the b you know i feel like you got a lot of

out of not just winning your one-on-ones, but also you were good at pressures and that sort of thing, which is a whole other skill. What was your thought process, say, you know, there's a, there's an edge rusher coming off the left side. You're in a four-eye and you're coming down on that guard. You know, like, you made the swim move look easy. That's usually the first thing they tell guys don't do in the NFL because you're going to get, they're going to hit you with the clear. You know, you're going to get hit in the chest. Yeah, like, yeah, like, talk me through your thought process. as you're bearing down on a guard and just the matchup, you know,

advantages that you have? So my thought process is always to put them in an extremely uncomfortable position. If you watch an offensive alignment practice, every single day they work on their kicksteps. Every single day they work on that shuffle, shuffle, shuffle punch. They get into a rhythm. They get into this flow that they know they're extremely comfortable doing this movement every time repetitive on their second step. they love the punch.

I want to get them out of that rhythm. How can I possibly get you to either have to shorten your shuffle, elongate your shuffle, hold your punch, punch earlier than you want to? I want to do something where you haven't practiced it as much as you practiced everything else. So I loved the,

like the stutter bowl, and then I would turn it into other things. I would do a stutter, stutter swim, stutter bull, stutter. Under your ball swipe. Yeah,

because you, all you do, if you say, I would pop direct. directly up out of my stance and just shimmy in place. Every coach on the planet will tell you that is the number one thing you do not do. But it makes us pop up. Yes.

So you have to stop because if you keep kicking back, now I've got three yards of space. Yes. You got inside. Inside. Yeah. Yeah. So I pop up. You pop up.

Now we're both standing at the line looking at each other. And I know, no offense. Most guys, I'm more athletic then. So now I can do whatever I want. And you're standing straight up. So if I go straight through you, it's much. easier to knock you backwards when you're standing up like I'm standing up than it is for you to try and block me because your weight's knocked down. So that's, I loved that position. When I could get you to

stand up and we're just staring at each other, then I'm like, all right, this is over. And you can just choose. Now you can choose. Do I bull rush you? And even if I go for the bull and I can tell you're ready for it, then you just swim over the top. There's so many different aspects you can do on it, but I just, you had to have the athletic ability to stand straight up at the line of scrimmage. and what kind of guard body gave you the most problems like if you ever had a problem like a player or a prototype huge guards like the big the big dudes uh the two guys for the saints back in a day Larry Evans and Carl Nix. Dude, those guys were tough because, like, even if they stand up, man, you ain't moving them. Like, you are not moving them no matter what.

So they just took up so much physical space that it limited what you were able to do because the splits are smaller than between the next guy. And it just like literally physical space was limited. And that made it really hard. It's important that you mention those two guards because when you look at the successful offenses historically, there were offenses. that were built from the inside out. People often talk about the blind side and the strength of the tackles. But if there's two elite guards playing, JJ, you can speak to this.

It's going to be tough sledding for the delinmen. Yeah. And they don't need help. Yeah, no, it's really tough because they can do it by themselves and they solidify that inside. So then everybody has to go wider and further. And if I go wider as a three technique, I'm pushing my five to nine techniques further.

Everybody's further away from the quarterback. And now, especially if you've got a guy that knows what he's doing, and can get the ball off quick, we can't get there. Like, good guards, good interior play does make everything harder. And they also pass off games extremely well, which that is, if you can't run games and you can't make the offense wonder what you're doing, then you're in a really tough spot. There's nothing better than picking up on a game.

I got a funny story to tell you. We were in the Pro Bowl together. It was my first year in the Pro Bowl. And you were about to run a tech stunt. And Kyle Williams looked up at me. he was in the three tech and he said, Tex, he told me that it was coming.

He told me he was coming. He's like, I don't want you to get killed. And he told me. I remember, I backed out. It happened in front of me, and I was like,

thank Jesus that Kyle Williams didn't screw me and throw me out. He was helping me out. He was helping a young guy. He's a good man. He's a good man. He's a good guy. I remember I bought him a beer at night.

He was like, keep your money, buddy. Did you, did you? There's nothing like running a game and no one had sniffed out and he was just running. There's nothing there, and you're just empty. I feel like you were going hard in the Pro Bowl.

Were you going hard in the Pro Bowl? So there was a prize for them. A truck, a pickup truck. Yeah. Yeah. So I was like, I want that truck. Like, I wanted that truck. And until 20, I think in 2020, I finally sold it.

I drove that truck until 2020. That's how I legitimately wanted it and had it. I remember the day that you won it. You were so hot. It was like a Ford, it was it, F-150? It was like a Yukon-Ali. No,

U-Kondi. Stafford got offensive and he got like the pickup truck and I got like the Yukon-D-Nali. Nice. You got to pay taxes on it. I didn't know that. Nobody told me that.

Yeah. But it was like you got like a, you know, $75,000 truck for $10 grand or something. It was great. But I, yeah, I played too hard. I mean, again,

it was probably dumb, but yeah, I had an interception in that game. You know who else played really hard in that game was Michael Bennett. Played so hard and come to find out he had been living in Hawaii. Like he took a taxi from his house to the game and played 80 snaps. I was trying to get a sack every fucking play.

Well, he was another guy. And I was hung over. He was another guy that gave guards nightmares because of that matchup kind of advantage that he had being shifty and kind of understand the angles outside. When you went outside and like this was the thing I told you is like the thing that always impressed me about you was like you could rush the edge. edge like you were 250 but you were 300 pounds and I just I really admired it because this guy is like 265 soaking wet I'm like I can't get that low I can't my ankle doesn't work that way like

how is he how did you work on finishing at the top of the rush because I feel like that's a skill that separates you know the really good players from the Hall of Famers and it was something that you always you always finished you had to practice it you had to work on something yeah so I'm very fortunate. I had a lot of great people help me along my way. So starting in my sophomore year of high school, I started training with this guy named Brad Arnett back in Wisconsin. He trained a bunch of NFL guys combined. So he was working on ankle flexibility, ankle flexion, making sure that you could get into those shin angles, mainly for L drills, 510, things like that. But it obviously helps you as a pass rush. So since my sophomore year of high school, I have been working on that flexibility. So you compound over time.

and my ankle flexibility got to be extremely good so I could turn that corner. And then in college, I had a great defensive line coach, Charlie Partridge, who taught me literally basically everything about how to play defensive line. And one of the number one things he emphasized was throwing your outside arm at the end of a rush

to bring your hips around to clear and turn the corner. So I've been working on that since 2008. So I just had years and years and years of compounding reps of clearing my hips at the top of a rush, combining that with the ankle flexibility of the Bradton. me and I could you know that feeling better than anything that as you turn that corner and you feel it clear and you know that the next step you take is propelling you into the sack like that is the dream I like you dream about and you feel and so once I got that feeling and I started to

understand what that felt like then you're just it's like I'm sure it's like chasing a high I don't know it's like you're chasing that high and it's the greatest feeling in the world man every time i hit the the uh raw cone i feel like i'm throwing my outside arm yeah it's the same dopamine rush uh it's the same and then if the ball's sitting in the ball's sitting in he's looking like this and you can just think oh when you just like the thing's not moving and that's like because i always said john abraham told me when i was young he's like i don't even go for the fucking sack i just go for the ball that was calil mac that was the experience i had with calil mack when he first came to the Bears. Remember the first Monday night game he came out and had three sacks and a

strip touchdown. He didn't do training camp. He didn't do OTAs. I remember before the game, I was like, what's your game playing? He said, go find that ball, baby. And I mean, he is, like you just said, he's going for the football. He's not going for the sack. That's a pretty cool thing to be able to that's a cool thing to be able to say, what's your game plan? I'm just going to go for the ball, baby. That's when you know you're pretty good. What was your favorite tool in your toolbox that, Like when you hit this move, it felt the best. You know, like for me, I loved hitting a spin. I always felt like when I had a clean spin, I never got a sack.

You know, like you win easy and, you know, the ball's gone. But for you, what was your favorite move to hit? Mine, I would say, was the fake bull double swipe. Like I come in looking like I'm in a bull rush and then I double swipe and just knock both those arms down. And the second that I know right away, I either hit the arms or I don't. And if I catch those elbows and you clear that corner, like, Like it is a free two to three yard run. And you are just going straight at the quarterback.

And there's nothing better than that. That's one of the best sounds for a pass rushers, two hands getting knocked down. You can hear it even with all the crowd noise. You can hear when you knock two hands down successfully. You know it's on, dude. I know the worst thing to see. And then you remember they're in soft zone and the fucking ball is gone. But yeah.

The worst thing to see as an alignment is when JJ's got a bloody face. Because it's like a mask rip Hamilton. That's a bad deal. What about sack dances, man? Being a white boy who's got some rhythm. I mean, you do have some rhythm. I'm pretty impressive. No, relative to us here.

Actually, Kyle, you can dance a little bit. Relative to me, you got rhythm. Like, how did you settle on a sack dance or a celebration? I didn't, man. I've got some bad ones. Like, there's a, I scored an 80-yard touchdown, and I, like, did this terrible version of the Neneh. And obviously, they play, yeah,

they play this 80-yard touchdown all the time on every highlight. and the dance is just horrendous. But it was at a point in my career where, like, I mean, I was playing some good football and I started, you start to feel yourself a little bit. And so I was like, yeah, I can do all these popular dances. And I was just look back and like, what in the world was I doing? And who didn't slap me upside the head and say, stop, just salute and get the fuck out of there. Is that your biggest regret that, Nene?

Is the biggest regret in your career the Nenai? So, this is funny. So I did the Nene one and everybody was like, that was wrong. That's not how you know. This is at a time when like these TikTok dances, it was before TikTok, but like these dances were starting to come up. So there were like four dances that were popular at one time. It was like the nay-nay, the dab, the whip, and then the runoff on the plug. So I was like, all right, I'm going to get a sack.

I'm going to do all four of them together. And I did all four of them, but I dabbed the wrong way. I did this and I looked this way. Like I went, like you say bolt. Like I was like, if I would have pulled it off, I actually think it might have been all right. But the dab just looks so horrible. So that's my regret, because I couldn't need. You seen bolt was your earliest indicator of weed in your future.

Yeah, for sure. Hey, I want to apologize for something. I don't know if you even remember this. You know, sometimes when you play somebody who's really good, you'll do their celebration. And one time I got a sack against the Texans. you're going to remember this when I tell you what happened. But I ran to midfield to do the JJ Watt.

It was in Houston. And I ran 25 yards. And I turn around after I do the celebration. And my college, not teammate, but Virginia alum, Matt Schaubb is writhing in pain. He's been hurt. I remember when Shob hurt his ankle? I fucked his ankle up. And I didn't even know it.

I ran to. Oh, you're an asshole. Yeah, exactly. Thank you, JJ. I have an asshole. I admit that. Do you remember that at all? Do you remember that at all?

Because we were like, if somebody gets a sack, somebody's got to do the JJ Watt, and it just happened to be me, and it happened to be the play that Matt Schaub fucked his ankle up on. Yeah, no, I mean, white guys doing that celebration. I don't know if I was that offended

because we don't have many in the arsenal. So that's just like a standard white guy celebration. The salute. Yeah, I've done it before, not imitating. you. So yeah, it's like, I didn't have to go deep back. I did Aaron Rogers. I did Aaron Rogers belt one year and then he threw six touchdowns on us. So, dude, that's one guy you don't fucking put the cage. Well, he'll start hard counting. You don't rattle the cage on that mother. You'll start heart counting you and then you look like

a fool. Yeah. Then later in that game, I got a second sack and I did the Clay Matthews celebration. Uh, I don't know. It was the third quarter. We were already losing. I hated playing that guy, JJ. That was where I, that was where I learned the, like, you don't celebrate a sack if you're down like I think we were only down like 10 or 13 but like I got crushed on Twitter after that they're like oh look at this guy celebrating a sack down 10 and I was like oh I didn't know you couldn't celebrate like I thought I was excited I was young oh you can't do that forgive me for me I can't do that okay who did you like early in your career uh I thought you guys had some really good players man like Antonio Smith was one of my favorite players when I was young and also a great guy like a

party with him in Vegas. Like, we had a good time. And I just used to love watching you guys play. You and him. And I wonder how big of an effect he had on you. Were there other vets on that team? I know D'Amico was there for a year. How did you, when you were young, like, learned from the older guys?

Because that was a different league. Now, the oldest guys on the team are like 28, 29, 30 years old. Like, we had real vets. I agree. I mean, Antonio was literally one of my favorite guys that I played with. He took me to sushi for the first time ever. Like, I've never had sushi in my life, and he took me to sushi and introduced me to that. And it just so happens to be my favorite restaurant in the entire world, still to this day.

But he kind of taught me a lot about pass rushing, a lot about mentality, a lot about, you know, having that dog in you. Like, he was big on, sometimes you just got to flip that switch and turn to a dog. I had Brady James, who was a linebacker behind me. who was a vet in the league. He played for the Cowboys for a while. He came over to us. And in Wade Phillips' defense, kind of what we spoke about,

Brady let me have the freedom. So I was playing four. So basically, I'm technically responsible for the B gap. And he's kind of covered me up with the C and looking at it. He's like A to C. But he told me after a couple of games,

he's like, hey, you take wherever you feel like you want to take, I'll just take wherever you do. And that, to me, me having that guy behind me. Could I put him in a bad situation sometimes? Sure. But he was confident and comfortable enough and he didn't care about stats. He didn't care about anything else. All he wanted to do was be like, he kind of gave me that, I know you can go make some plays that I might not be able to or somebody else. So you go do that. I'll cover everything up. And that was one of the biggest blessings for me in the way that I played the game because it turned out to be an

incredible partnership and we made so many plays because of it. With Andre Johnson, did he ever speak, like, out loud? And if so, was he ever upset? Like, did he ever, do you remember any time that Andre, like, spoke and everybody was like, all right, I'm shutting the fuck up now because I've never heard this guy talk? Dude, never. Andre never speaks. If he does speak, it's very quiet and, like, measured and directly to you in a quiet

situation, but when he does speak to you, you hang on every single word and you listen to every single thing he says. I mean, he's one of my favorite people ever. He's so underrated, and he just got put on some very not great teams. And if you put him into some of these, you know, you put him on like the prime chiefs or you put him on like the Rams or something like his career has looked at in a massively different light if he's on some great teams. But no, doesn't really speak. When he does, it is like, you feel like I love speaking to Andre when

he speaks because I'm like, he's talking to me. Like this is awesome. It's like an eclipse. We went to, we went to, early in my crew, which took to me coming into Houston as a young guy, Andre, we went out one night to like dinner and then we went to grab a drink

afterwards. And this the pyr, the bouncer at the place we were going into stopped Andre and was like, I'm sorry, like, he had like a white t-shirt or something. Like, they were like, we don't let white t-shirts. And I literally looked at, I was a second year guy and Andre was a 10-year vet in fucking Houston.

And I literally looked at the bouncer. I was like, sir, that's Andre Johnson. Let him in. And like, I was like so offended that this dude didn't know that it was Andre. I was like, what the fuck are you doing, man? What is wrong with you, bro? You're embarrassing me just by me.

It was terrible, dude. Did they let him in? Yeah, no problem. I don't care. I don't give a shit. He's just, Andre is the best. Were you there when he beat up my friend Cortland Finnegan? No, I was just there after it, but it's still my favorite Texans moment of all time.

I mean, that's clearly. Especially if you know Andre, like, that's the greatest thing. If you know Andre, the level you have to go to provoke that from him, and then just knowing that, like, he always has that in him, the ability to. just to be like, know what, I can beat the shit out of anybody I want. And he did it. With D'Amico Ryans, are you excited, having, getting to know him as a teammate? And then, you know, like seeing him come back to Houston. I know it was a tough couple years because, you know, from the D-Hop trade to the coaches

who weren't there along Cully, you missed that. But, like, you know, I'm sure you have a soft spot for that franchise, even when you're playing in Arizona. Do you feel like, hey, we're in good hands a little bit more now? What do you expect from Coach Ryan's? Yeah, no, I'm extremely excited. I agree with you. Obviously, there's been some tough years there and kind of lost the way, finding the way.

But I think that this offseason has been as good as they can do for getting that thing back on track. You hired D'Amico. You've got to give him a long leash to give him the ability to build his process, to build his program, to get the guys he wants in. Then you go out there and you draft. you know, CJ and Will in this huge splash on the draft signifying like we're giving the assets to our new coach, we are turning this thing around

and we are putting this thing on a path forward. For myself and for all the former players and for the fans in the city, I think this offseason really signified, hey, let's, we're going to do this thing and we're going to do it right. So I'm really looking forward to it. I'm excited about it.

And I'm very excited to see what happens. And for Will Anderson, you know, like you being a dominant rusher, he's going to have to be something like you for people to be like, yeah, you know, it was worth giving up all those assets. You know, Clowny, I thought, was, like, it's hard because Clowny, some people think he's overrated

and somebody like me thinks he's underrated in a weird way, like, because he was so disruptive at his, at his peak, and he has been a really productive guy. I think he's very good in the run. He's good to, but you saw Clowny up close early. You saw the pressure that comes, with being in a high pick. You didn't live that because you, you know, you snuck up on people a little bit, but like

watching Clowney's, you know, a development and now seeing Will Anderson and all the expectations that are going to be on him, any advice you would have for Will Anderson? I would say never listen to anything in your first, you know, year because there's just so much, people are going to judge you by every single snap from OTAs all the way through. And I, that's, I did a video about it a couple weeks ago on Twitter. One of the things that I really don't love about how much media and attention goes to every single practice rep and every single game rep. Now, I fully understand that that's why we get paid millions of dollars because people care that much. But you have these young guys and you're trying some moves in practice.

You're in the NFL for the first time. You don't know necessarily what works, what doesn't work. So let's say take your spin move, for example. Let's say you go out there and you want to try our spin move against Titus Howard. Will Anderson wants to try it against Titus Howard in practice. Will tries to spin move. Titus stones it, maybe knocks him down to the ground, maybe he falls. Some reporter clips that, puts it on Twitter. Now all of a sudden it's Will Anderson as a bust.

Why? He was practicing a move. He tried it. It didn't work. Now he knows next time, or he has film to go back and watch him. Okay, I either got to ice pick harder or I got to plant my foot different. Or maybe that move just doesn't work against Titus because he's got a good inside punch. Whatever it may be. But now you're scared to practice a new move because you don't. don't want to look like an idiot on Twitter. And one-on-on-one-s in OTAs is when you should be doing it.

Like, you should get tax stuff and looking like an idiot because you're never going to find out what works and what doesn't if you don't. But I've seen it so, I've done it myself, and I've seen so many guys that they just want to do whatever is going to look good because they don't want to look like an idiot. And that just hinders so many performances. So that's what I don't want to happen to Will, is I don't want, you know, or CJ or any of these guys. You know, I think everybody's so tough on tour right out of the gate as well.

Like, there's so many of these guys that everybody's crazy hard on them right away. If you start reading that stuff and looking at that stuff, you get a little scared and then you get tentative and you can't become a true full player you can be. Yeah, you can't be afraid to fail and so much of being a rusher is you got to fail. Like you really have to fail. Like just what you said, like take a move, deconstruct it. And the times that you're supposed to be practicing it, there's fucking 500 people at the practice. And they all got cameras. So it's a tough deal.

Where do you think D. Hop would be the best fit? Like, as his buddy, as somebody who I'm sure really likes the guy, like, I want to see him in New England. I just feel like watching him and Bill together the amount of respect that Bill has for him. You know, when Bill gets giddy about a player, you can see it. He's been giddy about D. Hop as an opponent. And I think him visiting up there is really cool. Tennessee's in the mix. What do you think about D.Hop?

How much mileage left? Where would you like to see him? I think D.Hop is going to fit. I mean, the thing about Dihop is you can put the ball anywhere within 10 yards and he's going to catch it. He's still got the best hit of the game. There's no doubt about that. So you put him into a situation where he's got a receiver core around him where he's not going to catch the double teams, where you can actually let him, you know, go out there, get open, create some space and just toss the ball up to him.

And you do want to talk about him in England. He's got a – there's a young quarterback there. you know, what's the quarterback's best friend? A guy who catches everything you throw within 10 yards of him. You know, it doesn't have to be the most perfect ball. Hop's going to come down with it. So that's certainly a good situation. I know he wants to go somewhere and win.

I mean, that's a double-edged sword. I mean, a lot of times you're going to have to take significantly less, or you're going to have to go into a role, different roles and whatever it might be. So everything sounds great until it comes time to actually make it all happen and come together. So I'm not sure. I mean, I know he's been on a tour. He's been going to visit other places, but I want to see him win. I know how that feels.

Like, I know what it feels like to obviously have been in Houston and Arizona, both places he's been. But the reality of it is also, we don't know. Like, there's a couple places you can go where you're like, okay, they got a pretty damn good shot of being in the playoffs and making a good push. I mean, yeah, you want to go to Kansas City. You're going to have a pretty damn good shot of getting to the AFC championship and getting to the Super Bowl.

win a Super Bowl. It's this is a deeper conversation for another day, but there's also that like, okay, a ring is a ring, but like how much would they have won that ring if you weren't there? Like possibly. There's a lot of that type of conversation too, you know, whereas it's, that's a fascinating debate. That's why I don't like people when they're like, you're two times Super Bowl winner Chris Long,

like that's like part of my bio. You know, certainly I made a. difference, especially on that Philly team. But like, you know, chances are they probably win it without you. I mean, you could make that as somebody else in my chair might make those plays. And I think, you know, for somebody like you's, you're going to retire, no rings. Like, it doesn't matter for a position player. Like, there's just not really, there's not really when you evaluate somebody's legacy, a big connection I would make with rings unless you're a quarterback. Yeah, there's one position that does it. Like, there's one position that there is no question you can hand

that guy, shake that guy's hand and say you are the reason that we, and that's important of it. That's just a fact. It's the rest of it, I mean, going through my process, there's a bunch of teams that people said I should have gone to and, you know, opportunity. Yeah, where'd you almost go? Where'd you almost go in 21? Was Pittsburgh like on the list? They were, I mean, certainly it would have been awesome to play with my brothers, but T.J. was also going through a contract situation there, and the last thing I was going to come in and take money from his contract. Yeah.

But, like, the teams, a lot of the teams I was looking at, they didn't win the Super Bowl. And people are like, oh, you chose, like, you chose this, you chose that. I'm like, neither of us won it. So what are you, like, you're having like I, like, I spurred in the Super Bowl wear. No, I didn't. Yeah. Neither of us won. So.

Scott's still pretty sweet, though. We started out 7 and O. Like, we started out 7 and O in Arizona, and things were rolling. We were playing good ball. I got hurt and it obviously went sick with, I'm not saying me getting hurt. went downhill. No, but it was all the same time. It, uh, we just went downhill from there and it was tough, but like, you can't tell me that

there wasn't a chance we were going to go do something special. Like, nobody knows anything. If you did, I'd go to Vegas and I put a shitload of money on it right now. Like, there's just, people called me an idiot. People called me an idiot going to Philly. Like immediately when I left New England. They were like, oh, you're, you want money. You want, I was getting paid like one five.

Like, you know, like, no, I just, you know, like, it's throwing a, fucking, it's shooting craps. You know, it's, you just don't know. So, yeah. What are you, last question about your football career? What are you most proud of, man? Like, if, if you want to be remembered for one thing, whether it's one play, one thing that you did, like, what are you most proud of?

Man, that's a good question. This is like, it's partially a selfish thing. but it was really, really cool to me. The fact that after 12 years in the NFL, 12 years in the NFL is something I'm proud of, but after 12 years in the NFL, my last game and my last play, I walked off in an opponent stadium in my own division,

and they chanted my name in an opponent stadium while my son and my wife and my parents were in the crowd. To have been able to do something over 12 years and whatever it is, football, non-football, but for opposing fans to be able to do that for me in my last game and for the opposing team to put my name up on the scoreboard as I walked off the field for the last time with my wife and son and parents in attendance. I'm proud of the fact that that's how I left the game. It was it was cool. I never got to win a championship.

I never got to even really sniff a Super Bowl. But I played the game I love for 12 years and I lived out a dream that millions of people have. and I met a lot of really cool people along the way and I got to walk away under my own power. I'm very proud of that. Man, that's awesome. That's awesome. That's so cool.

And it was cool for people watching, man. You know, like before we do let you go, you know, just a lot of respect for your career, man. I mean, you hear it all the time, but as two guys have played, you played the right way, you played hard. And you were incredible, man. It was awesome. So everybody saw it.

I think we were all a little bit like those people in that opposing stadium he's like hey you know what fucking good shit man you know it was great so congrats and uh I appreciate it the sentiment is mutual I appreciate you guys you guys have done it right your dad is obviously

uh and I don't know if mine he's done it right his whole no way but you guys both did it right and you were both a blast to watch and to follow along with and entertaining and humble and exciting and great ball like you guys have done it all all right it's been a it's been a blast to take the feel with you and now it's been a blast to sit down with you so I

I really appreciate that. So the question is, are you going to sit down with us, like, as a podcast, or are you going to be on TV? This is the last thing people want to know. Where are we going to see JJ Watt next? I'm going to dabble. I'm going to dabble this fall. I don't want to do anything full-time.

I want to really take my time. Come practice with us. So, yeah, you'll see a little bit of this, a little bit of that. Nothing full-time. I want to spend a lot of time, my son. But this fall, I'll do a little bit of this and a little bit of that. And then next year, I'll really try and figure it out. because I don't want to dive all into one thing and then hate it.

Take a break. Oh, I can tell you that from experience. Working with your brother and shit. Enjoy the family, man. Thanks for coming on. This is a freaking blast. Yeah. Yeah.

Appreciate you guys. Have a great day, man. Thank you so much. You too, brother. Go Burnley.