J.J. Watt apparently is on the verge of calling it a career.
The Arizona Cardinals’ Christmas Day clash with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers was a special one for Watt, whose 2-month-old son, Koa, was in attendance at State Farm Stadium. Watt on Tuesday took to Twitter to celebrate Koa’s first NFL game as a spectator and in the process revealed it was his “last ever NFL home game.” The Cardinals, who are out of the running for a playoff berth, round out their 2022 season with road games against the Atlanta Falcons and the San Francisco 49ers.
“My heart is filled with nothing but love and gratitude,” Watt wrote in the tweet. “It’s been an absolute honor and a pleasure.”
If this is, indeed, the end of the road for Watt, it will mark the conclusion of one of the better careers for a defensive player in NFL history. The 11th overall pick in the 2011 draft, Watt earned five First-Team All-Pro nods and three Defensive Player of the Year awards. He also led the league in sacks twice, was named to the NFL’s 2010s All-Decade Team and won the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award in 2017.
Watt, who turns 34 in late March, all but surely will have his NFL tenure immortalized with a Pro Football Hall of Fame induction in the years to come.
