Living the dream and passing it on–that’s J.J. Watt. Watt was expected to do well in the NFL–the 6’5″ Houston Texans defensive end was the 11th pick in the 2011 NFL draft. But he’s become so good so fast that he’s now widely regarded as the best player in the league. Recently Steelers coach Mike Tomlin was trying to praise receiver Antonio Brown and the best way he could think of was to say this: “Antonio is playing at… a J.J. Watt-type of level.” NFL writer Chris Wesseling calls Watt simply “the most dominant player in football.”
How’s he passing on the dream? As a defensive end Watt does everything he can to stop the pass, but in his off-field activities Watt encourages it. Watt has created the J.J. Watt Foundation, which funds middle school athletic programs in Texas and Wisconsin (Watt attended the University of Wisconsin). The mission is simple: to “provide after-school opportunities for children in the community to become involved in athletics, so that they may learn the basic character traits of accountability, teamwork, leadership, work ethic and perseverance while in a safe and supervised environment with their peers.” That’s doing it right, J.J. Watt. The Foundation has given over $600,000 so far for kids to learn and play.
