TJ Watt, Pittsburgh Steelers

Back inside Radio Row and now joining us I think is the best friend of someone that does a weekly spot with us each and every Friday. We're talking Jersey Jerry obviously.

So TJ Watt is joining us here on Radio Row. There's been many times this year, so Jersey Jerry used to call me when I was doing like the graveyard shift of two to six a.m eastern. Jerry in New Jersey and now he's this big star huge man and he keeps on telling me he's like best friends with you. Jerry Fragrance, Jerry Watch guy. He does everything. Jerry on the caddy bag yesterday for the mini golf I saw. The guy does everything and just to be able to have a supporter like that in your corner.

A guy that has the wristband. I mean I've heard about it all. I think I'm going to meet him at some point this weekend.

I'm really looking forward to it. Oh wow because he tells me all the time when you were out with the injury you know wait a week all right two weeks and then okay he's coming back. He was like Adam Schefter and Ian Rappaport for us this year. You would have thought I was giving him the scoop but yeah not that he's sliding into his DMS. No he's always sliding into mine. I'm sorry Jerry calm down from time to time here. He's a great loyal fan though that's what makes the NFL so awesome is you get a guy that rocks and supports you that much. It's incredible man.

I think I posted a picture in the season and he was like DJ you're looking a little skinny let's toss a steak in there. All right all right easy Jerry easy but uh yeah it's like I said it football is so cool NFL football is awesome and then another level is being a Pittsburgh Steeler and the fandom that comes with it and the people that just want to see you succeed that want to help in any possible way and uh I love it man it's a dream job. Sometimes you can get drafted and there's always fan support but in Pittsburgh like you're talking about it is a totally different ball game. When did you realize like how kind of crazy the Steelers fans are? Oh I was just telling the story it's like when you're at Giant Eagle which is the grocery store in Pittsburgh and a 40 year old lady comes up to you and she's telling you you need to blitz a couple more times in a game. It's like okay this is a little bit different of a city than what I'm used to when I visit JD and Houston at the time and the people just absolutely love the Pittsburgh Steelers.

It's black and yellow everything and they just want to see us succeed. For you actually let's talk about your brother first. TJ Watt is here with us on behalf of Invisalign we'll talk about them in just a second. Your brother finally walking away after what has just been an exemplary career just an extraordinary career when you found out and he told you that just how did you process it? First of all proud I think that's the number one word that always comes to mind. You always want to ask are you sure this is what you want to do and but having the baby having the heart thing this year being able to go out on the year that he's had with the stats and I know that the team didn't perform as well as he would have liked to go out but talk about a guy that had a phenomenal career on the field and an even better career off the field and just super proud of him as a brother but also just as a mentor to me. Your brother is tied to history with this show because we were once at one of these Super Bowls in New Orleans and I'm like the biggest Beyonce fan there is that's actually not a true statement but she was like my childhood crush growing up as a kid like every other kid and I'm interviewing Dick Vermeil the next thing I know I look to my left I'm like JJ Watts there and then I start to see and you're in this big convention center right all these people start to flock towards your brother and I go I know JJ is a pretty big deal but to have like thousands and thousands of people around JJ Watt when you have all these celebrities here it seemed a little odd and I turned my head to the left and standing right behind us was Beyonce so I met Beyonce with your brother and your brother was like he was like a fan boy that day it was unbelievable he's jumping up and down like a fat kid in a candy store. I would have loved to see that because usually he plays a very close to the vest very cool guy but we need to find footage of that I'd love to see the fan there's footage somewhere on YouTube I didn't record it but when your brother retired I was like JJ Watt Beyonce and you saw like a little footage of me your brother it was my dad was there and it was just an awesome thing.

Did you at least get a picture with her? No but hold on we had the camera rolling okay so she was behind our interview so we did you're the guy that like screenshot a video of the background she's listening to our show like I was interviewing Dick Vermeil then the headset on her and act like you were interviewing her you know how it works DJ Watt here with us how do you look back at this past season I know you had to deal with the injuries I know the standard for the Steelers is to always be playing in the playoffs you guys didn't get there but it did seem like it was a transition year when you're bringing in a new quarterback. Yeah you talk about Pittsburgh Steel Football you talk about playoffs contending for Super Bowls winning Super Bowls and obviously that wasn't done this year but that's that also doesn't mean that it was a wasted season we had a lot of difficulties early on the year I think we were two it's two and six at one point a lot of guys could have packed the bags but we really bought into Coach Tomlin believed in each other and found ways to win games as we got down the stretch and it was just a little too little too late this year but there is so much to build on when you talk about the offense how they able to move the ball especially late in the games two minute drives and then defensively we were able to get those sacks and those splash plays that we always talk about so I mean it's looking up for this next year but it means nothing if we don't learn from all the mistakes and in tough times we had this past season.

I'm assuming if I asked you is Kenny Pickett a franchise quarterback you would say yes so sell me on your quarterback. Yeah I mean I don't even have to say on the quarterback just turn on the tape honestly and just see the progression throughout the year I always talk about the Ravens game the last two minute drive leading the team down the field the guy's just a winner I talked about in La Trobe in training camp the guy won the home run derby as a rookie just those little intangible things you just can get behind that and you see the growth in him and stuff like that is so contagious when you get a guy that has moxie and swag when he walks in the locker room it rubs off on everybody and we feel like we have that on the defensive side of the ball and now we feel like we have that in the offensive side of the ball as well so it can be dangerous moving forward. When he got into the locker room right away did he seem like a rookie or did he seem a little bit advanced and wise beyond his years? I mean everybody seems like a rookie at first you don't you want to seem like a rookie you don't want to come in there acting like your hot stuff you're bigger than who you think you are because the thing about NFL locker room is you see through that really quickly and he's very authentic wasn't going to come in and act like he was he was the stuff I don't know if I could swear on here or not.

No don't. But Dana White, Dana White swears here all the time it gives my producers like a heart attack because they have to like dump it and then my boss goes we're gonna get fined by the FCC so please don't swear. I got you but yeah you just want to learn and be a sponge I think that was the biggest advice that I always got from my both my brothers in the NFL is when you first get in there just be a sponge and soak up as much information and all your respect is earned through work and hard work and showing up every single day and I think that's why a lot of our young guys not only Kenny and George Pickens and guys like that but it's just that's how respect is there in the NFL locker room I think all of our young guys did a great job of that this year. For you how do you deal with your success because like you can't just go out and enjoy a night of dinner without people coming up to you and it's part of the the gig that that's just what happens and now like when guys walk into the locker room they're probably like oh my goodness gracious this is TJ Watt one of the better defensive players in the league. It's all through work like I said it's it's about showing people why you're successful once you're successful you have to continue to prove it to not only yourself but to other people as to why you're deserving of all these things when you get paid a certain amount of money in these big contracts it's your job to prove people right and to prove those guys that the the GM the ownership yes you made the right decision in making this investment in me and I love football I love the process of getting better each and every day and it's not hard for me to go to work every day and work hard because I know that I am living such a fortunate life the absolute dream and I'm just trying to bring that that energy because it is contagious in locker rooms. TJ Watt here with us your football coach I always find the conversations around him in Pittsburgh funny we know what he's done in this league but there's always a contingency of people that say it's time to move on from Mike Tomlin.

Do you guys just laugh at that stuff? I don't read it honestly that's that's such a cool thing about being in the in the NFL and being comfortable with your locker room and your team is you don't have to listen to the outside noise because the only people that truly know what's going on inside that building are the people that are in the meetings every single day we are doing our absolute best in our trying our hardest every single week to put together winning performances you're not going to win every single game all you can ask for is that each and every week we continue to improve and then leading into the playoffs hopefully you're playing your best football and we felt like we got to that point this year like I said it was just a little bit too late but Mike T is a phenomenal coach and I wouldn't want to play for any other coach. TJ Watt here with us I know nationally everyone right away when they talks about this game they say Jalen Hurts they say Patrick Mahomes right Travis Kelsey those are like the first three names that people mention but I look at the defense Chris Jones is a stud and I went to school with Hassan Riddick he's he's been unbelievable and his rise is awesome what stands out to you about these two defenses and what they're going to need to do to secure a victory on Sunday?

Yeah it's the d-line I mean Javon Hargrave he was with us in Pittsburgh he's an absolute force in the middle and then you said Hassan Riddick I mean Sweat you got Fletcher Cox you got Ndamukong Su just so many phenomenal passers and obviously on the other team you got Chris Jones and then Frank Clark as well that's where the game in my opinion is going to be won or lost is in the trenches and I think the Eagles just are so deep I mean the depth on that defensive front is insane the amount of fun that they have to have in meetings going over passer at film and talking shop has got to be pretty fun to be part of. Tell me about what you're doing today with Invisalign. Yeah I'm with Invisalign because I'm a firm believer in the product I'm using the product I have it in right now actually and I was going to say that the Watt family they always got good smiles.

I've been working on mine and it's I'm almost done with my treatment I've been super excited to work with them the cool thing about the Invisalign aligners is that it doesn't require the emergency appointments like braces sometimes good if a brace breaks and just super convenient for my lifestyle I can pop them out have a snack I can play with them in actually get my mouth guard formed around them and it just brings me confidence that when I come to things like these I can smile and be happy with it. What is it like when you have a game going up against your brother because Travis and Jason Kelce to do this in the Super Bowl it's literally unprecedented. Yeah it brings a lot more emotion to the game a lot more media comes with it and I think anybody who says it's just another game is lying 100% you always try to block it out and but when there's that much media it can take away from film or it can just take away from downtime where you're just kind of relaxing and that's why it's so crazy it's on the biggest stage it's like how much more media could you possibly get for the Super Bowl but it's special how cool is it that you a guy that you grew up with right like in the backyard envisioning probably playing in a Super Bowl yeah let alone playing in the NFL having your other brother playing the NFL and playing each other yeah be all pros yeah getting paid millions and millions of dollars and then playing each other in the Super Bowl I mean you couldn't write a better script. TJ Watt great to see you thanks so much for coming on thanks for having a pleasure. The biggest game of the year the Super Bowl is on Odyssey and Westwood One brings it to you streaming live for free Sunday February 12th on the Odyssey app the Eagles have been the NFC's best team touchdown Travis Kelcey it's the Eagles versus the Chiefs the Kansas City Chiefs the Philadelphia Eagles are going to the Super Bowl again catch all the action from Westwood One your Super Bowl your Odyssey get in the game and download the free Odyssey app today. Kevin Matt talks with Matt Hardy there's nothing like a wrestling fan you know for better or for worse how do you handle that though we're talking about people talking about your family what they don't know about your family or your brother or you how does one handle that from a day to day basis something I joke about with the young bucks all the time I said if you would vanity search Matt Hardy on twitter I said after you got through a hundred plows you'd want to quit the business and never never be seen again it's just you just learn to deal with it you know what I mean it's the kick rocks wrestling podcast with Evan T Mack subscribe now on the Odyssey app or ever you get your podcast Evan Matt talks with Matt Hardy there's nothing like a wrestling fan you know for better or for worse how do you handle that though we're talking about people talking about your family what they don't know about your family or your brother or you how does one handle that from a day to day basis something I joke about with the young bucks all the time I said if you would vanity search Matt Hardy on twitter I said after you got through a hundred plows you'd want to quit the business and never never be seen again it's just you just learn to deal with it you know what I mean it's the kick rocks wrestling podcast with Evan T Mack subscribe now on the Odyssey app or ever you get your podcast