Why Cardinals defensive lineman J.J. Watt decided now is the right time to step away (2024)

TEMPE, Ariz. — J.J. Watt long ago had made up his mind. The Cardinals defensive lineman had told friends and teammates of his intention to retire after this season. He just wasn’t sure how to announce it. People asked, and Watt told them that if they had any ideas to let him know.

Then, Monday morning it hit him.

Watt was looking at photos from Sunday’s loss against Tampa Bay, the Cardinals’ final home game of a dismal season. With his Arizona helmet pulled up to his forehead, he posed with wife Kealia, his infant son Koa and his parents.

“I thought this is perfect,’’ Watt said Wednesday. “This is the perfect way. It’s (Koa’s) first-ever game. My last-ever home game. I’ve always done things my way from that standpoint. I really don’t want people to leak my own information, so I’ll tell my own story.”

Koa’s first ever NFL game.
My last ever NFL home game.

My heart is filled with nothing but love and gratitude. It’s been an absolute honor and a pleasure.

🙏🏼 pic.twitter.com/wXbDUcHM8B

— JJ Watt (@JJWatt) December 27, 2022

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Watt tweeted two family photos, announcing he had just played his final home game, a surprising end to an illustrious 12-year career that one day will take him to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. At 33, Watt, who would’ve become a free agent at season’s end, could’ve kept playing. He could’ve chased the championship he’s never won. He could’ve kept climbing the career sacks leaderboard, where he sits 38th.

Instead, Watt decided it’s time. To spend more time with family. To help raise Koa. The Cardinals (4-11) wrap up this season with road games against Atlanta and San Francisco. Then Watt will start the next chapter of his life, one without shoulder pads.

“First-ballot Hall of Famer,” Arizona tight end Maxx Williams said. “Good for him. He’s had a storied career. Obviously, you guys have seen him play the last three or four games. It looks like he’s 25. I think he could still play a bunch of years.”

This was part of the thought process. Watt, a five-time first-team All-Pro, didn’t want to be forced out of the game. He didn’t want his body to break down. He wanted to leave on his terms. He wanted to leave while he still had something to offer. Timing is important, but so is a warrior’s pride.

In Sunday’s loss to Tampa Bay, Watt showed flashes of his younger self, when he was a force with the Houston Texans. From 2012 to 2015, the former Wisconsin product was among the game’s most dominant players, winning three NFL Defensive Player of the Year trophies, joining Aaron Donald and Lawrence Taylor as the only players in league history to do so.

Watt posted 69 sacks and 119 tackles for loss over this four-year stretch. He turned knocking down passes into an art form. At 6-foot-5, Watt had size, but he also had athletic ability. He sported a 37-inch vertical leap, a wingspan of almost 83 inches and hands that measured 11 inches from thumb to pinkie. “You would think the Knicks would pick him up with all the shot-blocking he did,” former Jets coach Rex Ryan once said.

Injuries limited Watt’s effectiveness over the next several years, but he found a second wind in his second season with the Cardinals. Against Tampa Bay, Watt had six tackles, including two for loss. In 14 games this season, he’s posted 9.5 sacks and 14 tackles for loss, one of his finest seasons in years.

“I definitely knew that I wanted to be playing good ball,” Watt said. “‘I’ve obviously gone through some injuries in my career and that’s extremely frustrating because I know what I’m capable of and I know what I can be and who I should be as a player. … Being able to leave good memories, being able to have some good film to show my son, that was definitely important to me.”

There was another factor. In October, Watt played against the Carolina Panthers just four days after his heart went into atrial fibrillation, a common condition in which the heartbeat becomes irregular and often beats too fast. After the Carolina win, Watt revealed to reporters that doctors had to shock his heart back into rhythm. His health was never in danger, but the experience stuck with him.

“There’s certainly some of that that played into it,” Watt said.

But mostly he was just ready to pour his energy and focus into something different. For years, Watt has put everything into conditioning and preparation, weightlifting and film study. It’s the price required to play at such a high level, and over time, as the NFL Sundays piled, it became exhausting, physically and mentally. Watt started to wonder what it’d be like to redirect that focus, to start the next chapter of his life, whatever that may be.

He was asked Wednesday if the television networks had already contacted him. Possibly, Watt said. He has not had a chance to go through all his cellphone messages. Arizona coach Kliff Kingsbury was asked whether he could see Watt one day coaching. “I would say Hollywood before coaching,’’ Kingsbury said. “Him and The Rock would be a good tandem.”

“He’s not going to go home and sit around, I’ll tell you that,” said Williams, the tight end. “J.J. Watt’s got something he’s planning. Who knows what it is, but I’m excited to see what he does next.”

About 45 minutes before Sunday’s game against Tampa Bay, Watt approached the sideline just as he has all season. For 10 minutes, he tossed the football with young fans in the stands, under-handing a pass to the left, pushing a short pass to the right. To many, Watt will be remembered for acts such as this. For understanding that his responsibility as a role model extended beyond pass rushing.

When Hurricane Harvey devastated Houston in the summer of 2017, Watt used his platform and influence to raise more than $41.6 million in recovery aid. He later helped pay for funerals following mass shootings in Texas and Wisconsin. When a woman last year posted on social media that she needed to sell a Watt jersey to help pay for her grandfather’s funeral, Watt tweeted back that he would cover the costs.

“The charitable stuff he did during the hurricane, as big as anybody’s done in sports when you’re talking about charitable endeavors,” Kingsbury said. “On the field, off the field, he’s an all-time great, one of the most respected players to ever come through this league.”

On Wednesday, Watt deflected such praise, insisting he’s just living life how he was raised. And that he certainly didn’t do anything without help.

“It truly has taken many villages to raise me and to help me to become who I am and do the things that I’ve done,” Watt said. “I didn’t do anything by myself. I didn’t train myself. I didn’t feed myself. I didn’t build my foundation by myself. I didn’t build my career by myself. I didn’t run that hurricane fundraiser by myself. I had incredible people every single step of the way. I’m unbelievably fortunate. I’ve had countless, countless people help me along the way. And I’ve had unbelievable fans the whole time.

“The only thing I can say at the end of the day is that I hope I made everybody proud.”

(Photo of J.J. Watt: Cooper Neill / Getty Images)

Doug Haller is a senior writer based in Arizona. He previously worked 13 years at The Arizona Republic, where he covered three Final Fours and four football national championship games. He is a five-time winner of the Arizona Sportswriter of the Year award. Follow Doug on Twitter @DougHaller