T. J. Watt
Anytime anyone spends their hard-earned time and money to come out and watch us practice in late July or early August, you can't help but just be thankful to be a Pittsburgh Steeler and have those people want to watch us.Collection: Thankful
People who don't like inspirational quotes are the people who read them, but don't actually comprehend them or take them to heart.Collection: Inspirational
Any time you play hard and we have 200-pound guys running into 300-pound guys, you've got problems at your hands.
I know some of the guys, especially the younger guys, have a lot going on mentally. If they're in the spot to make a nice play, you can't forget it's very tough to make plays. When you make them, you have to celebrate.
My dad was a youth football coach who coached J.J. and Derek, so I grew up taking water to guys.
The only thing for us was Pewaukee athletics. My grandpa would yell at the TV for the Packers to stop running the ball on third down. Like that was pretty much how much NFL we watched.
We didn't really watch college until J.J. got there. It was Pewaukee athletics. Youth baseball playing together. Youth football. Basketball. We did everything. Ball boys on Friday nights. We couldn't get enough of Pewaukee athletics.
To be able to say that you're a state champion in high school is so awesome and I'm so jealous of it.
I have nothing but good things to say about the people of Pittsburgh.
You have so much going through your mind when you're rushing the passer, especially on the left side. You don't have time to really look at the hands of the offensive linemen, so you have to make it second nature, and the only way to do that is through muscle memory and reps.
A great pass rush is all four guys up front working together.
It always sucks not being 100% going into games, and just to have that in the back of your mind, you're warming up and you're not feeling 100%.
My whole life I've been trying to prove people wrong.
All that outside noise, people can say what they want about me. But at the end of the day, it's the people that are in my inner circle that I care about.
Our cul de sac we always had roller hockey going on, we had the big backyard, our neighbors had big backyards that connected all the backyards, and we had football, baseball, anything you can imagine. And then, in our basement, we had a real-size hockey net, we'd go down and shoot hockey before dinner.
We always were competing, no matter what it was, and it always ended up getting too rough and someone crying or someone getting a dead leg or dead arm, getting punched too hard and crying to Mom or Dad... It was fun, though. It made us who we are today.
I just feel like at any given moment I can make a splash play.
JJ is five years older than me and Derek is two years older, but they always included me in everything they did.
We were the house everybody came to. We had baseball in the backyard, roller hockey in the front yard. For football we connected three neighbor backyards to make one huge football field. We prided ourselves on being competitive.
There are so many people that don't love to practice, but when the game is taken away from you, you'll give anything to just be out there on the practice field.
I don't think that you're always gonna get the results that you want just 'cause sacks are so hard to come by, but I think you can consistently beat the guy if you're putting in the time and the effort, and you have the confidence.
I rush on the left side of the football, so I can always see where the quarterback's looking and where the football is, so as you're rushing the passer and turning the corner against a tackle, the ball is always in sight.
Growing up, my dad always said you have to have the impact to be a great player. It took me a while to find that impact, but I finally found it.
If you go into a game knowing that no one's prepared like you have, it's a very big advantage mentally and physically, and you just kinda let your body take over, and the aggression definitely comes out.
I'm always the guy that just keeps striving to get better each and every week, and you can't get caught up in any of the statistical things.
No matter where I go I'm just going to keep my mouth shut and work as hard as I can and play ball.
It doesn't matter if we're on vacation or where we are. I'm going to work my butt off.
I'm chasing greatness.
Once Rodgers was kind of hitting his stride, I was more of a Houston Texans fan, obviously, because of J.J.
For me it was super important in my development to play with J.J. and Derek to get beat up on a lot when I was younger.
I just want to win games.
I just want to be a part of success. If I'm the leader, if anyone else is the leader, I don't care. I just want to be a part of it.
I always want to do better.
Organizations like to know about your family background and what your parents did for a living, about your upbringing. For me, even if people didn't ask about my brothers, it always comes up just because we're so close.
In my head, anything you put your mind to put your work to, anything is possible.
What I have learned is as you get older, you are always evolving.
No offseason is the same.
In order to really help guys out and be a leader, you have to be very comfortable with who you are in this defense, in the locker room, everything.
I want to be physical. I want to rush the passer and I want to get to the football. That's exactly what I want to do.
At the end of the day I'm my own person.
You can't rush the passer scared.
You can win your one-on-one pass rush clean and still can't get to the quarterback because he's able to find escape lanes, get to the first down.
Our parents instilled in us a sense of community and how it takes a village to raise a family.
Being coachable and having a good time with your peers is what high school is all about.
If you're losing, you want to be in there to help out; if you're winning, you want to be in there to have fun, too.
Part of it, in my role now, more of a leader, just trying to set the tone.
I actually thought about some other schools, and I was interested in Nebraska. But they kind of backed off recruiting me. I think it was because of my name. They just assumed a Watt would go to Wisconsin.
I think everyone wants to have a legacy.
The biggest piece of advice I got from J.J. is just to be yourself, don't overthink things. Just be yourself, relax and you show people who you really are.
I've always said from the beginning, I'm never going to turn down reps.