While nearly everyone in the most romantic city in the world was fast asleep, J.J. Watt and his two brothers were busy on the streets of Paris. They would go past the Arc de Triomphe, breeze down the Champs- Elysees, doing what most sightseers from America would do in Paris.
Only they weren’t sight-seeing.
“The one thing we couldn’t do was get on the right sleep schedule and, to be honest, we didn’t really care,” Watt said. “We’d be awake in the middle of the night so we’d go for a jog.”
Watt, A three-time NFL defensive player of the year for the Houston Texans, took his two brothers — Derek and T.J. — on a 15-day European vacation to Paris, London, Rome and Dublin, Ireland, a couple of years ago. He called it “a brother’s trip to see the world.” That, though, didn’t stop them from doing what they always seem to be doing in America, no matter where each of three siblings are located — working out.
They even found a gym in London, right near Big Ben (the clock, not the quarterback), to get in a workout.
“That’s the type of people we are,” T.J. Watt said. “It doesn’t matter if we’re on vacation or where we are. I’m going to work my butt off.”
Like his older brother, T.J. Watt’s work ethic is impressive. So is what he did in one year as a starting outside linebacker at Wisconsin, registering 11½ sacks. Those are among the primary reasons the Steelers made Watt (6 feet 4, 252 pounds) the 30th overall pick in the draft and allowed him to join J.J. and Derek, a fullback with the Los Angeles Chargers, as one of the few families with three brothers in the NFL.
“He worked his butt off,” J.J. Watt was saying of his brother Friday on a conference call. “He’s always been a natural athlete, he’s always been a little more smooth than I was. When he started to play [defense], he just had a knack for it, things that didn’t necessarily come natural to me.
“I’ve seen how much work he’s put into it. It’s so exciting for me to watch him this last season, just watching him rush the passer. He plays the game with so much joy. It’s a lot of fun to watch.”
Like his brother, who began his college career as a tight end at Central Michigan as a teammate of Antonio Brown, T.J. Watt also was a tight end who was switched to defense before the start of the 2015 season at Wisconsin. J.J., though, was moved to defensive end because he is bigger. T.J. became an outside linebacker.
J.J. said his brother couldn’t be going to a better city and a better team with great tradition with the Steelers.
Father’s influence huge
Brad Arnett has owned a private training facility for 12 years in Waukesha, Wis., about 25 minutes from T.J.’s home in Pewaukee. In that time, he says proudly, “I’ve worked with a Watt for 10 years now.”
J.J. began working with Arnett when he was a junior at Pewaukee High School. Derek and T.J. began when they were freshmen.
“Everyone always compares the brothers to the oldest brother,” Arnett said. “Did they come in with the same attributes? Well, eventually they got to that, but at the beginning they didn’t because of maturity. But it didn’t take long to see the similarities between all three, from a concept of attitude, commitment and work ethic. With them, it was not just to do things right, but to never get it wrong.”
Connie and John Watt would serve their growing sons two dinners a day — one at 4:30 p.m. after practice or workouts, another at 8 p.m. They would pack peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for them to eat between classes. They did that because their sons were burning so many calories working out and playing sports.
“Does T.J. work harder than everybody else? I’m not going to say he works harder,” Arnett said. “But what separates all three of them is they consistently do it. When it’s time to go to work, it’s going to get done.”
It has become almost legendary around Pewaukee, a city of 13,000 west of Milwaukee and about an hour east of Madison, how the three Watt boys were so busy and so committed to working out and playing sports they never had time for a serious girlfriend.
They got the work ethic from their dad, no slouch himself. John Watt held the shot-put record at Pewaukee High School (54 feet, 5½ inches) for 27 years until J.J. broke it with a heave of 59-11¾ . Six years later, T.J. set the record at just over 60 feet in 2013.
“Neither one of them have many outside hobbies, other than trying to be the best,” said Clay Iverson, who coached each of the Watt boys in high school. “That’s the truth. They don’t spend their time doing a whole lot other than trying to be really good at their craft. They have that unique ability you don’t see, especially in today’s day and age, to put away some of the stuff that is allotted them as professional athletes. What they’ve done is impressive.”
Arnett recalled the time last summer he was at J.J.’s house, sitting around and talking with T.J., who was coming off a second knee surgery. Watt had been elevated to the No. 1 outside linebacker with the Badgers, one year after being converted from tight end.
“He made a comment that he was tired of waiting his turn, that he wanted to make his own statement, kind of create his own path,” Arnett said. “To watch that unfold last year was rewarding and fun at the same time.”
Now Watt will try to extend that path with the Steelers.
“I’m not satisfied just to be here,” Watt said Friday, standing at a podium, flanked by team president Art Rooney II, coach Mike Tomlin and general manager Kevin Colbert, at his introductory news conference. “I’m chasing greatness.”
Brother vs. brother
Christmas Day, 2017, Steelers vs. Houston Texans at NRG Stadium in Houston.
Younger brother T.J. vs. big brother J.J.
First time since they were kids in Pewaukee.
“It will be weird to be on the same field as J.J. in shoulder pads.” T.J. said. “I played with him in the backyard, and I have seen him play a bunch, but we’ve never been on the same field in full uniforms, competitively, before. I think that will be a really cool and kind of weird day for me.”
J.J. Watt said he already has texted Antonio Brown — his teammate for one year at Central Michigan — and told him to “look over my brother and be sure to haze him a little extra for me.”
But he also had a message for his younger brother.
“He has to try a Primanti’s sandwich for me because I never had one,” he said.
Gerry Dulac: gdulac@post-gazette.com and Twitter @gerrydulac.
First Published: April 28, 2017, 9:45 p.m.
