JJ Watt Dodging Kyler Murray Questions In An Interview With Dan Patrick Makes For A Fun "Try Not To Cringe" Challenge
As I begin to fire up this blog, I'm cringing just thinking about listening back to this segment. Oh my goodness. I like want to revert to child-like instincts, build a fort and hide there for the next 14 hours or so, then take multiple showers to wash this gross cringing creepy crawler parasite of a video off of me.
Zero percent of the damages done to my psyche and muscles via cringing cramps are on JJ Watt. If you ever doubted whether his classiness is genuine or not, this should tell you all you need to know. Guy just retired. Went out playing some awesome football and fought through injuries for so many years. However, he can't deny at least some disappointment about finishing his career in Arizona where it was basically a circus. For as great as Watt was, the poor guy never sniffed a Super Bowl. Flashes of brilliance happened with the Cardinals, but nothing sustainable.
So with all that as the backdrop, you could hardly blame Watt for popping off in a moment of weakness and piling on Kyler Murray. Only he did not even remotely entertain the idea of doing that. JJ did not throw Kyler under the bus even as Dan Patrick fired off all the hot, negative takes about the latter and kept laying it on.
No denying how uncomfortable and stomach-churning this three-minute bit of grisly footage was. Beyond all those sensations there is, in fact, a touching story at the core of all this. JJ Watt is still being a standup guy and teammate for the last full-time QB he played with in his Hall of Fame career.
Key piece of context in case you didn't know: Patrick had a legendarily bad interview with Kyler Murray several years back when he was still deciding between baseball and football. Speaking of cringe challenges. I dislike writing the word "cringe" this many times it's making me cringe more OK I'll stop.
The follow-up convo wasn't a ton better LOL.
Anyone who follows the NFL and has a brain knows Kyler has his issues. I feel like all his red flags have been self-evident ever since he exploded onto the scene as a Heisman Trophy winner at Oklahoma. Pretty much everything that's needed to be said has been said about Kyler regarding areas in which he can significantly improve. Good on JJ for taking the high road.
I will say Patrick makes some good points here, though. The core argument was about football being "too easy" for Kyler to the point where it's sabotaged his NFL development. JJ contended that'd discredit all the greatness Kyler achieved at all levels before the pros. Patrick was more trying to say that Kyler is that elite of an athlete that it was way too easy for him coming up.
Guess we'll know a lot more when Kyler is healthy and we see how he's playing and how he's vibing with whichever new coach the Cardinals hire.
I feel obligated to end this blog with the following two pieces of media for an IYKYK sort of joke that ties all this together.