Arizona Cardinals defensive lineman J.J. Watt announced his retirement from the NFL following the season on Tuesday and spoke to reporters on Wednesday. He revealed a funny story about a message he received from a teammate.
I’ll tell you the best story. This is by far the best hands down without a question. I posted the tweet yesterday and then I just kind of put my phone down because I knew it would be crazy. I took my son to his pediatric appointment. We took him to his doctor’s appointment, and I’m coming home and I’m like, ‘Alright. Let me check my phone.’ Literally, it’s crazy, but I’m scrolling through it and there’s this number that I don’t recognize that FaceTime’s me. I’m like, ‘Alright. I’m not going to answer a FaceTime I don’t know, so I just let it go to voicemail. Then I get a text from that number and it’s a voice memo. I’m like, ‘Who is this number?’ I play the voice memo and it’s— I wish I could play it so bad. I wish so bad. I’m going to ask him. I’m going to ask him if I can later. I don’t want to now. It is incoherent, complete incoherence, and I’m like, What the hell is this?’ I literally thought it was distorted from the phone. 10 seconds later, a picture comes through and it’s (LB) Jesse Luketa our rookie outside linebacker, and he has cotton balls in both of his mouth. He’d just got his wisdom teeth out. He’s high off his ass. He has no clue what he’s doing, and in the message, it says, ‘J.J., I just heard you’re retiring. All I want is a jersey at the end of the season.’ It is incoherent. Beyond incoherent. I listened to it 10 times to understand what he was saying. Then I laugh my ass off. I’m dying laughing, so I FaceTime him and he answers, and he’s still gone. I mean, just completely gone. I’m like, ‘Jesse, what are you doing?’ He’s like, ‘I just want a jersey.’ He can’t speak whatsoever. Then, four hours later I get a text from Jesse, and he goes, ‘I still want that jersey man, but I’m sorry for the call. They had literally just told me when I woke up from the anesthesia that you’re retiring.’ When I tell you I was dying laughing, it was the funniest.
He got permission to share it and the Cardinals’ team account posted it.
We've obtained the voice memo @JJWatt @OttawasVeryOwn 😂😂 pic.twitter.com/rA9yHugZ7S
— Arizona Cardinals (@AZCardinals) December 29, 2022
Watt did promise Luketa the jersey.
He also delivered it.
Update Got The Jersey! #BlessedFriday pic.twitter.com/M3zLcnbzuB
— Jesse Luketa 🇨🇦🇨🇩 (@OttawasVeryOwn) December 30, 2022
J.J. Watt — great football player, great teammate.
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