THE MAN WHO ISN’T REAL, J.J. WATT, HAS MADE A VERY HUMAN DECISION

We’ll remember him for his terror on the football field and generosity off it, but as Tom Brady keeps chasing titles at 45, Watt’s retirement at 33 is a reflection of life wisdom uncommon in athletes

     Was he created in a laboratory? Never has an athlete so menacing been so kind, so humble, so generous, so admired. This is sports in the 21st century, when no one gets out unscathed, when a hater always is ready to puncture a myth on social media or inside a courtroom. But in a dozen seasons never to be forgotten, Justin James Watt came as close to perfection and universal popularity as any sportsperson of his or any time.

     A cyborg, he was not. He was as real as the blood that seeped from the gash above his nose and into his mouth, the image that should appear on his plaque if the Pro Football Hall of Fame allowed graphic representations. The only hot-take debate about J.J. Watt is how he should be best remembered. Few pass-rushers have been more dominant than he was in the early 2010s, when he won three Defensive Player of the Year trophies and amassed 69 sacks in a four-season rage. When healthy, he was not blockable, bent on destruction and triggering fear with every burst of a sculpted, 6-foot-5, 300-pound body.

     “All I know is, you mess with me, you got problems!” Watt once warned the day’s opponents, before taking down another quarterback.

     But he has been an even larger humanitarian, walking into his dorm room at 2017 training camp and urging his Twitter followers to match his donation to Hurricane Harvey victims. They not only responded, they saved countless lives in Houston with more than $40 million in relief in less than three weeks. Months later, Watt won the NFL’s Walter Payton Man of the Year Award. The heartwarming stories of his philanthropy are endless, worthy of a wing of their own in Canton.

     “His commitment to the community is unlike any player in NFL history,” said Janice McNair, owner of the Houston Texans, the long-dysfunctional franchise he graced for 10 seasons.

     And still, as we absorb the news of his impending retirement, I’ll most appreciate Watt for his life wisdom. Only 33, he could have kept playing, seeking the Super Bowl appearance that remains the lone omission on his resume. He preferred to be a father and a husband, happy with three career playoff victories when Tom Brady, 12 years older, isn’t satisfied with seven championship rings. Injuries have slowed him since 2016, but it wasn’t until this past October, when his heart had to be shocked back into rhythm after the onset of atrial fibrillation, that he realized the end was near. A-Fib, as it is known medically, can cause blood clots in the heart and lead to stroke and heart failure. Suddenly, even the grandest of football lives was vulnerable. He somehow played four days later, helping the Arizona Cardinals to a victory in an otherwise lost season, but he couldn’t hide his tears afterward.

     “It’s been a week. I’m happy to be here. Happy to …,” said Watt, eye-black smeared on his face as his words trailed away. “I talked to cardiologists and electrophysiologists from all over the country. I was assured multiple times from multiple people that there was nothing else you could do. I could play like normal and something could happen the next day or never again in 20 years. So I was assured and I went back to practice on Friday and here we are. Obviously it’s been a very emotional week for me and my family — for my wife and for myself.”

     He didn’t want to go public with the story, knowing his few detractors might doubt the veracity of returning to play in the same week. But before the network pregame shows aired that Sunday, he tweeted from Charlotte, where the Cardinals were playing the Panthers, “I was just told somebody leaked some personal information about me and it’s going to be reported on today. I went into A-Fib on Wednesday, had my heart shocked back into rhythm on Thursday and I’m playing today. That’s it.”

     Who leaked it? Someone from the Cardinals? It wouldn’t be surprising, watching the chaos within that organization. He had gone to Arizona last season thinking he finally could win a conference title, play in a Super Bowl this February in State Farm Stadium. “I’m looking to go after a championship, and that’s what I want to do,” he said before leaving Houston. But in his new home, he was overwhelmed that his wife, Kealia, was expecting their first child. Who could blame the Watts for wondering if a heart condition could jeopardize his life, as they awaited the birth of a son?

     Sunday night, after harassing Brady in another Arizona loss, Watt posed for a photo on the field. He held his son, Koa, as Kealia stood beside them. On Tuesday morning, he tweeted the photo as he announced his retirement.

     “Koa's first ever NFL game. My last ever NFL home game. My heart is filled with nothing but love and gratitude,” he wrote. “It's been an absolute honor and a pleasure.”

     That same heart was imperiled not long ago. This is a man who truly gets it when so many brats and idiots do not in the sports business. There is a thought Watt eventually might return, to a more competitive team, when sports greats habitually unretired — from Brady to Michael Jordan to, amid recent hints, Serena Williams.

     But this is a different beast. He doesn’t live to sack passers. He doesn’t live to win Super Bowls. He lives to live.

     “Take a moment, ask yourselves, ‘How can I make a difference?’ ’’ he said at the end of his NFL Man of the Year speech. “No matter how big, no matter how small, ‘How can I make a difference?’ When you have your answer, go out and do it.”

     J.J. Watt arrives at his answers faster than most, just as he arrived at the feet of quarterbacks faster than almost anyone who played the game. He has it all figured out. The rest of us are left to keep trying.

###

     Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.