NFL legend and Burnley stakeholder JJ Watt has revealed how his former USWNT star wife Kealia quickly silenced his “professional keeper” boast.
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American football icon now involved in soccerThought he could become a keeper with practiceQuickly discovered that is not the caseWHAT HAPPENED?
As an elite sportsman, Watt boldly claimed during the Covid-enforced break in competitive action that he could make it to the top in another form of football if he worked hard enough. Having forged his reputation in a game that requires quick and reliable hands, Watt suggested that he would be able to star as a goalkeeper.
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In a bid to prove his point, while helping his partner keep in shape as her career in the NWSL with the Chicago Red Stars wound down, Watt constructed a soccer field in his back yard. It was during sessions on that pitch that he quickly realised that his keeper prediction was wrong.
WHAT JJ WATT SAID
Watt – speaking on the podcast, brought to you by Sky Bet – said of talks with his wife about which NFL stars could make good soccer players: “I always look right at speed. I think the technical side – I 100% agree with my wife on this – you guys grew up with the ball at your feet. The ability to control the ball, I don’t think any of us could get that in five or six years – that’s a lifetime of the ball at your feet. So, then I go to, ‘Okay, what could they do?’ A wide receiver with speed, running down the side and being able to cross one in. Or, a defensive back, man-to-man defence in the NFL, I think just playing left or right back and being to just man-up a winger. Where you don’t have to be on the ball as much and you’re literally just shadowing somebody. Where can we hide them?
“Back to the wife thing – I said this very confidently – I was like, ‘Given a few years to train, I would be a great keeper.’ I was like, ‘I think I could legitimately be a professional ‘keeper,’ and I was dead serious. My wife obviously was ribbing me about it and was like, ‘No, stop saying that.’ So, during covid, everything shut down. She had nobody to train with and I wanted to help her train. In our back yard in Wisconsin, we have a bunch of land, so we built a soccer field. And I was like, ‘Alright, here it goes. I’m going to play ‘keeper and you shoot on me.’ She dribbled across the top of the box and fired a shot in the upper 90. Zinged across, past my pad at 74 miles an hour. So, I said, ‘Okay, new rule. You don’t kick it from anywhere inside 20 yards.’ So, I have the most newfound respect for ‘keepers, and I no longer think I could [be a professional goalkeeper].”
Getty ImagesWHAT NEXT?
Watt is now involved in soccer. Alongside Kealia, he acquired a minority stake in Burnley in May 2023. They formed part of Championship title-winning celebrations that year, but are now seeing the Clarets struggle to claw their way out of the Premier League relegation zone. Both the former NFL star and his wife will play in the 2024 edition of The Soccer Tournament (TST) in the men's and women's divisions of the competition.