J.J. Watt reveals the team he wishes he got to play for before retiring

J.J. Watt.

When J.J. Watt became a free agent for the first time in his NFL career in 2021, there were a limited number of teams that he actually wanted to play for.

Watt ultimately signed with the Arizona Cardinals, but he recently admitted if he hadn’t landed in the desert he would have preferred to sign with his hometown team, the Green Bay Packers.

“I loved being in Houston. The people were unbelievable to me, it was great,” Watt told TalkSport. “I grew up in Wisconsin and I grew up in Green Bay. The Packers, have a little bit of a different relationship with their fans because they’re a community-owned team, it’s a small town, so that’s one that always would have been really cool.”

Watt grew up in Pewaukee, Wisconsin, approximately two hours south of Green Bay. He starred at the University of Wisconsin, where he switched from tight end to defensive end and racked up 106 tackles, 36.5 tackles for loss and 11.5 sacks in 26 games across two seasons.

The Packers signed 11 free agents during the 2021 offseason, including two edge-rushers, but they couldn’t match the two-year, $31M contract the Cardinals gave him, and his storybook ending of retiring as a Packer wasn’t meant to be.

“There’s a story for another day,” Watt said at the time, via the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “I can’t share. That’s a story for like a memoir someday. … There was certainly a thought for that. Sometimes, things don’t materialize in a way it’s all going to, you know.”

In 12 seasons, Watt was a five-time All-Pro, a five-time Pro Bowler and a three-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year and was runner-up for the NFL MVP in 2014. He led the league in sacks twice (2012, 2015) and he retired as the Houston Texans all-time leader in sacks (101), forced fumbles (25) and fumble recoveries (16).

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