The NFL has changed over the years, as has the sport of football. The league has attempted to legislate hard hits and punishing blows out of the game. This has been met with criticism over the years, and you don’t have to travel too far to find it. J.J. Watt, a former multi-time Defensive Player of the Year and now an analyst for CBS Sports, was on the criticizing side on Wednesday.
Watt joined ‘The Pat McAfee Show’ on Wednesday afternoon. The former Houston Texans great talked shop with the ESPN personality, and the way the game’s played nowadays came up. Specifically how Pittsburgh Steelers running back Jaylen Warren got fined for a hit over the weekend.
Watt got a lot off of his chest, to say the least.
“Yeah, yeah, you will miss it. Any time you gotta watch the play ten times to figure out which person is getting fined, I think you messed up. You know, I posted that on Twitter and everybody was like, ‘Which player is it? Which one am I supposed to be looking at?’ Like, if we’re having to do that, maybe we shouldn’t be taking the guy’s entire paycheck. I mean he’s playing for free! He’s literally going out there playing for free two weks in a row. What do you want him to do? It’s a 300-pound man.”
"There's a lot of things going on in the NFL that I've got takes on..
We are literally headed towards flag football as a league and I don't love this middle ground that we're in right now" ~ @JJWatt #PMSLive pic.twitter.com/7CHAikwXjN
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) November 1, 2023
Watt continued to go off on officiating and the punishment standards right now in the league:
“I got takes here. You wanna talk about that. You saw that play. If that’s considering lowering your head and dangerous, let’s talk about cut blocks. Let’s talk about a tight end coming across the formation throwing his head at the knee of a player, trying to wipe out his player. Perfectly legal, according to the rulebook. You’re allowed to go wipe somebody’s knee out — literally the goal of a cut block is to blow somebody’s knee out, basically. And we’re gonna be okay with that.
“But we’re gonna take this guy’s whole paycheck because he tried to block a 300-pounder? He tried to go lower and use his leverage? There’s a lot of things that, you know, we wear these Guardian caps in training camp because it’s 10 times safer for concussions but we don’t wear them in… I don’t know. There’s a lot of things going on.
“Oh okay, he’s lowering his shoulder. Is he supposed to take the hit? The discussion’s of flag football and now like, we’re getting in the Olympics. I love flag football, it’s a great sport. But like, we are literally heading towards that direction as a league. And if that’s what you wanna be, fine, just say it, but I don’t love this middle ground that we’re in right now.”
It’s safe to say that Watt is not in love with what the NFL is trying to do. You will likely find many who agree with him, even if the “flag football” aspect might be overselling.
