Two days after his Arizona Cardinals lost to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Christmas Day, J.J. Watt announced that he was going to retire after the season. He knew that the announcement would get a big response, which it did. But one response left Watt initially confused, then overcome with laughter.
Watt got a FaceTime call from a number he didn’t recognize. He ignored the call, sending it to voicemail. Shortly thereafter, he got a text from the same number, but as a voice memo. The message was so incoherent that Watt said that he “literally thought it was, like, distorted, from the phone.” Then a picture came in from the same number. Suddenly, it all made sense.
The mysterious caller was Watt’s rookie teammate, linebacker Jesse Luketa. Luketa’s message was “distorted” because he had just come from getting his wisdom teeth taken out. Not only did he have cotton balls in his mouth, but as Watt said, Luketa was “high off of his a**.”
While Luketa’s voice was definitely distorted, his message was clear.
“J.J., J.J. At the end of the season, I need a signed jersey, J.J. That’s all I wanted to call and tell you. That’s all. Bye, J.J.”
The Cardinals shared Watt’s telling of the story, as well as the audio of Luketa’s message. In the post, Watt’s responses to Luketa were also visible. Watt initially sent a series of laughing emojis before telling Luketa, “You’ll get a jersey brother” and “made my day.”
We've obtained the voice memo @JJWatt @OttawasVeryOwn 😂😂 pic.twitter.com/rA9yHugZ7S
— Arizona Cardinals (@AZCardinals) December 29, 2022
The team’s post was well received. Kalyn Kahler of the Athletic tweeted “Omg this is hysterical.”
Jason Wolf of The Arizona Republic had a similar reaction, saying “This is priceless.”
Omg this is hysterical https://t.co/YHynVphqBO
— Kalyn Kahler (@kalynkahler) December 30, 2022
This is priceless. 😂 https://t.co/rOEerQiyny
— Jason Wolf🐺🌵 (@JasonWolf) December 30, 2022
Nick King of AZ Family said that it was an “All-timer” while Rick Camp of 4for4 Bets added that the video was “better than advertised.”
All-timer https://t.co/Wjv7B4BBsT
— Nick King (@NickKingSports) December 30, 2022
Better than advertised https://t.co/51a2AvcKGd
— Rick Camp (@RickCCamp) December 30, 2022
Luketa was a good sport about it, tweeting “True Story!” in response to Watt.
True Story! 😂 https://t.co/6QdZ15HLgg
— Jesse Luketa 🇨🇦🇨🇩 (@OttawasVeryOwn) December 29, 2022
When Luketa gets that signed jersey, he’ll have definitely earned it.
[Arizona Cardinals on Twitter]
