Bucky
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PRIDE OF PEWAUKEE
THE WATT BROS
NOVEMBER 9TH 2018
BY: BUCKY
The Watt Brothers. It’s 2018 and it is safe to say The Watt Clan has firmly established themselves among the greats of NFL Family Bloodlines. Joining the greats in The Matthews, Bosa's, and McCaffrey's. Three brothers in JJ, TJ, and Derek play in the NFL. For this article we will be focusing on JJ and TJ who are amongst the best the NFL has to offer for Defensive Stars. Sorry Derek, we will get to your story about being a do everything Fullback another time. For now we focus on DEFENSE.
The Watt Family hails from Pewaukee, Wisconsin. A small town of 13,000 in Waukesha County, also known as Milwaukee suburbs. Pewaukee translates to: “the lake of shells". Wisconsin is known to have many towns with funky names. Native American and French influence dating back to The Fur Trade days explains it all.
Anyways back to The Watt's. The NFL trio comes from an Upper Middle American Background. Their dad a firefighter and their mother a building operations VP. Just your average Suburban Family right? Wrong, Superstars were being born in a Small Wisconsin Town.
Despite being an All State performer at his High School, JJ was only rated as a 2 Star recruit by Rivals and Scout.. He wasn’t the giant we currently know to terrorize NFL offenses but he was a skinny 6'5 250lbs with plenty of room to grow and was mostly being recruited as a TE. He ended up committing to Central Michigan to play TE for Butch Jones. Yep, that didn’t work out. A year later the future 3 time NFL Defensive Player of The Year was back in his hometown delivering pizzas! Yeah that’s right, the most dominant Defensive Player of The Last Decade almost didn’t play a down of college ball! Luckily for us JJ had set his mind on being great and enrolled as a walk-on at UW Madison the following fall.
One month in to his Badger career he was already on full scholarship. Wisconsin couldn’t believe the passion, work ethic, and talent they had been blessed with. Fast forward to his JR and SR seasons as a starter. JJ recorded 74 tackles , 11.5 Sacks, 1 Interception and 4 Forced Fumbles. His draft buzz was off the charts after being named First Team All Big Ten and First Team All American. He was on his way to NFL Greatness. The rest is History. JJ currently has 85 Career Sacks and shows no signs of slowing down. Tied with his brother for League Lead in Sacks at midway point.
Middle Brother TJ was rated slightly better than his All Pro Brother coming out of High School. Rivals and Scout had him pegged as a 3 Star player. At 6'4 255lbs he is smaller than his older bro, but faster and plays standing up rather than a hand in the dirt 3-4 end like JJ. TJ was devastated by knee injuries throughout his college career. In 2016 he put it all together as a Red Shirt Junior. 63 tackles and 11.5 sacks to go along with an interception. After the season he declared he would forego his Senior Season and enter The Draft. Rightfully NFL Teams had concerns about his past knee injuries which ultimately led to his slide in The NFL Draft and allowing The Pittsburgh Steelers to snag him at the 30th spot. Pittsburgh, a franchise with a storied tradition of hard nosed, blue collared, white guys at LB was now home to TJ Watt. The Middle Watt Brother has been a force since entering the League in 2017. Already recording 97 Tackles, 15 Sacks, 3 Forced Fumbles, 8 Pass Deflections, and an Interception.
In conclusion you don’t have to go to the hood to find Elite Football Talent. Sure you could crowd around with dozens of other Football Recruiters and Coaches hoping to tap into that Southern Florida Pipeline. That may work for some programs. But let’s be honest, do bottom dweller MAC Programs have any business recruiting the South Florida leftovers the College Football Blue Bloods leave behind? Isn’t that a waste of resources for The average FBS team? Sending coaches and scouts hundreds of miles away?
Or you can go off the beaten path, think outside the box and recruit and evaluate talent differently. That starts with erasing the bias against White Athletes, who are virtually ignored in the recruiting process, case in point the 2 above Athletes. Even if they are the same size, speed, production as a Black Athlete( Refer to JCs Apple’s to Apple's ) I know some people with weak stomach's may get uncomfortable with this but it is true. It is HARDER to be recruited as an White Athlete, especially if you’re playing a "taboo" skill position, which is basically anything besides OL or QB. Numerous Former Black Players have discussed this regarding Christian McCaffrey.
Turn on a Game This Saturday or Sunday. Write down a tally every time you hear a White Guy referred to as a Former Walk-on! Spoiler alert, it’s a lot!
THE WATT BROS
NOVEMBER 9TH 2018
BY: BUCKY
The Watt Brothers. It’s 2018 and it is safe to say The Watt Clan has firmly established themselves among the greats of NFL Family Bloodlines. Joining the greats in The Matthews, Bosa's, and McCaffrey's. Three brothers in JJ, TJ, and Derek play in the NFL. For this article we will be focusing on JJ and TJ who are amongst the best the NFL has to offer for Defensive Stars. Sorry Derek, we will get to your story about being a do everything Fullback another time. For now we focus on DEFENSE.
The Watt Family hails from Pewaukee, Wisconsin. A small town of 13,000 in Waukesha County, also known as Milwaukee suburbs. Pewaukee translates to: “the lake of shells". Wisconsin is known to have many towns with funky names. Native American and French influence dating back to The Fur Trade days explains it all.
Anyways back to The Watt's. The NFL trio comes from an Upper Middle American Background. Their dad a firefighter and their mother a building operations VP. Just your average Suburban Family right? Wrong, Superstars were being born in a Small Wisconsin Town.
Despite being an All State performer at his High School, JJ was only rated as a 2 Star recruit by Rivals and Scout.. He wasn’t the giant we currently know to terrorize NFL offenses but he was a skinny 6'5 250lbs with plenty of room to grow and was mostly being recruited as a TE. He ended up committing to Central Michigan to play TE for Butch Jones. Yep, that didn’t work out. A year later the future 3 time NFL Defensive Player of The Year was back in his hometown delivering pizzas! Yeah that’s right, the most dominant Defensive Player of The Last Decade almost didn’t play a down of college ball! Luckily for us JJ had set his mind on being great and enrolled as a walk-on at UW Madison the following fall.
One month in to his Badger career he was already on full scholarship. Wisconsin couldn’t believe the passion, work ethic, and talent they had been blessed with. Fast forward to his JR and SR seasons as a starter. JJ recorded 74 tackles , 11.5 Sacks, 1 Interception and 4 Forced Fumbles. His draft buzz was off the charts after being named First Team All Big Ten and First Team All American. He was on his way to NFL Greatness. The rest is History. JJ currently has 85 Career Sacks and shows no signs of slowing down. Tied with his brother for League Lead in Sacks at midway point.
Middle Brother TJ was rated slightly better than his All Pro Brother coming out of High School. Rivals and Scout had him pegged as a 3 Star player. At 6'4 255lbs he is smaller than his older bro, but faster and plays standing up rather than a hand in the dirt 3-4 end like JJ. TJ was devastated by knee injuries throughout his college career. In 2016 he put it all together as a Red Shirt Junior. 63 tackles and 11.5 sacks to go along with an interception. After the season he declared he would forego his Senior Season and enter The Draft. Rightfully NFL Teams had concerns about his past knee injuries which ultimately led to his slide in The NFL Draft and allowing The Pittsburgh Steelers to snag him at the 30th spot. Pittsburgh, a franchise with a storied tradition of hard nosed, blue collared, white guys at LB was now home to TJ Watt. The Middle Watt Brother has been a force since entering the League in 2017. Already recording 97 Tackles, 15 Sacks, 3 Forced Fumbles, 8 Pass Deflections, and an Interception.
In conclusion you don’t have to go to the hood to find Elite Football Talent. Sure you could crowd around with dozens of other Football Recruiters and Coaches hoping to tap into that Southern Florida Pipeline. That may work for some programs. But let’s be honest, do bottom dweller MAC Programs have any business recruiting the South Florida leftovers the College Football Blue Bloods leave behind? Isn’t that a waste of resources for The average FBS team? Sending coaches and scouts hundreds of miles away?
Or you can go off the beaten path, think outside the box and recruit and evaluate talent differently. That starts with erasing the bias against White Athletes, who are virtually ignored in the recruiting process, case in point the 2 above Athletes. Even if they are the same size, speed, production as a Black Athlete( Refer to JCs Apple’s to Apple's ) I know some people with weak stomach's may get uncomfortable with this but it is true. It is HARDER to be recruited as an White Athlete, especially if you’re playing a "taboo" skill position, which is basically anything besides OL or QB. Numerous Former Black Players have discussed this regarding Christian McCaffrey.
Turn on a Game This Saturday or Sunday. Write down a tally every time you hear a White Guy referred to as a Former Walk-on! Spoiler alert, it’s a lot!
