TV commercial star T.J. Watt preps for Steelers opener vs. successor as defensive player of year
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For those who still watch old-fashioned (non-streaming) television that features ads, it’s been difficult to get through any commercial breaks during this season-opening week of the NFL season without seeing T.J. Watt.
Watt, the Pittsburgh Steelers’ star defender, stars in two humorous commercials this week — one for an at-home taco dinner and the other for a candy bar.
“Just having fun, trying to show some personality,” Watt said Friday.
Watt can have some fun and show a lighter side in such settings, especially when his former NFL-playing brothers, J.J. and Derek, are on set, like they were for the taco ad.
But Watt’s persona during a game, or even in prep for a game during the week leading up to it, is all business. And that was no different Friday, two days prior to the Steelers’ regular-season opener.
“I wanna win, man,” Watt said when asked about entering the game three sacks away from the Steelers’ career sacks record. “I wanna win.”
Fifty-two of Watt’s 77 1/2 career sacks have come at the venue now known as Acrisure Stadium, where the Steelers will host the San Francisco 49ers in a 1 p.m. Sunday kickoff. The game will feature the past two NFL defensive player of the year honorees:Watt won it in 2021 and San Francisco’s Nick Bosa claimed it last season.
Like Watt did two years prior, Bosa this week earned a new contract in the days leading up to a season opener. And while the situations aren’t exactly comparable, Watt can speak to how Bosa might approach playing in a season opener after spending the entirety of the preseason and training camp involved in contract negotiations.
More than perhaps any other NFL team, the #Steelers are aware of what an elite pass rusher can do with little practice in the preseason. https://t.co/PmdjgS7eu2
— Tribune-Review Sports (@TribSports) September 8, 2023
Watt — who, unlike Bosa, spent the 2021 camp with the team and attended meetings — had two sacks and a forced fumble two days after signing a four-year, $112 million deal with the Steelers on Sept. 10, 2021.
“I don’t really know if there’s much ‘lag,’ ” Watt said, in explaining Bosa’s mindset. “If anything, it’s fresh legs and a lot of want-to and desire. The guy hasn’t been able to play football in a long time. So you just wanna come back and be explosive and powerful and show everybody the work that you’ve been putting in, even to you haven’t been doing team activities.
“I don’t think it’s going to hinder a guy like (Bosa) at all … As far as Week 1, I think you can expect a guy like him to go out there and play his butt off.”
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