S/o J.J. Watt For Actually Caring

Yesterday #TooManyLegs dropped to 6-9 on the season in a pitiful 3-5 showing. It's what I get for not doing write-ups for each pick, but excuse me for being in the midst of a terrible case of the blogging yips (details to come in later post...maybe).  ​

One of the five legs that failed us was Texans -1.5 against the Cincinnati Bengals. I assumed the Texans (DeShaun Watson) would be able to beat the Brandon Allen lead Bengals, who were coming off the high of defeating their hated rival Steelers on MNF the week before. 

Instead, I should've taken a deep breath and used my brain to see the obvious; an awful 4-10 team should (probably) not be a 7.5 point favorite against an awful 3-11-1 team. Teasing them down to -1.5 did not give me or the handful of people riding #TooManyLegs the desired wiggle room needed for a successful teaser!

In an actually sort of fun, back and forth game between 10 loss clubs, the Texans fought back after trailing all game to briefly hold a 31-27 lead before ultimately falling to the Bengals, 37-31.

Following the loss, a reporter asked J.J. how he and the Texans would bounce back for Week 17. J.J. responded with this:

I’ve made fun of JJ a lot in my internet career but this is spot on. This is the attitude you want from all pros not just All-Pros. I hope he gets to play for a real franchise next year. Maybe one that represents an entire region of states? pic.twitter.com/pbBHXfNEWO

— Doz #hiredozo (@DozonLife) December 27, 2020

Do I look down my nose and think I'm better than people who enjoy Imagine Dragons and Big Bang Theory like J.J. Watt?  Of course I do.  Have I made fun of J.J. in the past for being cornier than a porta-potty at a 4th of July cook out? You bet your sweet, sweaty ass I have. I referenced his lame Red Ryder BB Gun line in a blog just last month! Does part of me think a tiiiny bit of this is a show for the cameras? I'd be lying if I said no, but at the end of the day what J.J. said is right and exactly what you want to hear out of professional athletes. It doesn't matter how good or bad your team is; if you're still getting paid, you need to do everything you can to perform at your absolute best. I do believe this is genuine, I just also believe that J.J. isn't going to go out of his way to stop this from going viral.

Before this awful year started, I put waaaaayy too much of my self worth into being a Boston sports fan. I cared too much. If you asked me to describe myself, my fandom would've been one of the first things I said about who I was as a man; just ask anybody who saw me on tinder from 2013-early 2020.

2020 has been a wake up call about what really matters in life and despite becoming a little woke about such,  I can't turn my back entirely on what I spent decades of my life investing time, emotions, and money into. Because what J.J. said is right; no matter how bad the team may be, people still care. I still care about sports. Fuck man, it's what I have based my entire life around in a way.  I just don't have that spark anymore; not like I did last year, or five years ago, but I still care about sports. 

I spent years of my life trying to sell people on baseball. I felt like a Red Sox spokesperson at times telling my friends about how great this game is, but the heartbreak of trading Mookie Betts hurt me more than any on the field loss could because of what it represents. It broke decades of love.

I've accepted that plenty of people have moved on from trading Mookie and will go back to Fenway to spend hundreds of dollars on obstructed view seats, cafeteria food and watered down beer the second it opens to root for the laundry, but I cannot. I cannot help line the pockets of people who decided it's time to tighten their belt when generational talent is supposed to get what they're worth. How am I supposed to invest my time, energy and money into a team that is run by people who care more about profits than play on the field?  It's same when rooting for a team who doesn't try their absolute best when they're playing. I cannot get behind a team who would rather trade generational talent than open up the checkbook WHILE HAVING A HISTORY OF FRIVOLOUS SPENDING.

Just fucking care, that's all J.J. is saying. If the Red Sox actually cared about the fans and not profits, I'd still be a Red Sox fan. Before you bitch about "well they've won four World Series this century" read a blog.

J.J. actually cares about the fans who are responsible for professional sports being a multi-billion dollar industry. He's saying even if you aren't performing well as a team, the least you can do is try your best every time you step out on the field. You at least owe us (the fans) that. If you aren't willing to do that, then yeah, you don't deserve to be a pro. 

I get it, sports are a business and teams/owners have no loyalty to the players who help create/maintain their unimaginable wealth or even the city of fans who support them. 

Sure, J.J. can be a hardo at times, but I'd rather have a team full of hardos who give too much of a shit than guys like James Harden (who as of December 28th, 2020, share a city with J.J.), who have been given everything from an organization and actively try to sabotage things to get their way out when don't want to be there anymore.

You don't think J.J. Watt would love to be in Pittsburgh with his brothers right now trying to win a Super Bowl instead of trying to tackle Samaje Perine? He could've  mailed it in and I don't think anybody would've blamed him, but he has a responsibility to his team, teammates, coaches, and most importantly the fans because without them professional leagues like the NFL would not be worth billions that  they are today. 

So I raise a metaphorical Guinness to you J.J. for using the media to call out your teammates, trash ass organization and any other pro athletes who don't give a shit about anything other than themselves. If the people who (in a way) pay your salary still care, then you owe it to them to care too. I feel bad that J.J.'s prime was wasted with such an irrelevant franchise, but as I say that, it's not irrelevant. There's millions of people out there who care about the Houston Texans and I appreciate J.J. for actually caring about them.