JJ Watt Signs With Arizona Cardinals, Reunites With DeAndre Hopkins
After JJ Watt announced he’d be mutually parting ways with the team he’d been playing with his whole career, the Texans, speculation loomed on where the NFL defensive end would end up.
As a reporter, your sources are key to any story and there’s no better source than the subject of the story itself. Check your sources. In this case, JJ Watt said: “source: me”, posting a picture on Instagram of himself with an Arizona Cardinals shirt. You can read between the lines there and see this was his announcement post on which team he’d be signing with.
JJ Watt is now an Arizona Cardinals defensive end. From Houston to the desert, from Texas to Arizona, the signing all of a sudden bolsters the Cardinals’ defense and reunites Watt with his former Texans teammate DeAndre Hopkins.
Two weeks ago, Hopkins posted on Instagram: “Let’s finish what we started…” showing him and Watt with the defensive end wearing what appeared to be a photoshopped Cardinals jersey.
That caught the attention of Cardinals’ defensive players.
“👀,” Isaiah Simmons commented on the post.
“Could you imagine? 👀,” Chandler Jones said.
Now, Jones and the Cardinals don’t need to imagine it anymore. It’s reality. Watt is now an Arizona Cardinal.
Hey, could that even bring Vince Wilfork out of retirment?
“Hop, don’t drag me out of retirement!” Wilfork commented on that Hopkins post. “I got couple downs still in me”.
Watt is a five-time Pro Bowl selection, five-time All-Pro, was the 2017 Walter Payton Man of the Year, and three-time AP Defensive Player of the Year.
Watt also will still be wearing that signature number-99 jersey even though Watt said in a Tweet it was “previously retired in honor of Marshall Goldberg”.
Watt thanked the Goldberg family “for their kindness in offering me the opportunity to wear #99 in Arizona…I am humbled & honored to wear it and will do my best to make them proud and honor Marshall properly…”
Charlie Lapastora is a sports/news multimedia journalist who’s reported, written, produced, anchored, shot video/edited on different NBC, ABC, and FOX shows in multiple TV markets, along with digital & new media companies. Charlie has traveled the country telling national sports, news, feature, and original stories on a cable news network, airing on top 10 TV markets, satellite radio, and digital platforms. He is passionate about his faith, family—being a husband to whom he calls the G.O.A.T. of women—about reppin’ his home state of Michigan and Detroit teams (yes, including the Lions), good coffee, and loves how sports brings people together. He’s traveled the world leading and coaching sports camps and has also worked at the Detroit Pistons and LA Clippers’ NBA teams.
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