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J.J. Watt on Joining CBS, Aaron Rodgers’s Injury, Jimmy Buffett and More

Also in Traina Thoughts: Brand-new ‘SI Media With Jimmy Traina,’ Colorado State coach takes shot at Deion Sanders, Ronald Acuña Jr. sends a message and more.

Jimmy Traina

1. On Wednesday, I spoke with the newest addition to CBS’s NFL Today, J.J. Watt. Among the topics we discussed were how he feels about doing TV after Week 1, whether he’d go into coaching, Aaron Rodgers’s injury, singing, beer, Jimmy Buffett and more.

Sports Illustrated: You made your debut on NFL Today last week. How did you think you did? What did you love about it? What would you like to do better?

J.J. Watt: I enjoyed it very much. I had a lot of fun. You’re literally sitting all day long talking football, watching football, you’re hanging out with Hall of Famers, just enjoying the games. It’s pretty awesome. Loved everything about it.

The one thing I want to change is taking my hands out of my pockets. I think that’s probably the one thing I’d like to improve upon.

I’m taking a little time off. The whole thing for me this year is I didn’t want to retire to then just work full time, so I’m taking a couple of weeks off in between all my stints so I can spend time with my son and my family.

SI: How many weeks will you be on NFL Today this season?

JW: We don’t have an exact number yet, but it’ll be somewhere around just under half.

SI: You pulled off the move that’s the dream for anyone who works, which is to dictate your own schedule and not work full time but still have a great job.

JW: The whole reason I retired is so I can spend time with my family. A lot of people say that, but it’s true. I never really had a full Christmas or full Thanksgiving because of game week prep, so I want to make sure I’m enjoying those. My son’s birthday is coming up in October. I wanna make sure I’m there for that. So being able to do CBS when I want to and being able to do Pat McAfee’s show every Wednesday from my house keeps me around the game, keeps me in it, but also allows me to spend time with my family.

SI: Does it bother you at all that most people don’t think you’re going to stay retired? 

JW: It doesn’t bother me at all. It doesn’t change my life in any capacity. I was a fan, too. I’ve seen it all. I always wondered about those things.

SI: Before starting the CBS gig, you said you had some trepidation about criticizing players. One week in, do you feel like you’re a little more comfortable if you had to criticize?

JW: There’s no doubt I’m still definitely keeping everything extremely positive. There are so many positive things to talk about. If you want to go down a negative route, you’re almost making time to be negative for a reason, but I do think it is important. There are topics—nobody can deny that the Giants did not play well this week—so you have to be able to talk about that, but you don’t have to crush certain individuals. You can just talk about it in a general sense and still give great insight and analysis. I want to be a positive force and I want to be able to highlight a bunch of positive things going on around the league.

SI: Julian Edelman told me last week on SI Media With Jimmy Traina that he went into broadcasting because he didn’t want to go into coaching. Do you think you’d have any interest in coaching down the road?

JW: I don’t have any interest in the hours. I love coaching. I love teaching young guys. I have a bunch of young defensive linemen who send me clips every week and ask me to watch them and ask me to give them tips, so I love doing that. But coaching? I don’t think anybody truly understands the hours and time that goes into that. I don’t think I could ever see myself being a full-time coach at any level past high school.

SI: I know you don’t know the answer to this, but what do you think Aaron Rodgers will do? Do you think he comes back next year? 

JW: I have not spoken to him at all, but I would say my guess is that he truly doesn’t know right now. Being through some major injuries myself, the range of emotions and the roller coaster that you go on, especially in the first 48 hours after an injury. Then you have the surgery, then you have the recovery and you’re trying to figure out everything. I would bet he doesn’t even know right now because he’s thinking to himself about the recovery ahead and the expectations for the season and the excitement and energy and how happy and ready for it he was, so I think it’s gonna take him some time to process all that and figure out if he wants to put all that time and effort and energy into that rehab, because an Achilles rehab is brutal. But he’s a competitor, so he absolutely doesn’t want to go out that way, but it’s a different scenario when you’re at the age and it’s such a tough injury. But I have no doubt if he chooses to, if he wants to, he certainly can play.

SI: You’re doing a promotion with Miller Lite where you’re giving away 99 beers to 99 fans. Tell me about that.

JW: Who doesn’t want to win 99 beers? Obviously it’s a little play on my jersey number. But I grew up in Wisconsin; Wisconsin and Miller Lite go hand in hand. It was the first beer I ever drank, so it’s a very natural partnership. We filmed a commercial with the “99 Bottles of Beer” song. Filled the house with 99 cases of beer. My wife played along and had some fun with it. I’m really excited about this partnership and giving away 99 cases of Miller Lite.

SI: You didn’t look entirely comfortable singing in the commercial.

JW: I have a horrendous voice.

SI: Have you ever done karaoke?

JW: No. I have no problem singing and being bad. I just admit that I’m bad.

SI: Speaking of singing and alcohol, you posted a video last week after Jimmy Buffett passed away of you playing the bongos on “Margaritaville” during one his shows. How cool was that?

JW: It was awesome. Jimmy, rest in peace. He is a legend among legends. One of the nicest people I’ve ever met. I had a blast. I went to a Jimmy Buffett concert in college with my college teammates at Wisconsin in a yellow school bus. We sat in the grass, tailgated, had some drinks and just had the best time ever. So full circle for me to be onstage with Jimmy Buffett singing “Margaritaville” with a margarita in my hands, playing the bongos and have a relationship with him. Those are the moments you’re like, Is this real? Is life real? It was such a cool thing, and he was literally one of the nicest humans ever. Every single time he was in the town I was in, or if he was in Wisconsin and I wasn’t home, he’d say, “Do your parents want to come to the show? Do you have friends who want to come to the show?” He is truly one of the greatest, and he will certainly be missed.

2. A brand-new SI Media With Jimmy Traina dropped this morning, and it features a conversation with Scott Hanson, who is now in his 15th year as host of the NFL RedZone channel.

Hanson talks about what he remembers from hosting his first show 15 years ago, what has changed about the channel over the years, the use of the term “witching hour” and the show’s enormous popularity.

Hanson also discusses his postshow routine after not eating and or using the bathroom for seven hours, what his ideal 1 p.m./4 p.m. ET breakdown is in terms of number of games, famous people who have shouted-out him and RedZone.

Following Hanson, Sal Licata from WFAN radio and SNY TV in New York joins me for our weekly “Traina Thoughts” segment. This week, we discuss the Aaron Rodgers injury, Tom Brady nonsense and Week 1 in the NFL. We also read the most recent reviews readers have left for SI Media With Jimmy Traina on Apple Podcasts.

You can listen to the podcast below or download it on Apple, Spotify or Google.

You can also watch SI Media With Jimmy Traina on YouTube.

3. Colorado State plays Colorado on Saturday, and Rams coach Jay Norvell made a seriously bold move Thursday: He took a shot at Deion Sanders. Not only is it risky to give your opposing team bulletin board material, but Deion is such a darling right now that Norvell has made himself social media enemy No. 1 at the moment.

4. I love this from Braves star Ronald Acuña Jr. After he went deep against the Phillies on Tuesday, Philadelphia manager Rob Thomson took issue with Acuña’s celebration and said, “I like our guys to act like they’ve been there before.”

So after the Braves clinched the NL East on Wednesday with a win against the Phillies, Acuña tweeted this: 

5. The visual in Sunday’s Seahawks-Lions game could have an interesting look if Detroit defensive back C.J. Gardner-Johnson has his way.

6. After a rough Week 1 loss, Joe Burrow is pulling out all the stops to change his luck.

7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: On this day in 1984, the very first MTV Video Music Awards were held in New York City’s Radio City Music Hall, and it was awesome.

Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out SI Media With Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Google. You can also follow Jimmy on Twitter, Instagram and TikTok.

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Jimmy Traina
JIMMY TRAINA

Jimmy Traina is a staff writer and podcast host for Sports Illustrated. A 20-year veteran in the industry, he’s been covering the sports media landscape for seven years and writes a daily column, Traina Thoughts. Traina has hosted the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast since 2018, a show known for interviews with some of the most important and powerful people in sports media. He also was the creator and writer of SI’s Hot Clicks feature from 2007 to '13.

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