I’m a Green Bay Packers fan. There, I said
it. My dad is a shareholder and I’ve been to a handful of games at Lambeau
Field, despite the fact that I’ve lived south of the Rio Grande for most of my
life. We bleed green and gold in our household. And when the Packers collapse
on themselves and break our hearts, as they are wont to do, we cry green and
gold tears. That said, I can appreciate when other teams’ players do things
that don’t totally suck. And J.J. Watt, defensive end for the Houston Texans,
is a guy who seems to do a lot of things that don’t suck.
With the Adrian Petersons and Ray Rices of
the NFL world getting so much attention, it’s nice to see that there are guys
at the other end of the spectrum as well; guys who prove that how successful
you are doesn’t have to be directly proportional to how big an a-hole you are.
Enter J.J. Watt.
The Gentle Giant is known for being a
pretty nice guy in real life. Now, don’t get me wrong. On the field he’s a terrifying
beast, but as an actual human being he seems pretty solid (and I’m not just talking
about his brick house of a body, which also appears to be fairly solid).
He proved this yet again when he sent
pizzas to police and fire stations across Houston on Tuesday, with the
following (hand-written) note:
And in case supersonic seeing isn't your particular superpower, here's what it said:
HFD
& HPD,
"I just wanted to send y’all a small token of my
appreciation for everything you do. My dad & uncle were both firefighters,
so I spent a lot of time around the firehouse when I was younger and gained a great
deal of respect for both firefighters & the police force along the way.
Y’all show up day in & day out, never knowing what the day might hold and
never getting enough thanks for what you do. Yet, you still continue to put
others before yourselves and save lives because of it. As athletes, we often
get the headlines and big crowds, but just like the men & women of our
military, y’all are the ones who truly deserve the credit, appreciation &
admiration. I know it’s not much, but please enjoy lunch on me today. Thank you
for all that you do!”
This is the kind of guy you want to bring
home to mama; if, of course, said guy wasn’t nearly 10 years younger, wasn’t
better suited to your sister and didn’t make you look like a major cougar.
But other than that…
And mad props to this Wisconsin boy for
spelling “y’all” correctly. A lot of native speakers – and by native, I mean
native to the south – can’t even do that.
 |
| He's a happy fella |
It’s been mentioned by the more cynical
folks in the audience that J.J. has an endorsement deal with Papa Johns – they
who provided the pizzas – and that, therefore, this should all be taken with a
relatively large grain of salt. But I can honestly say that I pretty much don’t
care. So what if this was all a genius marketing ploy? It worked – and it made
a whole lot of people feel really happy and really appreciated in the process.
Every marketing tactic should be so altruistic.
In the end, I can’t say that this has
exactly made me a Texans fan, especially now that Owen Daniels is gone, but I can say that moments like these
certainly make it a little easier to root for the boys in blue and red.
Unless they’re playing the Packers.
In that case, it’s every (great) man for
himself.
