J.J. Watt Breaks Down The Biggest Adjustments He Dealt With After Retiring From The NFL (Interview)

It’s been more than a year since J.J. Watt played his final NFL game to cap off a 12-year career that will undoubtedly culminate with him being immortalized in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

The former defensive end (who recently turned 35) subsequently found himself with plenty of free time on his hands, but he’s still managed to keep pretty busy with the various projects that have ended up on his plate since hanging up his cleats—including a very organic partnership with Miller Lite.

The Wisconsin native made a name for himself with the Badgers before taking his talents to the NFL, so it’s only natural that he’d team up with a brewery that’s been pumping out its wares in Milwaukee since 1855 to revive the “Great Taste, Less Filling” campaign with the help of some other notables names including Reggie Miller, Mia Hamm, and David Ortiz.

I was lucky enough to chat with J.J. Watt about that gig last week during a conversation where we also chatted about how he’s adjusting to retirement, his “Welcome to the NFL” Moment, and his decision to branch out into a different kind of football by purchasing a stake in Burnley F.C.

Our interview with J.J. Watt

BroBible: Given your Wisconsin roots, teaming up with Miller Lite seems like a pretty natural move. Can you tell me a bit more about the new campaign?

J.J. Watt: As you said, it’s extremely natural for me having grown up in Wisconsin. Miller Lite is an iconic brand not only in Wisconsin but all over the world, so when they said they wanted to bring back the Miller Lite All-Stars campaign—obviously I know all about Bob Uecker and John Madden, just legends of the game, in their commercials—I was honored to be able to star in this campaign and kind of bring it back and revive it.

It’s really, really cool. We have some incredible names with Reggie Miller, Mia Hamm, David Ortiz, and Jorge Posada. It’s an incredible lineup. Like I said, growing up in Wisconsin, Miller Lite is an iconic brand. Anytime my buddies and I hang out around the campfire, we just crack open some Miller Lites, share some stories, and always make memories.

These commercials are really good. They did a great job with the filming and the direction and the production, so I think people are really going to like it.

So you’re obviously sharing the spotlight with some other legendary athletes. I’m curious if you ever get starstruck at this point in your life. 

It was really fun on set. It’s always fun when you get these athletes who have played at the highest level, Everybody can kind of relate and just relax and talk freely and just have these memories and share these moments. You can ask questions that somebody else might be scared to ask, but because we’ve all kind of been through before, we just have very free and open conversations.

Do I get starstruck? I wouldn’t call it starstruck per se. I do relish the opportunity to ask questions and to be able to find ways to relate to people that I very much respect and look up to. I think the best part of it is being able to pick the brain of somebody who’s done extraordinary things and realize that I have an opportunity to ask questions that many people would love to be able to ask.

Whether we’re talking about this time or meeting up with athletes in general, do you find your competitive nature starts flaring up?

Yeah. Reggie and I were filming this little side thing for social media where we were shooting paper balls into a wastebasket.

Obviously, Reggie is Reggie, so I’m sitting there watching him shoot, and then I start shooting and it immediately gets competitive. There’s nothing in the world I want more than to make more than Reggie Miller, who is one of the greatest three-point shooters in the history of the game.

He had a different technique than me, so I started to be like, “Alright, you’ve got one finger and the thumb. I’m using two fingers and the thumb. Am I messing up?” Then there was the elbow placement. It’s hilarious how quickly it turns into this like analytic competition.

Can I ask who won?

I mean, the first or second-best shooter in NBA history.

Fair enough. So you’ve got the new ad, you’ve already got some acting credits under your belt, and you hosted Saturday Night Live. Now that you have a bit more free time on your hands, is acting something you’ve ever seriously considered pursuing?

With the right opportunity, yes.

I do enjoy it. I have such a massive respect for actors and everybody who makes these productions because of how hard and difficult and long they are. Coming from sports, everything is extremely regimented. Your schedule is the exact same every day. If a meeting starts at 7:30, you’re in there at 7:30 and you get fined if you don’t make it.

Acting and creating movies and television is so much more artistic and free-flowing. Sometimes, a single scene can take multiple days to shoot. Things get pushed back. The lighting has to be just perfect. There are so many different aspects to it that sometimes are not as regimented in the way that sports are and that’s different for me to handle.

Then there’s the other part that as an athlete, you make a play, you score a touchdown, you get a sack and it’s instant gratification. There’s a crowd cheering, and everybody goes crazy. You get that moment. That’s why I loved Saturday Night Live.

You beat me to it. That must’ve been the perfect environment.

Yeah, because you get that immediate laugh. You make a joke and everybody laughs. If you do it on a movie set or a TV set, nobody’s really allowed to laugh. So, you’re sitting there and you think you’ve made the best joke in the world and it’s dead silent and you’re like “Was that bad?” So there is that aspect to it as well.

But I guess that delayed gratification and then being able to have it shared with millions of people worldwide is really cool to do in the right situation, but I would say it’s not something I’m immediately pursuing.

You actually did a great job leading me into my next question by talking about the regimen that comes with playing a sport. Were there any unexpected challenges or adjustments you weren’t necessarily prepared for after you decided to retire?

I feel like I prepared for it fairly well having talked to a ton of guys who had retired before and how they handled that.

The one thing that is definitely hard for me is figuring out exactly how I want to train and how I want to go about it. The natural thing to do ever since I was a little kid when you’re training and you’re trying to be the best athlete you can be is trying to do everything 100%, right? Bigger, faster, stronger.

I caught myself in the first couple of days of training running and doing sprints and I was like, “When am I going to use this? What is this for?” I’m doing my weights and I’m still pushing the absolute top weights I’ve been pushing my whole career. You start to think to yourself “What’s the point of that?” Like, there’s a risk-reward.

I don’t like running. Some people love running. I’m not a huge fan. I’m 275 pounds. So I was like, “Alright, is there something I can do that gives me the benefits without having to actually run?” So it’s trying to find out the right balance of strength, cardio, and all of those types of things.

I have tried cycling, but the seat is not the most comfortable thing in the world. I feel like I’m like everybody else: trying to find the easiest way to do the best cardio you can do, and I’ve learned that cardio sucks no matter how you do it.

Were there also adjustments on the diet side? I assume you can get away with a few more Miller Lites now.

It’s been nice. I can definitely have a few more Miller Lites freely. But that is an adjustment where you have to realize, “OK, if I have a couple of beers or a couple of burgers, no problem.” I can just not have as much the next day. Also, that’s why I’m on Team Less Filling, I can have more Miller Lites.

But yes, that is a big adjustment. For me, it’s obviously all about protein when you’re lifting or when you’re working out. One day, I just happened to not get my protein, but I didn’t have a game at the end of the week. It doesn’t matter. I can just catch up and get back on schedule later.

It is a very hard adjustment to get your mind to switch to that. It’s okay to indulge every now and then just find a way to get back on track because it’s not like I have a deadline or a season to get ready for.

So the NFL Draft is about a month away. What was that experience like for you? You obviously were already used to the spotlight at Wisconsin, but did that prepare you for what you were subjected to once you made the leap?

For me, it was all about the combine and Pro Day. After that, you’ve got a couple of interviews to do, but you’ve done the work and now it’s about letting the process play out.

The combine and Pro Day are the biggest job interviews in the world for every player. That’s literally your chance to go out there and put on tape and on paper who you are and why somebody should draft you.

It was something I was extremely confident in because I was fortunate to have been doing combine drills since I was a sophomore in high school. The gym that I trained at had NFL players and college players that were going to the NFL, so I jumped in those groups and I was training in the three-cone drill and doing all those movements from a very young age.

I felt extremely comfortable. After that, you just go out there and let it fly and have fun.

I always like to ask if guys like you have a specific “Welcome to the NFL” Moment that sticks out. Is there one that springs to mind for you?

Mine was at training camp. You know I grew up in Wisconsin, so you’re practicing when it’s cold but also when it’s like 90 degrees.

My first training camp in Houston was when they set a record of 31 straight days where it was 100 degrees or hotter. Of course, you’re trying to show everybody, “Yes, I belong here, I will do whatever it takes”.

I am dead sprint from drill to drill. I’m first in line for the drill and I’m going through the drill at 100 MPH, then I sprint back and I’m ready to go again. All of the old guys—Mario Williams, Antonio Smith—you had these guys looking at me like “This kid has no idea what he’s doing.” I’m thinking they’re looking at me and they think I’m doing good. Like, they’re looking at the young guy and everybody’s pointing to me.

45 minutes into practice, I’m on the ground. They gave me a cold ice bath and everything. So I learned quickly that you have to work smarter, not harder.

You’ve gotten involved with a different kind of football thanks to Burnley. I know you were a soccer fan prior to the investment but have any of the cultural differences between the NFL and American sports in general surprised you since you’ve gotten more immersed? 

First of all, ownership versus player is vastly different. Having no control on game day; just going out and hoping your boys play well. That’s much, much different.

I actually spent this past week with the whole squad in meetings and in the weight room and at practice with them, which was awesome for me. Obviously, it’s a completely different sport. Their’s is very long over the course of the year while the NFL is basically six months.

I think a lot of the differences come down to the fans and the gameday experience. In England, it’s very much a two-hour window where you go to a match, you sit down, and you watch the match. There’s not a ton of commercialism; the video boards are much smaller because everybody’s watching the match. They’re not really eating food or drinking during the game. They’re just sitting there watching very intently and then they go home

It’s not the whole day compared to the NFL where you’ve got tailgating beforehand. It’s basically a full-day experience and much more commercialized with halftime shows, pregame shows, postgame shows, cheerleaders—all sorts of different things.

I would say that the biggest difference is the tribalism aspect. When you grow up in a town, that’s the only team you’ll root for. Like, you will never in your life catch a Burnley supporter wearing a Blackburn shirt, whereas in today’s world with fantasy football and Madden and things like that a kid might grow up in Green Bay but he’s rooting for Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs.

That’s just kind of the world we live in now.

Portions of this interview were lightly edited for clarity.