‘Difficult to deal with’ – T.J.Watt resented older brother J.J. during amid injury-plagued depression battle

There aren’t many better pairs of sibling athletes than J.J. and T.J. Watt.

The two pass rushers are among the best defensive players of their generation, with J.J. dominating the 2010s and now T.J. doing the same with the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 2020s.

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On the opening Sunday of the NFL season, J.J. was in the booth, on the call for the Steelers thrilling victory over the New York Jets.

He was his usual game-wrecking self, with five total tackles, two tackles for loss and one pass defensed, and there was one awkward moment where J.J. has to reference his production chat with his younger brother.

However, despite both players having careers to be proud of, their relationship wasn’t always smooth sailing.

T.J. Watt on resenting his brother J.J. Watt

In a recent podcast with Graham Bensinger, T.J. opened up on the resentment he had towards his older brother as they grew up.

“I was a junior and senior when J.J. started blowing up [in the NFL],” TJ, who is five years younger than brother began.

“It was difficult to deal with [feeling abandoned], and I don’t think I knew how to handle those emotions at the time.

“I just suppressed it [my emotions].”

T.J. was referring to how his parents were often at J.J.’s games as the older sibling made huge strides in the game, first in college football with Central Michigan and Wisconsin, and then in a 12-year professional career.

When pressed by Bensinger on how that made him feel, T.J. added: “I felt like I was left with whoever was in town to be able to watch me,” he added.

“I never really resented my parents for it, but it was a tough time in my life… it made me resent my brother in a weird way.

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“And I used it as a crutch sometimes, where I’d say, ‘Oh, I’m not JJ or I’m not Derek. But the older I get, the more I can reflect on it and understand my parents’ side of it.

“They weren’t trained on how to be an NFL parent of a defensive player of the year and go to Pro Bowls in Hawaii they were trying to navigate those waters, too.”

J.J. went on to win three Defensive Player of the Year awards in a career that saw him drafted 11th overall by the Houston Texans, where he spent 11 seasonw, winning the DPOY three times in a four year stretch (2012, 2014 and 2015).

During the later parts of T.J.’s high school career and later his Wisconsin college career, J.J. was experiencing national attention as a result of his performances on the field.

But it wouldn’t be long before T.J. experienced his own share of success.

T.J. is a crucial member of the Pittsburgh Steelers, the franchise he’s been with for this entire NFL career.

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Taken with the 30th pick in the 2017 NFL Draft, the 30-year-old has a Defensive Player of the Year award himself, back in 2021 and has been close to winning the award again in almost every season since.

He is also a seven-time Pro Bowl star and has been selected to the First-Team All-Pro four times.

T.J. also has three Deacon Jones Awards to his name, the prize given to the leader in sacks during the regular season – has 108 in total across his career to date.

It’s no surprise that the Steelers rewarded T.J. with a $123 million contract extension earlier this year.

“I always knew he’d be great,” J.J. says about his brother T.J.

“I don’t know if anybody here could have predicted this — because I didn’t. I couldn’t predict myself having a good career at that level either, but he had the potential because of how hard he works.”

T.J. Watt struggles with depression

However, as TJ told Bensinger, his road to success has been far from straightforward.

The linebacker opened up on how a knee injury in 2013 while in college at Winston-Madison, sparked a low point in his life that spiralled into depression.

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T.J. missed the entire 2013 and 2014 seasons due to that knee injury, in which he injured each knee, one after the other.

After surgeries and recovery, Watt would end up missing nearly three years of football as he didn’t play a single snap from September 2012 through October 2015.

“I was in a very low point in my life, going through surgeries and position changes,” TJ said.

“I was very distraught, I was like I have no idea why this keeps happening to me, I feel like I’ve done everything right.”

And when asked if he was depressed at the time, T.J. simply replied, “Yeah, I was.”

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