Texans defensive end J.J. Watt gives his former coach all the credit for his career
When you watch J.J. Watt play, you would have imagined he had to be the first player taken in the NFL Draft. Well that was not the case. Only one coach really believed in his abilities, and that was Wade Phillips of the Houston Texans who used the 11th pick on him. Yep that is right 10 other teams passed on the unanimous defensive MVP of the past five seasons. Tonight Watt gave Wade Phillips all the credit for taking a shot on a white boy from Wisconsin.
“Wade saw something in me that nobody else saw in me — and that I might not even have seen in myself,” Watt said Friday night at a roast for his former defensive coordinator. “But that’s the type of man that Wade Phillips is. He leads you to be what you can be, not what you are. He’s the man who taught me that my abilities could far exceed anything that my dreams ever imagined, if I was willing to put in the work, if I was willing to listen, if I was willing to play within the system that he’s created, and just go out and give it everything I had. So I did.
“And here I am today, thankful for everything that I’ve been able to accomplish in my career so far, because of Wade Phillips.”
NFL Draft Diamonds was created to assist the underdogs playing the sport. We call them diamonds in the rough. My name is Damond Talbot, I have worked extremely hard to help hundreds of small school players over the past several years, and will continue my mission. We have several contributors on this site, and if they contribute their name and contact will be in the piece above. You can email me at nfldraftdiamonds@gmail.com