HOUSTON – Texans defensive end J.J. Watt has had a rough season, to say the least.
In 2015, he suffered broken bones, torn muscles, a staph infection and two herniated disc.
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This year, he underwent three surgeries.
After starting the season strong, Watt was sidelined after the herniated disc he had surgery to repair re-herniated.
This left many Texans fans distressed, wondering if he would ever play again.
Watt thought the same thing, according to an editorial he wrote for The Players Tribune published Tuesday morning titled, “Am I done?”
I've learned that a life without adversity is a boring life to live. I've experienced the highs and I've experienced the...
Posted by JJ Watt on Tuesday, November 22, 2016
The football star wrote about how much he loves the game, and about this being the first time he had ever thought about retiring from it.
“I had never even had one major surgery before, much less three in one year,” Watt wrote. “To have the game taken away from me three times -- each time left to wonder if I would ever be the same again -- that was hard. That was the first time the word retirement had ever crept into my head.”
Instead of looking at his uphill battle this season as an obstacle, he looked at it as a much-needed break. He went back home to Wisconsin and enjoyed the nostalgic beginnings of fall, something he missed.
“In that moment, I had a realization,” Watt wrote. “I was actually overwhelmed by it. Football has been everything to me since I was 10 years old. For the past few months, all of that has been taken away. It’s been like a mini-retirement. And I realized that the money, the fame, the awards, the people talking about me on TV, none of that matters. None of those things have any effect on why I love this game and why I give everything I have to it.”
Watt concluded by saying he’s been through some dark times, but he’s not done.
“Hell no,” Watt wrote. “I’m just getting started.”