JJ Watt will forever be one of the all-time great defensive ends in NFL history, and all-around NFL good guys.
However, little did we know that the current Arizona Cardinals DE was going through one of the scariest moments of his life here recently.
Just hours before the Cards’ game against the Carolina Panthers yesterday, he shared a post on Twitter, saying the he experienced atrial fibrillation, aka an irregular heartbeat, this past Wednesday, and had to get his heart shocked back into rhythm.
Watt said that he wanted to set the record straight before other information leaked out.
After the Cardinals win, he shared with reporters an emotional moment, stating:
“Obviously, it’s been a very emotional week for my family, my wife, for myself. So, I’m very happy to get a win today.
Obviously, I’ve had a lot of emotions, but I’ve learned to appreciate the little things even more, and so it’s nice to have a win today.”
The 33-year-old added that he was sad about the news leak, because he admitted:
“The only people that knew were people I should trust.”
That included his family, and some within the Cardinals organization.
Watt added that he was scared to be put under anesthesia to have his heart shocked, and he had his pregnant wife, Kealia Ohai, by his side the whole time.
He contemplated not playing on Sunday, but was cleared to do so.
He continued:
“I talked to cardiologists and electrophysiologists from all over the country. I was assured multiple times from multiple people that there was nothing else you could do.
I could play like normal and something could happen the next day or never again in 20 years. So I was assured and I went back to practice on Friday and here we are.”
Cardinals head coach Kliff Kingsbury also added:
“Shows you what type of person and competitor, human being he is.
He’s special and we were all obviously worried when he wasn’t around for a couple of days getting the tests run and handling that, but I think it was definitely inspiring for all of us and he played at a really high level and he just continues to amaze, the type of person and player he is.”
Ain’t a better dude in the NFL… stay safe, man.
