First Call: T.J. Watt recalls J.J.’s pizza problem; All-Pro LB says NFL is looking to turn league into flag football
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Friday’s “First Call” shares a funny story from Pittsburgh Steelers star T.J. Watt about his older brother in advance of J.J.’s big honor in Houston on Sunday.
Another NFL defensive standout is ticked off about that penalty against Minkah Fitzpatrick last week. The Cleveland Browns don’t sound at all intimidated about facing Baltimore’s Lamar Jackson.
And the Duquesne Dukes are about to face an internet sensation at quarterback.
‘Watt’ happened to my pizza?
Houston Texans legend J.J. Watt is about to be inducted into the franchise’s Ring of Honor on Sunday. It’ll happen at halftime of the team’s game against the Steelers.
Watt’s younger brother and Steelers star T.J. Watt spoke with the Houston media this week in advance of his brother’s football coronation. And he told a story about J.J.’s misfortune with a high school job attempting to deliver pizzas.
“He drove into a ditch, and I think my mom and I had to bail him out, but he was all content because he had his pizza to eat and staying warm,” Watt’s younger brother T.J. said.
J.J. corroborated the story.
This is true.
Wiped out a mailbox.Two different tow trucks slid off the road on their way to pull me out, which kinda justified my situation ????
Luckily I had a pizza, wings & breadsticks to hold me over.
Paying for a new mailbox and to fix my parents truck was not fun. https://t.co/llpPvhSVUR
— JJ Watt (@JJWatt) September 27, 2023
Watt eventually made $129.7
A warning from Warner
The NFL wants to turn the game into flag football. That’s the word from San Francisco 49ers linebacker Fred Warner in the wake of that lousy roughing the passer call against Minkah Fitzpatrick on Sunday night in Las Vegas.
Speaking on his YouTube show, “The Warner House,” the Niners All-Pro said the league has an agenda to get physicality out of the game.
“There’s so many different rules now with unnecessary roughness and targeting and all this other stuff. They basically are trying to slowly turn the game into flag football,” Warner said. “They want to get all the physicality out of the game, even though that’s what attracts people to the game.”
Warner blames the league for making the officials scrutinize plays like that one too much.
“If you slow (the video) down, yeah. It looks like (Fitzpatrick’s) helmet hit Jimmy (Garoppolo’s) helmet. But it really wasn’t helmet-to-helmet. The rules are just so finicky now, and that’s unfortunate for (Fitzpatrick). But that’s how the game is now,” Warner said.
Warner seemed most put off by the fact that Fitzpatrick got a flag even though he initiated contact with the quarterback’s shoulder as much as he did with the helmet.
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Looking for Lamar
As the Cleveland Browns prepare to face the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday in an AFC North clash, new Browns defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz insists his team won’t be passive in defending against Ravens QB Lamar Jackson.
“We’re gonna rely on our team speed, we’re gonna rely on team defense, we’re gonna rely on running through with leverage and try to take the fight to him as opposed to sitting back and trying to hem him in,” Schwartz said via the team’s website.
Jackson is 6-3 with a touchdown to interception ratio of 11:6 lifetime in starts against the Browns. His 95.5 passer rating against them is better than it is against the other two teams in the North — the Steelers (67.4) and the Cincinnati Bengals (93.4).
The Browns enter this game No. 1 in total defense in the NFL and against the pass. They are No. 2 against the run behind the Philadelphia Eagles.
How does that work?
The Duquesne Dukes are heading to New York to face Long Island University on Saturday in their NEC opener.
Sharks quarterback Chris Howell received national attention once the country saw his unconventional throwing motion on display against Baylor two weeks ago.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a throwing motion of the nature that is thrown by Long Island quarterback Chris Howell.
Howell numbers against Baylor
4/10
42 yards
1 interception6 carries
29 yards
1 rushing T.D.Is this throwing motion correctable? pic.twitter.com/hvRF0Iflx2
— CFBLIVE247 (@CFBLive247_) September 19, 2023
LIU lost the game 30-7, but Howell received internet fame. To me, that throwing style looks like if Kent Tekulve tried to teach Uncle Rico from “Napoleon Dynamite” how to throw a football.
Via The Athletic, Howell throws that way in part because “he wanted to play with his older brother, Long Island junior defensive back Jorden Bennett, but they always used a regulation-sized football. Howell found the best way he could throw spirals was to grip the ball underhanded.”
Now, at 17, he is the youngest starting QB in the country.
The Dukes (1-2) and Sharks (0-3) each enter the game with two losses apiece to FBS schools. The Dukes fell to Coastal Carolina and West Virginia. The Sharks lost to Ohio and Baylor.