WATT ARE HIS REASONS?

Let's discuss 3 big reasons why J.J. Watt is leaving Houston for Arizona

Let's discuss 3 big reasons why J.J. Watt is leaving Houston for Arizona
Breakups are never easy. Photo by Getty Images. Composite image by Brandon Strange.
JJ Watt's legendary Texans career has come to an end

J.J. Watt is heading to Phoenix and the Arizona Cardinals to continue, possibly finish his career.

Smart move, climate-wise and otherwise.

Football is primarily a September to December sport, at least in Houston these days. Of course, in other cities successful teams continue playing into January. It's called the post-season. If your quarterback is Tom Brady, don't make any plans until after the Super Bowl in February.

Rookies don't have a choice, they go where they're drafted. They have no control over whether it's bright, cool, and sunny San Diego — or gloomy, cold, and cloudy Pittsburgh or Buffalo or Cleveland or, worst, Detroit.

J.J. Watt couldn't have picked a better place to spend his fall and winter than Phoenix. I can tell you.

I lived in Phoenix before coming to Houston. And I lived in Detroit for a year before going to Phoenix. My hobby in Detroit was getting out of Detroit. It had nothing to do with the city or its people. It's actually a very pretty city, especially downtown.

I just couldn't deal with the cold weather. Winter highs barely touch freezing. Sleeping is a three dog night plus a comforter, plus the thermostat cranked up to $500 electric bills.

The playwright George S. Kaufmann, who wrote several of the Marx Brothers' movies and won a Tony for directing Guys and Dolls, said, "I've been rich and I've been poor. Believe me, rich is better."

Believe me, Phoenix in winter is better.

Plus it's not like Watt will be a stranger in Arizona. One of his teammates will be DeAndre Hopkins, another great Texans player and fan favorite who was banished from Houston for practically nothing in return. In Watt's case, absolutely nothing in return. This is how you conduct business in the Bizarro World.

Houston is a relatively young city, Although it was founded in 1836, Houston really didn't get going until the mid-20th century. While Chicago had 2 million residents in 1910, Houston had only 78,000 people, and most of them lived "inside the Loop."

Houston boomed in the '50s, had a blip with the decline in oil prices in the '80s and is back as one of the fastest-growing cities in the U.S.

Compared to Houston, Phoenix is a spec house by appointments only. The city shimmers. Traffic is bad, sure, but it's bad everywhere and not nearly the brain-bursting nightmare as Houston's.

State Farm Stadium in Glendale, home of the Arizona Cardinals, is in the Super Bowl rotation. So if Watt's dream comes true, he may get to do a "Tom Brady," win a title in his home stadium.

Watt's decision to pick the Arizona Cardinals came as a surprise because the favorite landing spots seemed to be Green Bay, Cleveland, and Buffalo, — all frozen tundra open-air stadiums. Given a choice, c'mon, it's 70 with a crystal blue sky in Arizona in January. Watt is not a dummy.

If you're looking for a terrific pizza place in Phoenix, try the Red Devil Italian Restaurant on McDowell and 32nd Street. I used to eat there about three times a week on my way home from work. They have a double-crust pie that will make your knees shake.

We don't know how much other teams may have offered Watt, but at this stage in his career, money isn't the No. 1 priority.

Here are three reasons why Watt left: lifestyle, winning, and personal happiness.

Bonus: Watt still will be able to watch a dynamic young quarterback throw touchdowns to Hopkins. Kyler Murray is super fast and has a big time arm and the offense has faith in him.

You know, like the Texans players trust Deshaun Watson to bail out their sorry butts. Except Murray has an imaginative head coach who knows how to take advantage of his supreme skills.

And the Cardinals owner isn't an inarticulate buffoon who's mesmerized by Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show. Not saying any names here, but how much more can Texans fans take?

All things considered, not considering childhood memories and college allegiance, it was a natural selection for J.J. Watt to accept the Arizona Cardinals' offer.

Most Popular

SportsMap Emails
Are Awesome

Listen Live

ESPN Houston 97.5 FM
Gerrit Cole and Hunter Brown share the same agent now. Composite Getty Image.

There's no denying that this year's World Series champs (LA Dodgers) have some serious firepower on their roster. And one of the ways they were able to assemble such a talented team involved players like Shohei Ohtani being willing to differ their money.

Just this week, there was some speculation that the Yankees could do something similar when restructuring Gerrit Cole's contract, that would allow them more flexibility in the present.

The Yankees ended up calling Cole's bluff about opting out, and no adjustment was made to the contract.

But this situation got us thinking, would the Astros consider a tactic like this to maximize the roster? At this point, it doesn't seem all that likely. Just last year, the team handed out a $95 million contract to Josh Hader, without any differed money.

The other factor that also has to come into play is the tax threshold. The organization would have to give the okay to go over it again in order to make a splash signing this offseason. Which unfortunately does not sound like the plan right now when listening to GM Dana Brown at the Winter Meetings.

Astros pitcher hires a new agent

Now that MLB free agency is in full swing, most of the attention moving forward will be focused on players like Alex Bregman, Pete Alonso, and Juan Soto.

But for Astros fans, there might be someone else to keep an eye on this offseason and next. Starting pitcher Hunter Brown quietly hired super agent Scott Boras recently.

With Brown still another season away from his first year of arbitration, he should be with the Astros for the foreseeable future.

However, the hiring of Boras does raise some interesting questions. Why make the move now? Certainly, Brown could use some more cash, as he's set to make less than a million in 2025.

Perhaps Brown wants to land some HEB commercials to fatten his wallet. And if Bregman does leave the team in free agency, a spot will open up for another player, in theory. And three of the players in the HEB ads are represented by Boras (Jose Altuve, Lance McCullers Jr. and Bregman).

Jeremy Pena has been stacking cash from Taquerias Arandas for several years now, maybe Brown would like an opportunity to do an endorsement similar to that.

I say all this half kidding, but Brown does look like the future ace of this staff, and I'm sure there are plenty of advertisers that would have interest in Hunter.

There is another element that could have initiated the hiring of Boras. Would Brown be willing to sign an extension early with the Astros similar to the deal the team made with Cristian Javier?

Their situations are actually pretty comparable, except Javier was one year further into his career (3 years of MLB service time) and eligible for arbitration before agreeing to the extension.

If Brown was heading into arbitration this offseason, it wouldn't be surprising at all for the Astros to be considering a long-term deal with him that buys up all his arbitration years. The 'Stros love these types of contract extensions. We've seen them do it with Bregman, the aforementioned Javier, and others.

One of the main differences though between Brown and Javier is their rookie year numbers. Brown only pitched 20.1 innings in his first season (2022). While Javier pitched 54.1 innings his rookie year. However, his rookie season was in 2020, so Javier completed a full year of service time despite the shortened season. Whereas Brown didn't get called up until September 2022.

Another difference is performance. Javier never posted an ERA over 3.55 in his first three seasons. As opposed to Brown, who had a disastrous year in 2023. He made 29 starts, recording an ERA over 5.

It wasn't until May of 2024 that Brown started using his two-seam fastball with great success and becoming one of the most dominant pitchers in the American League.

The Astros had a bigger sample size to judge Javier. However, if Brown has another quality season in 2025, Houston and Brown should definitely be having conversations about an extension. Especially with Framber Valdez being in the final year of his contract in 2025. Hunter could be the unquestioned ace one year from now.

Still, though, there are some concerns with handing out these early extensions. For example, if the Astros had it to do over again, would they still extend Javier?

After receiving his extension before the 2023 season, he went on to post the highest ERA of his career (4.56), and then blew out his elbow in May 2024.

And if we're going by Luis Garcia's recovery timeline from Tommy John surgery, we may not see Javier pitch at all in 2025.

So even with a sample size of three terrific seasons, the Javier extension looks like a miss with the benefit of hindsight. It will be interesting to see if that deal impacts Dana Brown's decision-making going forward.

Especially since Javier was Dana's first big contract extension as the Astros GM.

Be sure to watch the video as we discuss how the Astros can get the most out of their roster, the pros and cons of signing Hunter Brown early, and much more!

*Catch our weekly Stone Cold ‘Stros podcasts. Brandon Strange, Josh Jordan, and Charlie Pallilo discuss varied Astros topics. The post for the week generally goes up Monday afternoon. Find all via The SportsMap HOU YouTube channel or listen to episodes in their entirety at Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

_______________

Fans of Houston sports and Houston food can now score tickets to The Tailgate, CultureMap's all-out party devoted to everyone’s favorite way to get in the gameday spirit. The event, presented by Verizon, goes down from 6-9 pm November 11 at 8th Wonder. Tickets are $75 for VIP and $50 for General Admission. For a limited time, we’re giving you $10 off; use code SPORTSMAP at checkout. Get your tickets now!

SportsMap Emails
Are Awesome