Over the course of former Houston Texans star J.J. Watt’s free agency, the only time the Arizona Cardinals were even mentioned on the rumor mill came when DeAndre Hopkins recruited him on Instagram.
Other than that, the Bills, Packers and Browns were widely mentioned as the top choices for the five-time Pro Bowler.
So, when Watt went ahead and revealed the Arizona Cardinals as his new team in a Twitter photo on Monday, the far-reaching surprise from NFL fans and media members was understandable. After all, the Cardinals news didn’t leak at all. Not even a whisper.
Well, it turned out that Watt thought of everything to keep the choice secret.
JJ Watt on breaking his own news, says he he had t-shirts ordered from “the final 4 or 5 teams” so he could take the photo and tweet it.
However, he was worried the delivery guy would figure out what's going on…. so he had to come up with a plan. ⤵️pic.twitter.com/e6hKVKGcAb
— NFL Update (@MySportsUpdate) March 2, 2021
Speaking to reporters during his introductory press conference in Arizona on Tuesday, Watt said that he purchased shirts of multiple NFL teams ahead of that final reveal. But in an effort to keep the person at the shipping facility from connecting the dots, Watt had his brother’s high school friend place the order and have the shirts sent to his house.
Watt’s name wasn’t attached to the order at all.
source: me. pic.twitter.com/1Y6okQBUy5
— JJ Watt (@JJWatt) March 1, 2021
“It’s kind of funny. It’s kind of stupid too,” Watt said.
No, J.J. It’s brilliant.
