JJ Watt on his Burnley involvement, 'magical' Turf Moor experience and protective fans
JJ Watt has acknowledged that Burnley fans are right to be protective of their club given their long and deep-rooted history.
The club’s minority shareholder made the comment during an appearance on a Men in Blazers show in Houston, where the NFL legend made his name playing for the Texans.
During the show, Watt – a minority shareholder at Turf Moor since 2023 – discussed his involvement with the club, his growing love of English football, his appreciation for the history and tradition of the game and what makes the Turf Moor experience so “magical”.
Here’s everything he had to say:
What made you so interested in football?
“It’s probably unhealthy…also expensive now! But I think it's the obsessive quality, it’s the same thing that makes you a great athlete. It's the same thing that makes you whatever you're passionate about that you go all in on.
“I mean, to get where I wanted to be as a football player, I had to be 100 per cent all in on it the entire time and so it kind of just carried that quality over to other things.
“When I got interested in football, that's part of the reason I loved it, was because I didn't know a lot about it.
“So the first time that we talked, I knew a little bit, but I didn't know a tonne and I am vastly intrigued, and I'm still intrigued to this day, in learning as much as humanly possible about this sport, about how you play it, about how you operate it, about how you own it, about how the business side works.
“It is forever fascinating to me. It's like a puzzle you're constantly trying to unlock.”
What makes English football so special?
“Passion, the history of the supporters. There's nothing like it in terms of the true tribalism of it. It's the most pure form of it because it's literally where you grew up.
“Today, in American sports, we've somewhat lost a little bit of that. There's still plenty of it, no questions asked, that everybody feels connected to the team that they grew up watching and the city that they grew up in.
“But with fantasy football, with all these different things in today's world, with the ability to watch everything, people do become fans of players and become fans of different things, and there's a little bit of that that's kind of separated while there is still the core.
“Over in England, I mean, if you're walking around Burnley in any shirt but a Burnley shirt, there's a problem.
“It is true and real, and it is passed down, and you watch the games with your Mom and Dad, and you go to the match.
“The ticket prices, we’re still trying hard to keep them affordable so that everybody can keep going.
“It is just that deep, deep-rooted and people tell you about the stories of: ‘we've had these seats for generations and generations passed down’.
“It's just unbelievable in the songs and the chants. It's magical. You go to a stadium. I mean, there's just nothing like it when you score.”
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What is it you love so much about the Burnley matchday experience?
“Obviously the first time I went over there it was a little bit different than now. But they've seen you, they know you. If they wanted a picture, they probably already got it by now.
“So now, it’s not like: ‘oh wow, there’s the American football player who owns part of the club’, it’s just: ‘there’s JJ, he came in for a drink before the match’.
“Like, we all walked together to the match. When you do it in a real way, and you're honest and authentic about it, and you're just who you are, people see that, and they're like: ‘oh, yeah, just leave him alone. He's going to do his thing, we're going to do our thing’.
“We can all have our drink together. We're all here to watch the match. Like, all we all want is for this thing to go to a win today.
“There's something about it that brings us all together, and that's why I love going over there so much, because it's so normal and it's just so relaxed.”
Why didn’t you invest in a US sport?
“People were like: ‘why didn’t you invest in the NFL?’. But I wanted something that I could be an actual significant part of or I could be deep into the operation and I could learn and I could grow as a person and grow as a businessman and learn something that I didn't know.
“This was an opportunity for me to be in the boardroom, for me to talk to the players, for me to be at the training ground, for me to talk to the managers and to learn every aspect of this inside and out, how the sporting side goes, how the business side goes, the transfer market. It's so fascinating. I've loved every aspect of that.
“And then I also, like I said before, it's the history and the tradition. Something that I love about Burnley is we've been around since 1882. My goal is to continue…the reason I wear this crest is because I love honouring that past and that history and I want to continue to try and find new ways to honour that past and that history.
“With Americans coming into a European sport, it is tribal. They are very protective, rightfully so. They have been there for generations. I haven't, I'm brand new.
“So I'm coming in, and if you have any fake bone in your body, they're going to see it and kick you out.
“So all I'm trying to do the whole time is make sure that I honour and show them that I have the respect for how long they've been here. And hopefully, possibly, take them to some heights at some point that they've never been.”
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