J.J. Watt Calling Out Zach Mettenberger Is Both Awesome And Not Cool

If you're just now waking up from your post-victory all-night drink-a-thon, you probably missed all the hoopla about J.J. Watt mocking rookie Zach Mettenberger's love of selfies during yesterday's 30-16 beatdown of the Tennessee Titans.

Apparently, Watt didn't take too kindly to Mettenberger taking pre-game selfies of himself before his first-ever start in the NFL.

"It was one of those things where their quarterback had posted a few ‘selfies’ this week, including one before the game. It is kind of a reminder that this is the National Football League, not high school. Welcome to the show.

"I take my job very seriously. If I was a rookie quarterback being named the starter for the first time in the league, I feel like I would be a little more focused than that. Maybe he will learn from it, maybe not. We won the game, so that is all that matters."

Two things...

1) J.J. Watt found a new way to endear himself to fans by calling out a player on our most hated of division rivals. Bravo.

Divisional trash-talk is the spice of life. There's already so much importance on the six games your team has to play against its division rivals, but it's doubly important when the players get just as trash-talky as the fans do. We want them to irrationally hate every loss as much as we do.  That's why Derek Anderson (unfairly) got called out for smiling on the sidelines during a big loss a while back.

Watt calling out Mettenberger is going to add a little extra something when these two teams meet up again in November in Houston, particularly if Mettenberger is still the starter. It'll add some grit to a division that has long been squeaky clean and very Colts-centric. Andre pummeling Finnegan was like 10 years ago.  We need some fresh divisional hatred.

2) But J.J. overplayed his hand. In 2012, Watt and several other members of the Texans were pictured in their now-infamous letterman jackets before getting absolutely trounced on primetime television by the New England Patriots back in 2012.

If asked about the apparent hypocrisy (and if someone does, let us know!), Watt would probably tell you all the lessons he learned from that humiliating defeat. He'd tell you how it sharpened his focus, renewed his passion to win and such and such. Still, he's coming off as lacking a bit of self-awareness on this one. It takes like 30 seconds to post a selfie; how much time and money did they put in on those jackets again?

Seriously, I love Watt's showmanship but this isn't the first time he's had some egg on his face after showing up an opponent. In that same year, Watt mocked both Aaron Rodgers and Clay Matthews after notching sacks en route to a 42-24 shellacking at the hands of the Green Bay Packers.

This is as close as I'll ever come to criticizing the greatness that is J.J. Watt, and I feel pretty dirty doing it. Anyway, he could go full Richard Sherman for all I care as long as he keeps putting up stat lines like this:

Am I off base, Texans fans? Let me hear it.

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