Houston Texans: J.J. Watt opens up more about the severity of his injury

The Houston Texans have lost J.J. Watt for the season — and possibly more — because of a devastating leg injury that he sustained in Week 2 of the NFL season. How severe? Let’s take a look and evaluate.

The Houston Texans J.J. Watt continues to be fixation with the franchise. His caring demeanor, selfless acts, undeniable work ethic and the desire to be the best are all factors into why I’m damn glad he’s a part of this team.

J.J. Watt — along with his baseball counterpart Jose Altuve — both won Sports Illustrated’s coveted Sportsperson of the Year award, both attaining because of their tireless efforts to help the vibrant community that they live and work in.

Both have been active in the H-Town community since the start of their careers with Altuve regularly being a nominee of the Roberto Clemente Award, one that the MLB uses to honor outstanding philanthropy.

But Watt earned in award that certainly provides official validation that how he has balanced being a superior athlete coupled with his unchanging hand of benevolence is nothing short of amazing.

SI’s Robert Klemko wrote an excellent piece on Watt which certainly highlighted his efforts of raising $37 million in his relief fund for those affected by Hurricane Harvey. It’s an absolutely must-read piece and it makes me damn proud to call Houston my home.

But another aspect of what the SI scribe uncovered was the uniqueness of Watt’s injury. He mentioned that his injury was a semblance of a motorcycle wreck, not one would sustain off a high-impact play on the turf on the football field.

Here’s how Klemko described it:

"“When he’d hit the turf, it set off a sort of explosion below his knee. Faced with the same sort of trauma, the typical professional athlete’s anterior cruciate ligament would have simply ruptured under the strain, doctors said. For someone of Watt’s fitness, that’s a six-month recovery process. But his ACL was too strong, they said, and the ligament refused to buckle, transferring the pressure throughout the knee, shattering the bone and cartilage. The great irony was that Watt’s maniacal devotion to strengthening his ACL—the single ligament that most often shortens careers—transformed what would have been a relatively routine injury into a uniquely devastating one.”"

I honestly didn’t know that there were exercises that could target the ACL as the common adage is that one can’t target training a specific muscle but focus on the entire body and the rest will fall

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into place.

But this speaks to what I my first instinct was when I saw the injury first-hand. I was in attendance of that game back in early September and I had thought he’d be out just a couple of months, likely eligible to return about now.

But as the word came out that it was a fracture of the tibial plateau, my heart sunk because I know that not anybody works harder than this guy to prepared to play in the game that he loves.

But my thoughts rounded out full-circle that we’ve got to start thinking about life without No. 99 on the field. With the substantial amount of injuries that he’s dealt with over time, it’s tough pill to

swallow in affirmation that his days out on the field are numbered. We’ve got cherish each and every moment this guy is able to take a healthy snap on defense.

But here’s how Watt described and how Klemko elaborated on the injury itself:

"“The top part of my leg basically got pulverized,” Watt says. “It was in a whole bunch of different pieces.” The meniscus tore, but not across the middle—it was severed from the bone. A large portion of the cartilage covering the top of his tibia tore in half. Doctors sliced him open and inserted a metal plate, along with nine screws, to hold it all together. They told him he wouldn’t even be able to walk until Dec. 15, nine weeks after the injury."

I can’t imagine what this man is going through, trying to get himself back on the field or when that may be. From the indications of this piece, he may not be back until well after the 2018 season is underway. As with all of these types of injuries, the Houston Texans need bring him around slowly because being 100 percent is the most important for the longevity of the rest of his career.

Next: Three plausible theories behind the Texans' injury bug

I honestly can’t wait to see him out there but I know it’s still a long road ahead. Until then, we can bask and stand proud that one of our own has won a distinguished honor. Another caveat that I will add is that it’s likely he’s going to win the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award as well because I don’t see any NFL player coming even remotely close to what he’s done in 2017.

We’ll have to see but J.J., shine on my brother…shine on.

Go Texans.

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