When J.J. Watt finally made the announcement on his decision to sign with the Arizona Cardinals, the news took the NFL world by surprise. As it turns out, this was exactly how Watt wanted things to pan out. So much so, that the five-time All-Pro DE actually went to hilarious lengths just to be able to keep his final decision a secret up until the last minute.
As reported by Kevin Zimmerman of AZ Sports, Watt did everything he could to keep his decision private:
LMAO: J.J. Watt kept his process of free agency to himself. He ordered 4-5 shirts of the teams that were finalists before he decided.
He was so paranoid about the packaging facility people leaking those shirts that he made a friend use a credit card and address to order it.
— Kevin Zimmerman (@KZimmermanAZ) March 2, 2021
For starters, that was actually a smart move from J.J. At this day and age, information is gold, and the folks over in the packaging facility would have probably leaked whatever information they obtained as soon as they saw Watt's name on the delivery address (no offense meant to the hardworking folks in the various packaging facilities across the nation).
Second, we'd sure like to know what those other four teams were. Watt was linked to pretty much every other team in the NFL so it would be interesting to see which other teams almost brought the former Houston Texans star to their squad before he joined the Cardinals.
Although, this is probably not something I'd like to know if I were a fan of one of the other four teams. Knowing that my team almost signed a quality player such as Watt only to be outdone by the Cardinals would probably sting a bit too much. As they say, ignorance is bliss.
Whatever the case may be, Watt's efforts to keep his decision a secret worked. Not many expected him to sign with the Cardinals, which increased the shock value of the move tenfold.
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