JJ Watt spent the early part of his Hall of Fame-caliber career tormenting the Cincinnati Bengals. His Houston Texans knocked the Bengals out of the playoffs in back-to-back years following the 2011 and 2012 seasons.
That was over a decade ago, and the now 35-year old Watt’s been retired since 2022. The only way that changes, according to the man himself, is if Burnley F.C. goalkeeper James Trafford doesn’t allow a goal for the rest of the club’s current season.
Since the deal Watt—a minority owner of Burnley since 2023—made with Trafford via Instagram DMs late last month, Trafford has yet to give up a goal. Watt joked about his bargain becoming a concern over X/Twitter Saturday morning.
Trafford has played five matches since he messaged his minority owner and has produced a clean sheet every time. The one match he didn’t appear in since then, Burnley, a Championship league team in English football, allowed a goal in a 3-1 victory over Reading on January 11.
So far, so great for Trafford’s end of the deal, but Watt should be incredibly safe from putting his retirement plans on hold.
The simple truth is Burnley’s season is far, far, from over
Burnley is 14-11-2 since the season began back in August, but the club has 20 more matches to play until May in Matchweek 46.
If Trafford manages to prevent every single shot on goal from entering his net for the next 1,800+ minutes of match time, he may just enter the conversation for greatest goalkeeper of all time. The 22-year old has a save percentage of 85.7% on the season as he’s allowed nine goals in 26 starts.
That’s a pretty good clip, but he would have to ascend to a new level for Watt to call the Bengals up.
Watt obviously made the deal as a joke, but he should at least ask the Bengals for a tryout to honor his keeper’s wishes if Trafford manages what sounds like an impossible task. Learning that Trafford himself is a Bengals fan is also cool on its own.
We’ll track if (when) Trafford’s streak comes to and end. Burnley’s next match is this Wednesday at Plymouth Argyle.
