T.J. Watt can handle playing football at the highest level, but that doesn't mean he can handle the heat from a local pickleball player. The Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker, along with Minkah Fitzpatrick and Alex Highsmith, learned a thing or two from a woman who was just looking for a friendly pick-up pickleball game on Saturday.
The three NFL players were trying to have a fun day and stay active during the offseason by practicing some good old pickleball. They played singles by themselves for a while, but then they found an extra person to play doubles: a local Pittsburgh woman named Meg.
The woman's daughter shared a screenshot of her family group chat on Twitter over the weekend, which went viral. In that chat, Meg shared a photo she took with three new friends she made at the pickleball court.
"So I rolled up to north park tonight to jump in a pick-up pickleball game," Meg wrote. "Started playing with these guys. Had no idea who they were. Last game the guy in the green shirt and I whooped the other two. Then everyone else there wanted to take our photo."
That "guy in the green shirt" is Fitzpatrick. As a team, Meg and him proved too much for Watt to handle. Watt was impressed, and he gave credit where credit was due.
"Meg was serving the HEAT. We had trouble all day," he wrote on Twitter.
Some people still raised an eyebrow at these professional football players struggling in a friendly athletic competition. One of these critics was Arizona Cardinals defensive end J.J. Watt. Like any older brother would, he decided to give his younger sibling a hard time about it by asking him to explain himself.
T.J. Watt was not going to sit back and take the trash talk, so he challenged his brother to a game in order to defend his honor.
"Anytime. Anywhere. One on one. Me vs. You," T.J. replied.
J.J. then came out with some more friendly banter.
"You lost to me on the pickleball court no less than 2 weeks ago," he replied,
