J.J. Watt trolls T.J. Watt after Steelers star joins 20-sack club

Cardinals defensive end J.J. Watt took a playful dig at his brother, Steelers star T.J. Watt, after he joined the 20-sack club.

It can’t be easy being the younger brother of one of a genuine NFL great. Those shoes are so big, it probably feels impossible to fill them at times.

Just take the example of T.J. Watt of the Pittsburgh Steelers. The outside linebacker joined an elite club of players who have managed more than 20 sacks in a season and he couldn’t even really brag about it.

His brother, J.J. Watt, has already one-upped him by doing it twice.

JJ Watt and TJ Watt are both in the 20-sack club

The Cardinals star had to have some fun with his little brother but the love there is clear in the way he urged him to break the NFL single-season record.

It took a herculean effort in what could be Ben Roethlisberger’s final game at Heinz Field to get over the 20-sack mark. T.J. had a career-high four sacks in the victory.

He can add to his total next week when the Steelers face the Ravens. He’ll come into that game with 21.5 sacks to his name. He needs just one more to tie Michael Strahan’s record of 22.5.

And if anyone were to match J.J.’s record of hitting 20 twice, he’d probably love for it to be his sibling.

T.J. has a decent shot at it too. The 27-year-old took longer than his brother to break through (J.J. had both of his 20+ sack seasons in his first four years in the league), but he’ll have one extra game each season to get it done going forward since the NFL moved to 17 games.

T.J. didn’t even need the full 17 to do it this year. He missed two games, so Monday night’s game against the Browns was only his 14th of the season. There needs to be no asterisk applied to that one.