Competition has long been part of the Watt family’s way of life.
J.J. Watt and T.J. Watt are two of the more intimidating defensive forces in the NFL and their middle brother Derek is a sturdy fullback, who joined T.J. with the Steelers this offseason after four years with the Chargers.
“I think we all just really kind of loved competition, loved sports, and our dad was able to coach us starting in fifth grade,” said T.J. Watt, a rising star linebacker for Pittsburgh.
“And it was one of those things that once J.J. started playing football, I think Derek and I couldn’t wait until we could start football.”
Beginning Wednesday, the trio will be taking that spirit off the field, invading TVs in a new fashion as the co-hosts of Fox’s “Ultimate Tag,” an intense take on the childhood game that pits competitors against professional taggers inside an intricate arena.
“Everybody played tag at some point in their lives,” 31-year-old J.J. recently told The Post. “This show had the idea of taking it to just the extreme, ultimate level and us, our whole lives, having taken things to the extreme, ultimate level, whether it was football or a simple game of tag in the backyard. We thought this is a perfect fit.”
Growing up in Wisconsin, 25-year-old T.J. recalled how patriarch John was “big into sports,” as he played football in high school, in addition to wrestling and track and field.
“Once we saw J.J. do it, and we kind of wanted to do it as well, and we haven’t looked back since,” he continued.
In 2011, the Texans selected J.J. with the 11th overall pick in NFL Draft. Five years later, the Chargers picked Derek, now 27, in the sixth round. T.J., now 25, landed with the Steelers in 2017 as the 30th overall pick.
Though J.J. already has TV chops under his belt — he hosted “Saturday Night Live” in February, the same month he married soccer star Kealia Ohai — he and his siblings were very much in the same boat on Day 1 of “Ultimate Tag.”
“We didn’t know for sure what we were getting into until we really walked into the ‘Ultimate Tag’ arena on the first day, and saw just how incredible the courses were and saw the competitors, and saw the professional taggers flying across the course. I mean these people are truly phenomenal athletes and it was a lot of fun for us to watch,” J.J. said of the series, in which the top male and female competitors will take home $10,000 at the end of each episode.
As for the experience itself, while the Watts will be feeling the sibling rivalry in September — when the Texans face the Steelers in Pittsburgh — the brothers appreciated the time well-spent off the field.
Derek Watt, J.J. Watt, and T.J. Watt host “Ultimate Tag”Fox“It was just as much fun for us to host the show together, to get to spend time with each other, but also to get to kind of rip on each other a little bit for our hosting struggles at times, and our successes in others,” J.J. said.
Though the siblings’ blooper reels are currently available online, one clip fans won’t find is that of the Watts trying out the course themselves.
“We wanted to, we really wanted to try out the course for ourselves. There’s a dome that’s 30 feet up in the air, that has like a giant air-mattress underneath it, so there’s no harnesses or anything, and we really wanted to try that,” J.J. explained.
On the day the obstacle was set up, however, J.J. and his brothers hit a roadblock.
“Our agent was standing right next to us, and he kind of put the ixnay on that pretty quickly, letting us know the coaches wouldn’t be too happy about it,” J.J. said.
“Ultimate Tag” airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. on Fox.
