HOUSTON—For once, J.J. Watt, the Houston Texans' mega-Watt, ultra-confident defensive star felt lost.
That rarely happens to the game's best defensive playmaker. Yet in early September after the 25-year-old from a small Wisconsin town signed a six-year, $100 million contract, he turned to Google to find out what rich people purchase.
"I grew up in a middle-class neighborhood so the first link I clicked on, I think the search misunderstood what I meant when I said, 'rich,'" Watt told USA TODAY Sports Thursday. "What came up was like super-duper rich — private islands and yachts. I said, 'I don't think that's my category.'
"Then, there were things like Ferraris, Lamborghinis, private jets, which is all cool. But I don't need any of that."
So Watt prioritized gifts within his comfort level.
"As soon as I got my contract, I bought my mom a Range Rover for her birthday; got my brothers some stuff and got myself a 60-inch flat screen," said Watt, referencing his two younger brothers who play at Wisconsin. "On Saturdays, I have two TVs so I can watch my brothers and whatever other game."
Even then, Watt considered $2,000 an extravagance for a kid raised on heartland values.
"I don't think I'm ever going to lose my Midwestern roots," Watt said. "I have such a great family and friends who really keep me humble."
What made Watt a $100 million man was continuing to attack every snap with the urgency of when he was a Wisconsin walk-on in 2008. This season, he's been the Texans' walk-around threat, not only lining up but dominating from all four defensive line positions. In addition, he caught a 1-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick in a 30-14 Week 2 win against the Oakland Raiders.
When it came time to make the switch to the offensive side, Watt was coached up by Texans linebackers coach Mike Vrabel, the former New England Patriots linebacker who caught 12 career touchdowns as a tight end.
"Mike taught me little things like how to attack the defender," Watt said. "Coach (Bill) O'Brien uses his playmakers. And I'm very fortunate he uses a guy like me to help the team win. To score a touchdown as a defensive lineman, that's a great feeling."
Thus far, Watt has scored three touchdowns, including an 80-yard interception return in Houston's 23-17 victory against the Buffalo Bills on Sept. 28.
At the season's halfway point for the 4-4 Texans, Watt is proving worth every penny of his contract with seven sacks, a league-leading 24 quarterback hits, seven passes defensed and three fumble recoveries.
Watt, the 2012 Defensive Player of the Year, appears the 2014 front-runner to win the award again with that relentless walk-on mindset instilled six years ago when he knew his next play could be his last.
"There's definitely that (walk-on) part of me that's still there," Watt said. "I am that person. It's not any motivational technique.
"I saw what it took to get here, how much I had to sacrifice and how many things I had to overcome. Hard work is what got me here and hard work is what will continue to breed success.
"I want to be great at one thing—Football."
It is hard for him to go out in public. Though he goes out to dinner on Thursday nights with his defensive linemen and linebackers at a local steak house, they can slide into a private room unnoticed.
Watt is too busy trying to become the best defensive player on the planet for a social life.
He's tried dating, but it's difficult for someone who is already married in a sense.
"It's hard because I'm so committed to the game," Watt said. "I have the rest of my life after I retire to do all these other things."
Hall of Fame coach/analyst John Madden calls Watt his favorite defensive player and, "the anti-tap-out guy" in a league where defensive linemen typically rotate plays.
"I always thought there was one guy who from the defensive side of the ball could win a game by himself," Madden told USA TODAY Sports. "I did a game in Detroit and Lawrence Taylor scored on an interception and dominated on defense.
"J.J. Watt is that same kind of guy who can dominate a game and can score. There haven't been a lot of guys like that in the history of this game."
Watt surprised his younger brothers, Derek, a junior and T.J., a redshirt freshman tight end with the 2013 Christmas gift of a lifetime – a 14-day Watt brothers tour of Dublin, London, Paris and Rome. In a sense, it was also a gift to himself giving him a refuge from the barrage of attention he gets anytime he steps out in public back in Texas or when he returns home to visit his parents and brothers in Wisconsin.
"It's difficult for me to go out in public, so it was very nice to go somewhere and be a regular person with my brothers where we could sit, eat and talk and nobody bothered us," Watt said.
"Yet it's really cool when somebody overseas did recognize me. Because I'm just a kid from Pewaukee, Wis. and this person in Rome knows who I am? Crazy."
The brothers did morning runs along the Champs Elysees through the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. They worked out with London's Big Ben in the background.
It was quality brother time spent mostly uninterrupted. Derek Watt said only a handful of people recognized the Texans star, though many Europeans would simply stare when the defensive end walked by because of Watt's freakish, 6-7, 295-pound frame.
"To us, he's just our brother," Derek Watt said. "I couldn't be more proud of everything he does."
Watt has used his profile to give back. He raised $1 million for Texas and Wisconsin middle school athletic programs through his Justin J. Watt Foundation. Watt established the foundation along with his mother, Connie, to benefit kids less fortunate than him in hopes they'll at least have the same opportunities he had growing up to pursue athletic success.
During Sunday's home game against the Philadelphia Eagles, Watt will host several Navy SEALs widows, including Patsy Dietz, whose husband Danny, the hero of the film, "Lone Survivor" was killed in a 2005 operation in Afghanistan.
"They've become close friends over the last few years," Watt said. "Everybody looks up to NFL players and say we're role models. Those Navy SEALs are real heroes. I went to a memorial in 2012 for Patsy's husband. And I've been lucky enough to be invited into their community.
"That's where my sack salute started."
The league's only defensive face of a franchise also salutes all those who made him the Texans' $100 million game wrecker from his high school coach to the Texans' cafeteria workers and equipment manager.
"I can never in my life give my parents enough for everything they've done for me and my brothers committing their lives to making sure we had opportunities for success," Watt said. "I didn't make this money by myself. It was them. And all the people who helped me get here. So I want to try and repay that."
That's why Watt goes so hard every snap because effort means more than his $100 million to his legacy.
"I want to be remembered as a great teammate and that guys knew that when he came to work, he was going to give everything he had," Watt said.
