JJ Watt has been out of football for two years, but there’s a chance the former NFL star could be coming out of retirement in 2025 and it’s all because of a bet he made.
Watt and his wife, Kealia, own a stake in Burnley FC, a soccer team that plays in the English Football League’s (EFL) Championship division. The goalkeeper for Burnley is James Trafford, who just happens to be a huge fan of the Cincinnati Bengals, which is a very notable aspect of this story.
Back in December, Trafford asked Watt if he’d be willing to come out of retirement to play for the Bengals and Watt half-jokingly responded that he would do it, but only if Trafford went the rest of the EFL season without surrendering a single goal.
The tweet above is from January, but the two had the text message exchange on Dec. 28 and up to that point, Trafford had allowed just nine goals in 22 league starts, which is impressive. But to win the bet with Watt, the 22-year-old Trafford would have to finish the season by recording 24 shutouts (clean sheets) in a row.
Considering the all-time English record by any keeper is 14 shutouts in a row, this didn’t seem like anything Watt would have to worry about, but that’s suddenly changed, because Trafford is now on one of the hottest streaks of any goalkeeper ever in England: Trafford has recorded 12 straight clean sheets for Burnley, which is the second-most by ANY keeper in English soccer history.
The Burnley social media team has made sure to remind Watt of how well Trafford is playing.
Trafford has been so good that he was named the EFL Championship player of the month for January.
Although no one has been able to get a goal past Trafford since his streak started on Dec. 26, Burnley has conceded a total of four goals since then. They surrendered one goal during a 3-1 win over Reading in the third round of the FA Cup, but Trafford didn’t play. On March 1, Burnley lost to Preston North End 3-1 in the fifth-round of the FA Cup, but once again, Trafford wasn’t in goal for the Clarets (Vaclav Hladky was the keeper for Burnley in the loss).
The 3-1 loss ended Burnley’s team streak of nine straight clean sheets, but Trafford’s personal streak of 12 straight shutouts is still going, so the bet is STILL alive. Burnley’s next EFL match is scheduled for March 4 against Cardiff City and that’s the next time Trafford will likely be putting his streak on the line.
With Trafford now more than halfway to pulling off a feat that once seemed impossible, you might be wondering whether Watt will actually come out of retirement if Trafford wins the bet and the answer is yes. Although Watt seems to love his job as a studio analyst on “The NFL Today” here at CBS Sports, he said he’ll absolutely return to the NFL if Trafford keeps up his hot streak.