J.J. Watt awarded honorary degree from Baylor, claims he's a doctor now

Jason Owens
·Staff writer

J.J. Watt is an outstanding football player and does amazing things off the field.

The NFL recently awarded Watt the Walter Payton Man of the Year award, and it was well-deserved. After setting a $200,000 fundraising goal to help Houston residents impacted by the devastating floods of Hurricane Harvey, he ended up raising $37 million. It’s a remarkable achievement that made a real positive impact.

J.J. Watt receives honorary degree

Watt also has a tendency to do things like this.

The Texans defensive end was awarded an honorary degree from Baylor on Tuesday.

Per NBC’s Houston affiliate, Channel 2:

The college gives its Doctor of Humanities in Medicine degree to people who have “provided exceptional support or service, either directly or indirectly, to Baylor College of Medicine or to academic medicine as a whole and to the community at large,” the school said.

The school cited his Justin J. Watt Foundation, founded in 2010 and the organization behind the $37 million fundraising effort as the impetus for the honorary degree. Like the NFL award, it is well-deserved. There aren’t enough accolades for that kind of community contribution.

J.J. Watt earned an honorary degree for his remarkable off-field accomplishments on Tuesday and then told the world that he’s a doctor. (AP)
J.J. Watt earned an honorary degree for his remarkable off-field accomplishments on Tuesday and then told the world that he’s a doctor. (AP)

It’s just that part where Watt claims he’s a doctor.

“I’ve had big dreams in my life, but not even I dreamt that I could one day become a Doctor,” Watt wrote in his tweet with a photo holding his degree.

It’s a line that was clearly understood as a joke when he read it during his acceptance speech. It’s just now, without context, that his Twitter feed is flooded with followers congratulating him for becoming a doctor.

By contrast, here’s Kansas City Chiefs offensive lineman Laurent Duvernay-Tardif, who earned an actual medical degree on Tuesday.

This seems familiar

It’s reminiscent of Watt’s 2015 claim that he was spending the offseason working out in a barren cabin.

“It’s really minimalistic,” Watt said. “The only thing I have to focus on is training and that’s the way I like it. There’s no frills, there’s nothing to distract you up here.”

It turned out that Watt’s “minimalistic” cabin was a luxury mountain villa that happened to be constructed of logs.

We get it, J.J. We know you’re great, and you do great things. Can we possibly tone the the embellishment, though? It’s not a good look.

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