JAMIE CARRAGHER caught an unintentional stray from NFL legend JJ Watt.
Watt, 35, was speaking on the Stick to Football podcast brought to you by Sky Bet alongside, Carragher, Gary Neville, Roy Keane, Ian Wright and Jill Scott.
In the podcast, Carragher ended up being set up for a jibe from Wright as Watt spoke about jumping ship regarding American football’s draft system.
The Arsenal icon referred to when Carragher ghosted the podcast after Liverpool’s FA Cup defeat to Manchester United last month.
Watt, said: “I’m an athlete, I am a part of this club now and I want to be here for it. I’m going to be right there in the Championship, fighting to get back up.
“Who jumps – I mean, maybe you [Carragher] sounds like from the conversation earlier. You can’t jump off the ship just because the team is not going to win.”
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Wright, 60, beat Keane, 52, to the punch by interrupting Watt and saying: “And not turn up for a show,” prompting laughter from the group.
The American earlier spoke about the differences between football’s promotion-relegation system and American football’s draft system, with Carragher calling it “mad”.
On the differences, Watt said: “Promotion and relegation makes everything different. In our league, if you’re the worst team you’re getting the first draft pick.
There is this parity amongst it all – the goal of the NFL is basically for every team to be even, so its competitive.
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“Here, if your team gets relegated half your players are going to ask to go somewhere else – it’s different [to the US].
Liverpool icon Carragher could not quite wrap his head around it, calling the draft system “mad” from a player point of view considering any player could move to any team no matter the level.
Carragher, 46, argued: “If I’m a player obviously you want to win the Super bowl or you want to win the Champions League or the Premier League.
“Imagine that [the draft] was here now, then you (gesturing at Keane) say you’re the best player in the league.
“You’re at Nottingham Forest you go for the British transfer record but then a team in the middle of the table just buy you, I’ll be a bit like what?”
Watt replied: “On the flip side of that wouldn’t you say that if you just sit here, you’re the best player in the league and you have a chance to go anywhere in the world, and you go to the team that’s already winning.
“Like if you go to Real Madrid like you would be like well yeah they they’ve won dozens of championships you’re just going to go and you’re is going to go win another championship there.
“Whereas this system is like like now that’s why nobody else has a chance because everybody’s just going to continue to choose to go win trophies.”
Watt added: “That’s kind of what I’m talking about, when you [Carragher] were talking about the draft situation where a player just wants to go to the best team where they can win.”
“Where’s the fun in that, you know? The fun in it is, ‘yeah we might get relegated, and we might have to fight our way back up, but we are going to fight’.
“And I want to be by their side for that fight, I don’t want to now just jump to Ipswich because they are coming up – or, so.”
Watt had earlier referenced how he was shocked before the first game of the season at learning Manchester City’s defence cost more than what Burnley had spent in their entire history since 1882.
He stepped in as an investor in the Clarets in May 2023 before joining fans on a pub crawl.
Watt also admitted he felt guilty leading the promotion party due to arriving just two months beforehand.
He said: “Last year, we won the Championship about two months after I came on [at Burnley], and Alan [Pace], our majority owner, looks at me and goes, ‘You carry the trophy onto the pitch.’
“And I was like, ‘Alan, these people are going to boo me off the pitch! I’m the student that showed up to the project without doing anything!’
“But it was the coolest day [winning the league]. We did the bus parade and everything.
“Knowing that day, and always having it in my mind, that’s the only thing I want to get back for these people – how that feels.”
Watt went into an impassioned rant on social media about an “absolutely infuriating decision” before Burnley conceded a goal against Wolves earlier this month.
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He saw one of his social media pages LOCKED after a similar rant about VAR in January.
Watt, a former defensive end who won the Defensive Player of the Year award three times, retired from the sport in 2023.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
