{"id":13737,"date":"2019-04-17T09:25:04","date_gmt":"2019-04-17T14:25:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/?p=13737"},"modified":"2019-04-22T12:38:32","modified_gmt":"2019-04-22T17:38:32","slug":"jj-watt-wisconsin-commencement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/jj-watt-wisconsin-commencement\/","title":{"rendered":"J.J. Watt assigned required writing for UW commencement"},"content":{"rendered":"

If only J.J. Watt would have stayed that extra year at Wisconsin.<\/p>\n

Not for football reasons, though. The five-time All-Pro for the Houston Texans has football down just fine. But with another year in Madison, Watt might have learned a little bit more about what he\u2019d get himself into as this year\u2019s commencement speaker.<\/p>\n

When UW officials recently asked for a copy of Watt\u2019s remarks before the May 11 ceremony, it threw him off guard.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said, \u2018What do you mean?\u2019\u201d Watt told ESPN<\/a>. \u201cI don\u2019t write speeches. I\u2019m just going to go up there and talk.\u201d<\/p>\n

School officials weren\u2019t exactly pleased, so they assigned the 30-year-old \u2014 who left UW for the NFL after his junior year \u2014 his first piece of homework since 2011.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have about a month to figure that out,\u201d Watt said, presumably while furiously paraphrasing passages from Russell Wilson\u2019s 2016 commencement speech<\/a>.<\/span>\n

\"J.J.
Allen Kee \/ ESPN Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/span>Even though Watt hadn\u2019t planned on writing anything out, he stresses being humbled by the \u201ctrue honor\u201d of his selection as this year\u2019s speaker.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never graduated, so I get to see what graduation looks like,\u201d Watt said.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s not to say Watt doesn\u2019t have an idea<\/em> of what it looks like. Part of the reason he was planning to go off-the-dome was to keep things short for the students. Most of them, he says, would rather celebrate burgeoning adulthood in a different way.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have some things I want to get across. But let\u2019s be honest: They just want to go drink beer afterwards. They\u2019re excited. I know how commencements go. They just want the person to give a cool message for about five minutes, and then get off the stage.\u201d<\/p>\n

You can\u2019t argue with that logic. I remember my own commencement at DePaul being an excruciating, hours-long affair. And even the speaker looked like he\u2019d have rather been anywhere else on Earth than trapped in that room.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If only J.J. Watt would have stayed that extra year at Wisconsin. Not for football reasons, though. The five-time All-Pro for the Houston Texans has football down just fine. But […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":13739,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5153],"tags":[132,882,9452,1341,134,79,2550,586],"yoast_head":"\nJ.J. Watt assigned required writing for UW commencement - The Bozho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"When Wisconsin officials recently asked for a copy of J.J. 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