1. The pairing of Ian Eagle and J.J. Watt has been a big success for CBS this season. The duo had instant chemistry while Watt, who worked on the network’s studio show for two seasons, has been exceptionally good for someone who had never been a game analyst before.

On this week’s SI Media With Jimmy Traina, which features an interview with Eagle and Watt together, I asked J.J. what has been the most challenging aspect about calling games for him. He immediately cited having to work games involving his brother T.J. and ones involving the team he was a massive part of for 10 seasons.

“It’s just the way it laid out, and it’s nobody’s fault,” said Watt, “but having so many Steelers and Texans games in my first year, with everybody wanting to look at that and say, ‘Oh, he’s gonna be biased, he’s gonna have these prenotions with his brother, with his former team.’ I think we’ve handled it as good as we could handle it, but I think that did present the biggest challenge by far. Just being very conscious of it and making sure that we were doing things the right way.”

When I told Watt that people would understand him being biased since it’s his brother, he pushed back and was adamant that being biased even a little bit was not an option.

“I take this role very serious,” said Watt. “I want to be very good at this, not just for one year, but for a long period of time. I want all fanbases to be able to look at it and say, ‘Yeah, he’s just gonna call the game the way he sees it, regardless.’”

You can listen to the full interview with Eagle and Watt on SI Media With Jimmy Traina below or on Apple and Spotify.

You can also watch SI Media With Jimmy Traina on YouTube.

2. Here are a bunch of Philip Rivers-related social media posts.

3. Here were the ratings for the big conference championship games last weekend:

  • Indiana-Ohio State (Fox): 18.3 million viewers
  • Georgia-Alabama (ABC): 16.9 million viewers
  • BYU-Texas Tech (ABC): 9 million viewers
  • Duke-Virginia (ABC) : 3.9 million viewers

4. Great stuff here as always from NFL Films on last Sunday’s Bengals-Bills snow game.

5. Chris “Mad Dog” Russo’s son, Tim, is an assistant coach at Northern Arizona. On Tuesday, Dog attended the team’s practice and was given the chance to sink a halfcourt shot. The result was a complete disaster.

Dog is 66 years old and has had knee issues in recent years, but that’s no excuse for the completely ridiculous dribbling here.

6. It was on this date in 1989 that Bengals coach Sam Wyche gave us an all-time great, “Imagine if Twitter was around for this” moment.

7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: It’s always treat when David Letterman does an interview since he doesn’t do many. Here he is on Tuesday’s Jimmy Kimmel Live.

Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Google. You can also follow Jimmy on X and Instagram.


This article was originally published on www.si.com as First-Year Analyst J.J. Watt Reveals Most Challenging Aspect of Calling Games .

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