HOUSTON (AP) — Houston star defensive end J.J. Watt isn’t worried about people trying to come after him Sunday to take advantage of his broken left hand.
“Let them try,” Watt said. “I mean what? The opposing players come after me every week with every type of thing in the book you can think of. So feel free, go ahead come at me. I’ll take advantage of whatever you try to do. It’s my job to get to the quarterback. That’s what I do. You can try and take advantage of whatever you want to take advantage of.”
Watt broke his left hand in practice on Wednesday, but said he’ll play Sunday.
Watt, who leads the NFL with 13 ¬Ω sacks, had a black cast covering his left hand and wrist on Thursday. But both Watt and coach Bill O’Brien said they don’t expect the injury to hamper last year’s Defensive Player of the Year.
The Texans (6-6) host the New England Patriots (10-2) on Sunday night.
“People are going to try to make a big deal out of this, but I’ve played with worse than this before, even this season,” Watt said. “This I’m not very worried about. My elbow a couple years back was way more painful. This was painful when it happened, but it’s football. In a game of football you’re going to play with pain. If you don’t play with pain you’re probably in the wrong sport.”
Watt wouldn’t say exactly how he suffered the injury other than it was in practice playing football. He said he knew as soon as it happened that it was broken. Watt couldn’t remember if he’d ever played a game with a broken bone before at any level of football.
He was asked how long he expects to have to wear the cast.
“I don’t know how fast bones heal,” Watt said. “I listen to the people who do.”
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