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JJ Watt recalls near epic gift to Wisconsin graduates, why idea was nixed

Keith Farner

By Keith Farner

Published:

JJ Watt has generated plenty of goodwill and positive headlines off the field, but one idea he had at a Wisconsin commencement ceremony would have been incredibly memorable.

During an appearance on “Green Light with Chris Long,” Watt shared how he nearly gave out a bottle of Spotted Cow beer to every Wisconsin graduate in 2019 when he gave the commencement speech.

“I really wanted to do something special and cool,” said Watt, who recently retired from the NFL and will be added to the Houston Texans’ Ring of Honor. “So I was trying to find a way to make mine memorable. … I want to put a Spotted Cow under every single seat in the stadium. I’ll pay for it all. I’ll pay for the labor to put it under the seats.”

Watt wanted to end his speech by telling the graduates to reach under their seats and have a cold one on him. Wisconsin administrators nixed the idea, and even when Watt raised the option of a gift certificate to a local bar.

Watt followed up those comments with a tweet where he said: “I’m still convinced this would have been one of the greatest commencement speaker moves of all time if they’d have let me do it. (On second thought, maybe it would be 2nd place to that guy who paid off all the student debt.) (Yeah, definitely probably 2nd place.)”

Keith Farner

Keith Farner has written about college football for newspapers and web sites since 2005.