J.J. Watt Fails 61-Inch Box Jump, Squashes His Poor Spotter

Somewhere, perhaps in his less-than-secluded log fortress, J.J. Watt is training for the 2015-16 NFL season, where he’ll presumably lead the league in defensive touchdowns, offensive touchdowns and punting yardage. 

Being a one-man SWAT team doesn’t come without its setbacks, however, and the Houston Texans defensive end ran into a touch of trouble during a recent lift. 

Watt posted video of himself attempting, and failing, an absurdly high 61-inch box jump. The leap ended with Watt on the ground atop a silver-dollar pancake that was once his spotter.

The defensive end wrote in his caption, “You’ll never know what you’re truly capable of until you’re willing to push yourself to the absolute limits.” Additionally, you’ll never know what your spotter is truly capable of until he tries to catch 289 pounds of human-shaped protein in free-fall. 

Now, it’s difficult to extrapolate the size of anything near J.J. Watt, who is big and bulgy like a moose. His spotter is probably a perfectly normal-sized person, but appears to be an ant compared to the defensive end. I have no idea what he thought he was doing spotting Watt, aside from presuming his own safety due to Watt’s inability to fail at things in general.

So learn your lesson, kids: Even J.J. Watt messes up, and that’s OK. You just have to get up off the floor of your Dragonball Z gravity chamber, peel the Fruit Roll-Up corpse of a small humanoid off your back and try, try again. 

Anything is possible. Except catching a falling J.J. Watt. In that situation, you should get out of the way and cut your losses.

Dan is on Twitter. You’re more likely to be killed by falling Watts than sharks or bees* (unverified).