Zach Mettenberger Calls Out J.J. Watt for Letterman Jacket, Rekindles Petty Feud

UPDATE:

Mettenberger has clarified the nature of his remarks regarding Watt and his letterman jacket. 

He says he was just joking about the jacket being "high school-ish," per The Tennessean's Jim Wyatt.

"Watch the video and you can see I was being sarcastic and joking,'' Mettenberger told Wyatt. "Pretty simple."

That backpedal, though.

---End of Update--

As far as professional hostilities go, Zach Mettenberger and J.J. Watt have one of the weirder cuts of beef in pro sports.

It all began in Week 8 of the 2014-15 season, when the Tennessee Titans gave Mettenberger his first NFL start in place of a banged-up and ineffectual Jake Locker.

Unsurprisingly, Mettenberger was excited to be an NFL starting quarterback, and he celebrated the opportunity by posting some selfies of his horrific rat 'stache on social media.

YouTube

Eventually, Watt caught wind of Mettenberger's solo pics and made sure to remind him of it come game time. After sacking Mettenberger en route to a 30-16 Houston win, the Texans defensive end celebrated with a selfie pose over the toppled quarterback.

Watt told reporters after the game he considered Mettenberger's in-season social media posts "high school"-ish and wanted to remind him he's in the big show.

Thus was born an unlikely spat between a Pro Bowl defensive end and a backup quarterback—and it's still going on, judging by Mettenberger's recent remarks.

Mettenberger addressed his history with Watt in an interview with Mike Underwood of CampusSports.net (h/t the Houston Chronicle's Phillipe Craig).

The quarterback said Watt calling him immature is pots mocking kettles.

"J.J. had to say it’s a bit high school-ish that I take selfies, and I think he still rags me on Instagram every time he posts a selfie," Mettenberger said. "At the same time, if that’s high school-ish, he got a letterman jacket made, a Texans letterman jacket. That’s pretty high school-ish to me, don’t you think?"

Gotta hear both sides, right?

Watt, ever vigilant, appears to have heard about Mettenberger's interview. He tweeted a shopworn adage Wednesday morning about not worrying about others' opinions. 

Nothing stokes the competitive fire like vague spats over photography etiquette, right?

Dan is on Twitter. Real pros save selfies for the offseason.